QMC Boys A Team Through To Knock Out Stages

The consistently strong Queen Marys College Boys A Team of Loic Armstrong, Nick Dingwall, Adam Hood and Luke Watts won their final group match away against Rikkyo in the Senior Students competition. In the singles, the boys kept a clean sheet with Armstrong, Dingwall and Watts all winning 6-0 and Hood defeating his opponent 7-5. The run of good form continued in the doubles with Armstong/Dingwall winning 6-0 and Hood/Watts won their match 6-1.

The Victorious Boys A Team (L to R) Adam Hood, Luke Watts, Nick Dingwall and Loic Armstrong

The Boys A team are therefore undefeated in the group stages and go through to knock out stages where they will face local rivals Peter Symonds College from Winchester away on 21st January.

QMC PE teacher and tennis team manager Sarah Goldson said, “It was great to see the boys come through the group stages again for the sixth year in a row. However the Rikkyo team were not as strong as they normally are and we are aware there are significantly tougher challenges ahead, starting with the first match against Peter Symonds in the New Year!”

In the girls competition, the Rikkyo girls team were significantly stronger than the boys and with one win out of four in the singles and two losses in the doubles meant a 10-2 loss overall for the QMC girls. Holly Groves was the only singles winner with a 6-2 victory and Beth Lowe lost 6-2, Sarah Winkle lost 6-4 and Georgia Hunt lost 6-0. In the Doubles Lowe/Groves lost 6-3 and Hunt/Winkle lost 6-2.

Goldson said, “Despite the defeat against Rikkyo the girls are playing increasingly more consistently and will be joined by the colleges top seed Kelsey Mosquera in the next competition, the Aberdare Cup which starts in February/March.”

(L to R) Holly Groves, Sarah Winkle and Georgia Hunt

In the final girls match in the group, the team played St Swithuns away and with only three girls available Kelsey Mosquera played in the fourth spot although her results did not count as her rating is too high to play in this competition. The scoreline finished 8-4 to St Swithuns.

(l to R) Lowe, Mosquera, Groves and Winkle

Goldson said, “In the Boys B team group, the final match in the group was conceeded by Worthing College due to a lack of players, the QMC B Team finished second in the group, their best result for some years.The Mixed team as anticipated did not go through due to their result against St George’s which proved to be the decisive match.”

She added “With the Boys A team securing a place in the knock out stages, this will be the sixth year the College have been represented in this stage. In the New Year as well as the next stage of this competition, next term also sees the start of the Aberdare and Glanvil National Cup in which we have entered two boys teams and one girls team.“

QMC News

Olrog, Armstrong, Goldson and Dingwall with the Hampshire Boys Doubles Trophy

The Queen Marys College (QMC) Boys A team were beaten in the Glanvill Cup 8-0 after fielding a team missing a fourth player who failed to show up leaving the team at a disadvantage before a ball had even been hit. Loic Armstrong played well and started strongly breaking his opponents serve in the first game but was unable to keep up the consistency so eventually lost to Miles McDowell 6-2, 6-2. Nick Dingwall, who came back strongly in the second set was unable to hold off the force of Taylor Vane, losing 6-0, 6-4 .Ali Olrog battled in a three set match but also lost to Hallam Doney 6-3, 5-7, 14-12 and the quality of the match was not reflected in the scoreline and Olrog was unlucky to lose a match point due to a net cord from his opponent. Unfortunately, with the fourth player unavailable and losing all three of the other singles matches QMC were unable to win and due to court time the doubles was not played either.

QMC PE teacher and tennis team manger Sarah Goldson said “We were aware this was always going to be a big ask for the boys with Peter Symonds probably having one of their strongest teams for some years (players rated between 2.2 and 4.1). The difference in ratings between our players and theirs was not always reflected in some of the matches and as always the boys gave it their best effort.”

Mixed Doubles team Lowe, Olrog, Dingwall and Jones

In better news, the Boys A team were declared the Hampshire Boys Doubles champions after the final was unable to be played as Peter Symonds were unavailable to play on the arranged day. The team of Ali Olrog, Nick Dingwall and Loic Armstrong (fourth player Adam Hood not pictured) collected the trophy with PE teacher Sarah Goldson.

Lowe and Olrog in action

The Hampshire Mixed Doubles event was held at Totally Tennis with teams from QMC, Alton and Farnborough competing for the title. QMC were represented by pair one Nick Dingwall and Laura Jones and pair two Ali Olrog and Beth Lowe. Farnborough were the overall winners, Alton were runners-up and QMC were third.

Lovely sunny day for the Mixed Doubles event

Goldson said “Ali and Beth have partnered each other all year but in the absence of a second girl for our mixed team, Laura had only played a handful of times and as such struggled to produce consistent enough tennis during the afternoon. Ali and Beth improved as the matches went on but a slow start meant they were unable to make a significant impact for the QMC team.”

Beth Lowe

 

QMC BOYS TEAM INTO GLANVILL CUP SEMI-FINALS

(L TO R) Nick Dingwall, Ali Olrog, Loic Armstrong and Adam Hood.

The Queen Marys College (QMC) Boys A team of Loic Armstrong, Nick Dingwall, Ali Olrog and Adam Hood beat a strong team from Brockenhurst to move into the semi-finals of the Glanvill Cup.

In the singles, it was all level after the four matches with Dingwall winning his match against Jason Lewis 6-2, 6-2 and Olrog also won against Jack Mountain 6-2, 7-5 to both maintain their unbeaten singles record for the year. Armstrong lost to Matt Savage in the third set after winning the second 6-1, 3-6,10-8 and Hood lost to Lawrence 6-3, 6-2.

Tennis manager and QMC PE teacher Sarah Goldson said “In the singles Ali started strongly, serving well and playing aggressively during the return games and even though his opponent raised his game in the second set Ali’s consistency took him through and both him and Nick are yet to drop a singles match this season. Nick played a solid match, serving well and breaking several times.”

“Adam was returning from a recent injury and as such was not able to play aggressively enough to overcome his opponent, he did however serve well. After a slow start, Loic came back into the match with some aggressive play from the back of the court and was unlucky to be edged out in the tie-break.”

In the Doubles, Dingwall/Olrog won 6-3, 6-2 but Armstrong/Hood were comprehensively beaten by Savage/Mountain 6-0, 6-0 so the match went to the expected 10-point shoot out. Dingwall and Olrog started strongly against Savage/Mountain breaking early and taking a commanding lead 5-1 with some strong serving and a spectacular down the line return from Olrog. The boys continued to maintain the lead but this was clawed back by the Brockenhurst team when the QMC team failed to capitalise on two match points on serve but they held their nerve however and win the match 10-8.

Goldson added “A fantastic win by the Boys team and good to come out on top in a shoot out. The next match is away against opponents Portsmouth Grammar School with high stakes as it’s for a place in the Regional Finals.”