The weekend started with Max and I preparing for a long haul, destination, Bolton.

We met Katy Hancock who very kindly gave up her weekend to take us up and support. The journey was a frustrating one for Katy with lots of road works; however, we finally made it after 5 hours to the 'picturesque' city of Bolton. We went in to see how the girls were getting on and managed to catch the final sets involving Jazz and Pippa coming out with the win. It great to see and gave Max and I a taste of victory, which made us even more eager to double the silverware.

Our first match was against Queen Mary’s. We were all feeling sluggish. Both Max and I after the long journey, Jazz and Pippa after their matches from the past few days. We fired ourselves up looking to get off to a good start. Both pairs brought it out the bag to give us a strong start to the weekend; Max and Pippa winning 6/3 and 6/1 and Jazz and I winning 6/2 and 6/3. With strong performances from both pairs, we left that evening in a positive mood looking forward to the next day.

Max and I checked into the hotel and found our room. The weekend provided many new experiences for myself and a Premier Inn was the first. We all met in the foyer and made our way over for a 'cheeky' Nando's, having never experienced a restaurant where you had to practically serve yourself was an amusing point for the rest of the crew. We were however missing a new member of our group as Nick had failed to ask if his new friend wanted to join us, but there was still time! Having filled ourselves up, Nicky J on frozen yogurt, (always the healthy one) we made our way back.

We woke bright and early, (so much for a lie in on Sunday, but that's the price you pay as

an elite sports man:). We were perhaps lacking the enthusiasm we had the last evening, but after banging out some tunes, some not to Nicks tastes, we were back up and running. The next match was against a Scottish School, Strathallan. Having smashed them in the rugby I was confident that their moral would be low and was looking forward to trying to replicate England Rugby’s easy victory. It proved more difficult than I had hoped though, with Max and Pippa narrowly missing out with a 3/6 loss, but a few words from Nick helped to refocus them, and came through to win against the second pair 6/3. Jazz and I pushed hard, with close games and some big serves from both sides, eventually winning 6/2 and 6/4. Having won our last two matches, we needed one more win for us to continue onto the final.

The opposition, Canon Slade. Being a local school, support was plentiful; however having both Nick and Katy on the side-line helped us combat their rowdiness. With confidence from the past matches, Max was buzzing, making crosses and dummy crosses all over the net, and with Pippa's fantastic returns, it was an unstoppable force. It clearly paid off as they won both 6/2 and 6/1. With Jazz hitting huge serves and great touch at the net, we managed to put away a straightforward win of 6/2 in our first set. However, our second game proved more difficult, with some huge serves from one of the opposition, it took us a while to get our return on point, but with Jazz's encouragement we managed to get a hold of the set, coming through with a 6/4 win. The title was now within our reach, only one more team to beat.

Ellesmere were the opposition like in the Girls event, they were a strong team with both pairs up for a challenge. We got off to good starts, winning the first sets 6/3 in both. With another great performance from all the team, all we needed was one more win to get hold of the trophy. Jazz and I managed to hold it together, with some great serving and net play we came out with a 6/3 win. This meant we had won, however it was not over as Max and Pippa were still battling it out with the second pair, unfortunately losing in a set tiebreak 3/7 but this did not dampen our spirit. Prize giving followed and we gracefully received the trophy and medals. Having taken some photos already, we thought we should get everyone involved including Nick's friend. We packed up and got ready to leave but Nick had not come through with the goods, never mind, there is always next year Nicky! I would like to thank Joe who before leaving, took us to all our matches and supported us throughout the competition. Thank you also to Nick and Katy for the weekend, supporting and advising us. Finally thank you to the team - Max, Pippa and Jazz, you were all great fun to be with throughout the competition and it was awesome to come home victorious.

Orlando Ely