Pupils celebrate tennis Team of the Year award
Pupils from Strathallan
School in Perthshire have been celebrating their success after being crowned Tennis
Scotland’s Team of the Year 2015, after their triumphant win at the Senior
Students Finals, during an awards ceremony at the Scottish Indoor Championships
at Newlands Tennis Club.
Part of the
Team Tennis Schools series, the Senior Students competition is open to students
in years S4-S6 in Scotland and years 11-13 in England and Wales. The games,
which took place at Bolton Arena late last year, saw the unseeded Boys, Girls
and Mixed team from Strathallan win the titles in all three events, the first
school in the tournaments history to do so.
The team
will be heading back to Bolton to defend their titles after successfully
qualifying for the finals in all three categories for the 2016 championship.
Audrey Sime,
Director of Sport for Strathallan, commented:
“We were
thrilled to have won the Boys, Girls and Mixed events last year and to be able
to go back to Bolton to defend our titles is definitely something that is
really special for us. Last year was quite a spectacular year for our tennis
players and to have made the Finals again in all three categories is testament
to the hard work put in by the players and coach, Tommy Ogilvie.
Audrey continued:
“Our new
Wilson Hall, with its three indoor tennis courts, is making a massive
contribution to the development of our tennis programme and, along with the
pupils’ hard work, it really shows.”
After
beating defending champions and then the current second seeds, the Girls team
had a challenging final against top seeds Bedford Girls School, which went to a
tie-breaker with the Strathallan girls clinching the win. The Boys team also defeated
the seconds seeds before a final
against top seeds Culford School, a tight match which was won by another
tie-breaker.
After a
nerve-wracking Boys and Girls final, the Mixed team swept the board against top
seeds Culford, in an 8-0 win to complete a treble win across all three titles.
The pupils
were presented the prestigious award by David Marshall, Chief Executive Tennis
Scotland and Doc McKelvey, Head of Development Tennis Scotland. David
commented:
“We are
delighted to present the team from Strathallan with Tennis Scotland’s Team of
the Year 2015 and their triumphant win in all categories at the Senior Schools
Final last year made them very worthy winners. They have put in a fantastic
amount of effort into developing their tennis skills over the last year and the
team should be proud of their achievements. It’s great to see such huge
potential in Scottish tennis and we wish the team all the best with this year’s
championship.”
For further information about Strathallan School, visit www.strathallan.co.uk
Image
details (L-R)
David
Marshall – Tennis Scotland