Report from the National Girls Schools Championships

An impressive performance by the girls from Alleyn’s School in winning all six titles, Singles and Doubles, in the U18, U16 and U14 age-groups. Likewise an encouraging display from the U13 players from the Edinburgh Academy, who won the Singles and Doubles titles in their category.

Alleyn’s dominate at bumper National Girls Schools Championships

Hector McFarlane reports: An impressive performance by the girls from Alleyn’s School in winning all six titles, Singles and Doubles, in the U18, U16 and U14 age-groups. Likewise an encouraging display from the U13 players from the Edinburgh Academy, who won the Singles and Doubles titles in their category.

U18s

The U18 Singles competition started with 3-player groups to ascertain seedings for round of 16 knock-outs. Two of the last 16s were nail-bitingly tight with Emily B (Bradfield) ousting Grace P (E.A.) 9-7 and Isabella D (E.A.) edging past Phoebe S (Bloxham) 10-8. The quarter-finals were more one-sided matches as Taylor-Rose F and Diva T (both Alleyn’s) joined Amelie H (E.A.) and Emily B in the semi-finals. Taylor-Rose’s supremely powerful left hand was too much for Emily in the first semi winning 11-2 whilst Amelie and Diva put on a brilliant display of Fives, matching power and placement in a very even contest. Amelie finished the stronger to reach the final with an 11-8 win. The final started at a ferocious pace with Taylor-Rose trying to blow Amelie away, but Amelie’s balletic defence and improvised turning shots meant not many points were scored for a good number of rallies. Amelie’s exertions in the semi-final started to show as Taylor-Rose pounced on any a number of serves that popped up onto her dominant left-hand. Taylor-Rose deservedly won the title even if the scoreline of 15-2 did not do the quality of the match justice. Good luck to Taylor-Rose in the forthcoming National Schools Championships!

Nine girls competed for the Singles Plate. The previously mentioned Grace and Phoebe, who narrowly lost in the first Cup knock-out stage, were too strong for their opponents in the Plate as they met in the final. Grace’s greater width and depth of shot allowed her to win the Plate final 11-3.

In the U18 Doubles, four different schools/clubs were represented in the semi-finals – a great sign of the increasing depth of girls Fives across the country. Alleyn’s ousted the City of Durham in the first semi whilst Rugby defeated Bradfield in the second. The Alleyn’s pair of Taylor-Rose & Diva were too consistent for the Rugby Girls in the final as they took the win 11-3. An impressive U18 Cup Double for Alleyn’s.

An all Edinburgh Academy final of the Plate saw Amelie & Grace win for an U18 Plate Double for the Scottish school.

U16s

The U16 singles also started with a preliminary group stage with a number of well matched games. The Cup was dominated by Alleyn’s with a strong showing from the Edinburgh Academy as the semi-finals were Annabel B (Alleyn’s) vs Charlotte S (E.A.) and Anna R (Alleyn’s) vs Daisy F (E.A.) – both games went the way of the Alleyn’s pair without the scoreboard being troubled. Annabel was the stronger force in the all Alleyn’s final with a comprehensive 15-1 win, despite a number of hard-fought rallies.

The Singles Plate saw an all Scottish final as Iona D (Fettes) defeated Isla D (E.A.) 11-6 in a highly entertaining contest.

The two dominant Alleyn’s players from the Singles – Annabel and Anna – were strong favourites for the Doubles and it was no surprise that they powered their way to the title, defeating Edinburgh Academy’s Daisy and Sofia M 15-1 in the final. Mr Ody will have to invest in a larger trophy cabinet in Dulwich!

The Doubles Plate went to ‘Rugburgh’ as Jess C (Rugby) formed a scratch pairing with Charlotte S (E.A.).

U14s

The U14 Singles was the most evenly contested contest of the day with lots of games that could have gone either way, won by only a few precious points, illustrated by the four quarter-final scores of 11-6, 11-7, 11-7 and 11-1 Despite this it was once again Alleyn’s who proved the strongest with both finalists after another two semi-final wins over Edinburgh Academy players (Sofia M and Kaia S). The final was the match of the day as Freya D and Sasha A battling out an epic with the leading changing hands multiple times. Freya held her nerve to take the victory 15-12.

In the Singles Plate it was great to see the strong Stamford and Marlborough squads represented in a final, with Ellie M from Stamford lifting the silverware 11-4 against Marlborough’s Louisa L.

In the doubles Alleyn’s 1 (Freya & Sasha) defeated Stamford 1 11-6 to set up yet another final against Edinburgh Academy (Kaia S & Iona S), who had narrowly beaten Marlborough 1 11-7. As with the U18s and U16s it was Alleyn’s pair who showed the greater level of accuracy and fewer unforced errors to win 11-4 in the final.

Another Stamford vs Marlborough contest was played out in the Doubles Plate Final with another Plate win for Mr Smith’s Stamford squad.

U13s

The U13s draw saw a number of very inexperienced players and some who have been playing for a few terms. Despite this, all girls played impressively and were not daunted by the ruling of no second serves!

The young Edinburgh Academy squad denied Alleyn’s the clean sweep of Cup wins as Isobelle G beat Mia L 11-1 in an all E.A. final.

Martha W took the Singles Plate for Stamford.

The Singles finalists from E.A. (Isobelle & Mia) paired up in the Doubles, winning the Cup whilst dropping just a solitary point across all three games.

Plate specialists Stamford took the Doubles for their fourth plate of the day.

A superb day all round, masterminded by Mr Smith – the future of Girls’ Fives certainly look strong with Alleyn’s setting a high bar for the others to aim for in future years.