Paulines shine at the National Schools Rackets Singles Championships

St Paul’s had one of the most successful National Schools Rackets Singles Championships campaigns in our relatively short history of playing this unique game, at the Queen’s Club in December.

The Foster Cup

As a semi-finalist in this event last year, James (Upper Eighth) was top seed and overwhelming favourite in this year’s elite top 16 schoolboys in the country for ‘The Foster Cup’, and reached the final with ease. In this best of 5 game match, James played outstandingly to lead 2-1, needing just one more game for the title. At 14 all in the 4^th game, his Harrovian opponent elected ‘set 3’ in a ‘tie-break’, (or the first to 3 extra points) and James served an ‘Ace’, needing just 2 more points, which unfortunately, he couldn’t make and lost that game 15/17. In the 5^th & deciding game, James stormed ahead to a commanding 8-1 lead; however, point by point, and very slowly his opponent chipped away to recover and at 10 with just 5 points to win, he did… just. Although James did get to 11, he ultimately lost the match 3-2 (5/15, 15/8, 15/9, 15/17, 11/15).

The Renny Cup

In the Renny Cup, for all seniors outside the top 16, Darshy (Lower Eighth), as a ‘non-seed’ had an outstanding event, defeating the 2^nd seed en route to the final, giving St Paul’s their first ever Renny Cup finalist. However, although Darshy was playing another ‘non-seed’, he unfortunately couldn’t quite find the form of previous days and lost 0-3 (6/15, 1/15, 0/15).

The Jim Dear Cup

In the Jim Dear Cup for U-15, St Paul’s had the most outstanding singles event in their history. With Adrian  top seed, Gabriel seeded 4^th, Aryan seeded 6, Shlok and Konstantin placed favourably in the draw, St Paul’s Fifth Formers were in line for an all Pauline Final. However, unfortunately, we had to lose 2 players to ourselves which meant Shlok lost to Adrian (0-2) and Konstantin lost to Aryan (1-2) in respectively in the quarter-final, although it did give us 3 semi-finalists: Adrian vs Gabriel, and Aryan vs a Radleian; where Adrian beat Gabriel 2-0, and Aryan also won 2-0.

Therefore, this set us up nicely for an all Pauline final. Adrian vs Aryan…and what a magnificent display of optimal power, tactics and technique  combined, where rallies were well-constructed and long with a great sense of experience & knowledge, not to mention good respect for each other…a match worthy of a final between good friends and foes that Adrian managed to win 2-0…. 15/6, 15/9.