Howell's School will be flying the flag for Wales at the Team Tennis Schools' National Championship Finals at Graves Tennis Centre in Sheffield in July. Meryl B. (Year 12), Poppy D. (11), Holly F.L. (13) and Ismay B. (11) managed to win the Avon, Gloucestershire and South Wales region of the competition. In doing so, they had to overcome two separate teams from Cheltenham Ladies' College, before playing their way past Dean Close School from Gloucestershire in a very well-contested Regional Final.
Holly and Poppy eased through their singles matches, dropping a mere six games in their combined four sets of tennis, while Ismay narrowly lost out in her encounter. The tie of the match involved the two #1 seeds. Meryl dropped the hour-long opening set 7-5, before firing back to the take the second set 6-2. As per the competition rules, the final set was played as a Championship tiebreak, with Meryl hitting some fantastic winners in a very tense 11-9 win. With the girls 3-1 up in the match, and with just two doubles matches left to play, they were aware that they were just one win away from a team victory. Holly and Ismay raced through their match, coming out 6-1 6-2 winners. This effectively made the final doubles match obsolete, as Howell's claimed the overall match with four wins from a possible six.
Mr Baker and the girls will now travel to Sheffield during the second week of July. Here they will take on the schools of Great Britain who were similarly victorious within their regions. The girls will prepare thoroughly to match this special occasion! Well done for reaching the final, and good luck!
