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Tennis
Dame Alice Harpur School has a busy tennis calendar and puts to full use the 12 on site all weather courts. We are members of the British Tennis Association and currently compete in the national Nestle tournament and the Girls' Schools Association tournaments. We have many girls who also play club tennis and have LTA rankings. Tennis at Dame Alice is not just for athletes but also for those girls who just wish to play socially. To reward those girls who show regular commitment to the tennis team, they are given the opportunity to attend Wimbledon.
Year 7 & 8 Tennis
Barbecues, the World Cup, Wimbledon and strawberries and cream hailed the start of summer and the tennis for Years 7 and 8. The courts were awash with enthusiastic girls enjoying good weather and keen to improve their racket skills. The Year 7 team was captained by Alice Inchbald and enjoyed a successful season. There were wins against Bedford Modern, Haileybury, Bedford High School and the Perse. Dame Alice's partnership with Helen Morse was excellent and augurs well for 2007. Rebecca Wright and Claudia Beasley showed great consistency and empathy in their matches, and Claudia will be a terrible loss in 2007. Freya Twigden and Ellie Gill continued to improve, as did Kiran Garcha and Maya Thrasher. Melissa Manning and Rebecca Bucknall were extremely keen and I hope we can encourage schools to bring more couples for games in order to give more girls match practice. It was a joy to coach such an enthusiastic and committed group of girls.
Year 10 - Bedfordshire Schools' Tennis Competition
With the majority of schools finishing the term at the end of July, the Year 10 Bedfordshire Schools' Competition was held during the first week of our holidays. As the Year 10 team was away, the school was represented by the Year 9 team of Lucy James, Jill Rush, Sophie Lucken and Charlotte Oaten. A 6-0 and 4-2 win against Icknield and Cedars saw the girls into the final against Stopsley. It was a searingly hot day and the girls had to play singles and doubles, but they kept their cool and won the match by five sets to one to be crowned Bedfordshire champions for 2006. Lucy and Sophie failed to drop a set and it was a fabulous team effort. I was proud of them all.
U15
The U15s had a triumphant opening to the season beating Bedford High School 44 games to 18. The first couple, Amy Ricketts and Victoria Williams, were undefeated all season. They proved to be a strong pairing, only conceding six games and winning a total of 38 throughout the season. Emma Wates and Lucy Clements as the second couple were also undefeated, beating Bedford High School, Haileybury and Kimbolton. This may have had something to do with Emma hitting the ball like Serena Williams! Kari Jackson and Hannah Presswell were solid as the third couple; with some fantastic net play from Hannah and Kari's speed around the court the pair's doubles game really improved. Well done to Victoria Williams, Emma Wates and Hannah Presswell who represented the U16s in the GSA tennis tournament.