Malvern College – Rackets at Queens

20 Feb 2019

The players put in a fantastic effort at Queen’s and had a thoroughly enjoyable week. Each player put in his very best performance and all the practice undertaken throughout the term paid off.

In the Foster Cup Dan Holland started off well against the number 3 seed, but found it difficult to match the older Cheltonian for consistency and weight of shot, however this will be a valuable experience for him in next year’s tournament.

The stand out performance in the Renny Cup was by Gus Stephenson who managed to get into the last 16, but lost to a tough opponent from Harrow. In a tight first game Gus had his opportunities, but couldn’t convert under pressure, but this experience should make him one of the favourites next year.

In the Under 15’s Oli Cox reached the last 16 and Rehaan Edavalath reached the 3rd round and they both lost to the eventual finalist and winner respectively. If the draw had been slightly kinder, who knows how far they might have gone! Oli’s game was the closest and at one game all, he had a chance to take a commanding lead with several service hands. However, he couldn’t capitalise and lost his momentum, but he played fantastically well against a strong serving Radleian.

All this shows great promise for the future and for the double’s tournament in March, but more importantly all the Malvern players were fantastic ambassadors for the school. They all played hard, intelligent rackets, but always in the right spirit for a national tournament, which made for a very proud coach.