Cardinal Vaughan Impress at Schools' N/nationals
Richard Black reports:
20/03.18: On Monday 19th March ten pupils from Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School made their debut in the Under 16 competition of the Marsh N/national Schools' Championships -and what a great day it was for them!
Despite only having started playing in September all the pairs held their own in the qualifying pools, in some cases winning pool matches, and two pairs went on to win more than one round in the Plate competition. This was a terrific achievement. It must have been a bit daunting taking part in a major tournament against players who have been playing for years but the CVMS pupils were well up to the challenge.
Clearly all the pairs had benefited from the excellent coaching given to them by Dan Pritchard, the head coach at Westway and Kotka Lim. They all had an excellent sense of positioning on the court and they all watched the path of the ball. Naturally, playing in a competitive tournament is quite different from playing in club sessions and it did take some rallies to get use to the pace and atmosphere of a serious matches but they all learnt quickly about the psychology of playing a competitive match.
All the players said that they enjoyed the experience and there was absolutely no doubt that they all improved greatly during the day.It was great to have the players made welcomed as members of the wider friendly Eton Fives community and I am sure that many hours of enjoyment of the game lie ahead.
Congratulations to all the players and many thanks to Mr Regan for driving the team to Eton and for his support during the day.
One of the organisers said: “The Cardinal Vaughan pupils have made a huge and very favourable impression on the other schools and the organisers. They have an excellent sense of positioning and an instinctive understanding of the game and their etiquette on court was exemplary. We were delighted to welcome them as new members of our N/national Schools championships. Bravo!”
The players were: Jordan Alcantara and Kacper Mikowski; Theo Santos and Norbert (Morgan) Alcantra; Ernist Nita and Mathieu Genniges; Josh Schrijen and Richard Kol; Mathew Goold & Josh Lawson.