On Saturday, 21 January, the Somerset College first tennis team consisting of four boys and four girls emerged as the winners of the “Arende Afslaan” doubles and mixed doubles tournament hosted by Strand High School. In doing so, they regained the title which they also won in 2022.
The following players represented the College at this tournament: Mia Hosking and Tassius Chigariro (captain), Lisa Verwey (captain) and Aidan Sanders, Isabelle Pritchett and Ewan Holtzhausen, Kelly Brooke and Chris Justus. During the first round of matches Chris, unfortunately, sprained his ankle. He was replaced by Kieran Sanders.
Somerset College started the day well when they scored a convincing victory over Brackenfell High School in their first round match. Although the boys lost their doubles against Strand High School in our second match of the day, we still walked away with a victory after the girls won their doubles and we also secured wins in three of the four mixed doubles.
Our final and most closely contested match was against Bellville High School who were the runners-up in 2022. The College girls continued their winning streak by securing wins in both their doubles matches. The boys from Bellville proved too strong for our boys and after the four doubles matches, Bellville was in the lead with 11 points to 9. In the mixed doubles, Bellville won two of the four matches. Although this meant that the two schools had won the same number of matches, Bellville had managed to secure more points and emerged as the winner.
The final winning team of the tournament is determined by a points system, though, and because Somerset College had scored better victories over Brackenfell and Strand High than Bellville did, we managed to clinch the title by the narrowest of margins: 92 points to 91!
The Somerset College girls need a special mention as, not only were they unbeaten on the day, they conceded only 8 games in the 6 matches that were played.