Firstly, we left Millfield on the 2nd of July.  There were 15 of us as a team with a great team atmosphere, loud music playing in the minibus and commentary on the upset of Djokovic losing to Querrey which surprised us all. On Day one of independent schools, every team member apart from Annabelle Davis and Emily Thomas won all of their matches. This was a real pity although the support from team mates was amazing. Dinner was usually quite fun. There were two groups and one group started doing arm wrestling competitions.  Matt Croft was beaten twice in a row by Pippa Chat. The older pupils were doing 7 seconds challenges and the funniest one was when Joe did push-ups but also had to say the days of the week in a Jamaican accent as part of the evening's entertainment.

Everyone was in the knockout rounds on day two. The U15's B were in quarter finals and were playing New Hall and Yigit managed to break a racket so the Tennis captain, Angus Bradshaw came up with a forfeit that I will never forget which was that Yigit, at the end of the day, had to carry every bag to the minibus and at the end he was dead and so out of breath. The U19 boys and girls were through to the semis and this is where all the doubles work we have done this year came into play.

During Finals day of Independent Schools, the U19 boys had to play Culford and Angus, after two days rest, decided to play and took 5 ibuprofen and his finger was numb. Culford took us to a set shootout which was intense but the boys won 7-5 with Nick and Angus as the pairing. Reeds were our next opponents.  In the final we took the gamble by putting Nick and Angus as first pair which paid off and then Nick and Tiarnan finished the job which allowed us to regain our title which felt amazing and the boys were seriously chuffed. The U19 girls lost in the final to Queenswood as they were slightly too strong for them.

Everyone played well in the end.  A big thank you goes to Matt for all the doubles work, not forgetting Kate and Joe for being there for the feedback and the support.

By Tim Kiehl