The School Girls U16, U14 and U13 was played on a very wet day at Marlborough College. Despite the weather, the intrepid teams and their coaches made it through rain, wind and fallen trees to reach Wiltshire from all around the country. Girls from Blundell's, Malvern, Sutton Valence, Christ's Hospital and Eastbourne joining the local girls at Marlborough College. Including the seniors, this means a total of eight schools have played in the N/national School Girls finals this year, the highest number so far.
As with the seniors, the girls played excellent fives and showed how the standard of fives amongst girls has continued to improve. Seasoned fives players among the spectators remarked on how well the girls are playing, producing excellent quality rallies and a real variety of shots, with perhaps more use of drop-shots and subtlety than is evident among schoolboys of their age. Girls from all six schools reached the various finals, which also shows the increasing range of talent.
In the U16 category, the singles in particular showcased the future in both breadth and skill, with a final of exceptional quality, in which Shinan Zhang (Malvern) beat Emily Royer (Sutton Valence) in a close game watched by a tense audience. Louise Mathias (Christ's Hospital) won the Plate and bronze medal overcoming her doubles partner Coralie Strong.
Malvern College were also triumphant in the doubles, managing to have three players in the final! The scratch pairing of Emily Royer (Sutton Valence) and Susy Marini (Malvern) surprised the seedings committee by beating the seasoned Christ's Hospital pair 12-11, and so they went on to win the doubles silver in the final against the Malvern first pair. The Christ's Hospital pair of Mathias and Strong defeated the local Marlborough girls (Sophie Spinks and Allie Davies) in the plate to win the bronze.
At U14 level, medals were less evenly distributed, with the girls from Blundells School dominating. In the singles, three of the four groups were won by the Blundells players, and they went on to domincate the knock-out stages. Apart from Blundells only Eastbourne College were represented in the semi-finals, with Augusta King playing a series of tough games and eventually losing her third-place play-off, which meant that all three singles medals were won by Blundells; Emily Combe with the gold, Amy Cross with silver and Lizzie Fearnley with bronze. The final between Emily and Amy was an exhausting and close affair, nevertheless with some high quality shots. Predictably perhaps, the doubles final was between the two Blundells pairs, the first pair of Combe and Cross coming out as winners, although they were pushed hard to win.
RESULTS
U14/U13 Singles Group stage
Group A: 1. Lizzie Fearnley (Blundells), 2. Augusta King (Eastbourne), 3. Phoebe Thornhill (Christ’s Hospital)
Group B: 1. Molly Todd (Christ’s Hospital), 2. Zanna Cooper (Eastbourne), 3. Abi Bundy (Blundells), 4. Tamsin Denny (Christ’s Hospital)
Group C: 1. Emily Combe (Blundells), 2. Olivia Crossman (Christ’s Hospital), 3. Tilly Campbell (Marlborough), 4. Beatrix Crinnion (Christ’s Hospital)
Group D: 1. Amy Cross (Blundells), 2. Mary Ward (Christ’s Hospital), 3. Jemima Jones (Marlborough)
U14 Singles knockout stage
Quarter Finals: Cross bt Jones 11-2, King bt Ward 11-3, Fearnley bt Bundy 11-5, Combe bt Cooper 11-2;
Semi Finals: Cross bt King, Combe bt Fearnley
Final: Combe bt Amy 15-11
U13 Singles
Final: Todd bt Crinnion 11-4
Plate: Denny bt Thornhill 11-8
U13 Doubles
Christ's Hospital II (Denny & Thornhill) bt Christ's Hospital I (Todd & Crinnion)
U16 Singles
Group A: 1. Shinan Zhang (Malvern), 2. Louise Mathias (Christ's Hospital), 3. Susy Marini (Malvern), 4. Sophie Spink (Marlborough)
Group B: 1. Emily Royer (Sutton Valence), 2. Allie Davies (Marlborough, 3. Anna Llewellyn (Malvern), 4. Coralie Strong (Christ's Hospital)
Semi Finals: Zhang bt Davies 11-2, Royer bt Mathias 11-5
Final: Zhang bt Royer 15-7
U16 Doubles
Semi-Finals: Malvern (Zhang & Llewellyn) bt Marlborough (Davies & Spink) 11-3, Malvern/Sutton Valence (Royer & Marini) bt Christ's Hospital (Strong & Mathias) 12-11
Final: Malvern bt Malvern/Sutton Valence 11-7
Plate: Christ's Hospital bt Marlborough 11-4