Last Saturday Rachel Y (Year 8) represented HOHS at the county finals of the Road to Wimbledon 14 and Under Challenge County Finals, held at East Anglia Tennis and Squash Club. Rachel played superbly, reaching the quarter-finals to finish in the top eight players in this age group in the county. Well done, Rachel! She is pictured below with HOHS team mates following a victory at Hethersett Academy last month.
Did you know…?
The Road to Wimbledon 14 and Under Challenge is a unique competition which enables schools and tennis clubs throughout the country to inspire their 14 and Under players, with regional winners having the opportunity to play on the grass courts at Wimbledon in August. Throughout the Summer Term, many singles matches were played at school: these established Rachel Y and Anna L (Year 8) as our school champions eligible to participate in the County Finals. Sadly, Anna was unable to attend the finals event.
On Monday our Year 7&8 tennis team played against Hethersett Academy in their first league match of the season. The match format is four singles and two doubles matches.
Our team of Rachel Y, Anna L, Cristina M-M,Ashlyn G and Darcey W performed magnificently against a very strong team. Hethersett Academy’s number one player is ranked number 1 in Norfolk in the Under 12 age group.
After all the singles and doubles matches had been completed, in total six matches, the score was 3-3.
This meant that we had an exciting tie-break situation to decide the match: a doubles tiebreak shoot-out, just like a penalty shoot-out in football!
Rachel and Cristina played brilliantly and won the tiebreak 10-5!
The overall match score was HOHS 4 Hethersett Academy 3.
It was an outstanding team performance and a wonderful result against a much larger school – well done everyone.
It has been a wonderful week within the tennis programme at HOHS, with record numbers of pupils attending their weekly lessons. There have been plenty of tennis balls hit and lots of fun on the courts!
Next week, there will be a ‘Rafa Nadal Rallying’ competition for all mini tennis and tennis players throughout the school.
Players of the Week are:
Lower Prep School
Isla (Nursery) for excellent ball and racket skills.
Alfie (Year 2) for outstanding rallying skills.
Upper Prep School
Oliver (Year 4) for brilliant improvement, energy and enthusiasm.
Chloe (Year 4) for excellent rallying skills.
Senior School
Emily (Year 7) for outstanding improvement and hardwork.
All our tennis pupils have continued with their ‘French Open’ themed tennis lessons this week, including coaching, drills, fun games, quizzes and prizes for everyone. Will Rafael Nadal win his tenth French Open this weekend?
Players of the Week are:
Lower Prep School – Evangeline for outstanding hard work and improvement.
Upper Prep School – Skyla-Grace for excellent improvement and the longest rally of the week.
Senior School – Cristina for outstanding hard work and teamwork.
The pictures were taken in earlier tennis lessons.
This term, there are over 60 pupils attending tennis coaching sessions every week. A new school record!
Next week, I will be organising ‘French Open’ themed tennis lessons including coaching, drills, fun games, quizzes and prizes for everyone. Will Rafael Nadal win his tenth French Open?
Players of the Week are:
Lower Prep School – Charlie McNeilly for outstanding effort and improvement.
Upper Prep School – Imogen Glynn for excellent improvement with her ground strokes.
Senior School – Anna Luterbacher and Cristina Moretti-Miles – ‘Doubles Pair of the Week’ for outstanding hard work and teamwork.
The pictures were taken in earlier tennis lessons.
It has been an excellent first half of the Spring term – with lots of tennis and lots of FUN! Each year group from Nursery to Year 2 has their own weekly session, with record numbers of pupils attending. This half term all our mini tennis players have practised and improved their ball skills, racket skills, balance, footwork, and basic strokes. Pupils in Years 1 and 2 are also working very hard on their Highland Spring LTA Mini Tennis Rally Award – Red 5. Certificates and badges will be presented to all our mini tennis stars at the end of term.
Upper Prep and Senior School tennis
There has been no tennis coaching at school for Years 3-13 pupils during the dark winter months – but after the half-term break, the school mini tennis and tennis programme will be back! There will be a tennis quiz, a highest rally with the coach competition, a serving competition, ‘Andy Murray World No.1′ parties (I never thought in my lifetime that I would be able to write that Andy Murray is the World Number 1!) and Easter egg hunts…and plenty of games and skills development, of course!
It might have been a bit early for Hallowe’en, but in the last week of half term, the tennis sessions for all players – from mini tots in the nursery to the Sixth Form – enjoyed themed tennis activities and party food, with shortcake bat biscuits, ghost cup cakes, spiderweb biscuits, creepy caramel shortcake and chocolate pumpkins and spiders enjoyed by everyone!
It was a wonderful way to celebrate an outstanding term of tennis. The standard of tennis all term was excellent and the commitment and effort displayed by all the tennis players has been impeccable…certainly one of the best tennis terms I can ever remember!
Firstly, congratulations to sisters Hannah (Year 9) and Rebekah (Year 8) on their excellent performances at the ‘Easter Challenger 16 and Under Doubles Tournament’ at East Anglia Tennis and Squash Club during the Easter Holidays. Hannah and Rebekah were the youngest pair in the tournament and they came 4th overall. A fantastic effort!
LTA Mini Tennis Rally Awards
All our mini tennis players in both the Lower and Upper Prep schools will be taking part in the LTA Mini Tennis Rally Awards this term. They will progress through different levels by acquiring new skills and taking part in exercises and assessments based on four important skills: Rally, Serve, Come to the Net and Score and Compete. The scheme is great fun to take part in and all pupils will be presented with certificates and badges at the end of term.
Mini Tots Tennis
Our Nursery pupils are making wonderful progress with their tennis skills. All can now hit beautiful forehands over the net!
Mini Tennis Tournaments
There will be Mini Tennis Red, Orange and Green tournaments for all our mini tennis players throughout this term.
Senior School Matches
A fixture list of matches and tournaments for all our tennis players in the Senior School will be available shortly.
Player of the Week – Congratulations to Georgina (Year 3) for her outstanding 100-shot rally with me this week!
Tennis Quiz
Name the player ranked Number 1 in the world in this week’s ATP Mens’ Doubles Rankings.
The prize is a Lindt Easter Egg! Please put your answer on a piece of paper and hand to me.
It has been a magnificent start to the Summer tennis term!
For the first time in 79 years the British Davis Cup team has genuine hopes for winning this year’s Davis Cup – and with the final today the excitement has been growing! Keen to get schools involved, the Lawn Tennis Association offered free packs of certificates, balloons, bunting, wristbands, certificates and other Davis Cup-themed items to the first 500 tennis clubs and schools who applied – and we were lucky enough to get our hands on one of these packs of goodies. We wish Andy Murray, Kyle Edmund and the rest of the team the very best of luck!
Our Mini Tots enjoyed the LTA’s Davis Cup-themed items and learned about this exciting tournament during their Mini Tots tennis sessions with our coach Katie Brooks
Andy Murray leads the GB Davis Cup team in hopes of a historic victory – the first in nearly 80 years!
