'Henmania' comes to Rectory Road (From Penarth Times)

'Henmania' comes to Rectory Road

PENARTH Community Tennis Partnership held its first ever tennis festival for the local schools during the second week of Wimbledon.

Luckily for them they chose the one day with no rain, because as we all know, just as the courts in Wimbledon have no sliding roofs, neither do the courts at either Rectory Road or Windsor.

The children from Albert Road, St Joseph's and Fairfield Primary schools arrived at Rectory Road just as Henman stepped out on court at Wimbledon, all just as eager to progress to the finals as he was. Club coach John Williams explained the format for the afternoon and the games began.

Matthew Thomas and Aodhan Teague and Jack Sellick and Alex Robertson put St Joseph's ahead narrowly beating Paul Clarke and Ellis Healy and Jo Gillingham and Ashley Vickery respectively in the doubles matches to give their school a 2-0 lead. Ellis Healy managed to win the first singles match for Albert Road but Matthew, Alex and Jack won theirs to give St Joseph's an impressive score of 5-1.

Albert Road boys then took on the boys from Fairfield. Paul and Ellis versus James Brown and Michael Youd and Jo and Ashley versus Owen Davies and Rhys Hill. Both matches were fiercely contested, as first one school and then the other edged ahead. Eventually the Albert Road teams hit the winning points to give their school a 2-0 lead this time. But Fairfield were not going to give in easily. James led the comeback with a hard fought win over Ellis and Michael levelled the match with a win over Paul.

Albert Road pushed ahead when Ashley beat Rhys, so all depended on the last singles match. Owen and Jo were locked in a very tight match. The children and teachers gathered to watch. Break point, match point, break point match point, until Owen put the ball away and Fairfield levelled at three all.

The boys from St Joseph's then played against the Fairfield four. Jack and Alex beat Owen and Rhys, Michael and James fought like Trojans but lost 6-8 to Matthew and Aodhan in one of the most exciting matches of the afternoon. James got his own back on Aodhan, but Michael, Owen and Rhys just couldn't find that extra something needed to defeat the other boys and once again St Joseph's were in the lead 5-1.

There were no girls available to play from Fairfield so the girls from Albert Road and St Joseph's had less matches to play. Elisha Davies and Lauren Hughes and Charlotte Chick and Eleanor Davies played Hannah McCann and Katie Parry and Ashley Forrester and Lauren Barry from Albert Road. The girls tried to emulate the speed and grace of Henin and the power of the Williams sisters and had great fun with the four girls from St Joseph's winning their matches to take a 2-0 lead. Hannah won her match for Albert Road but Katie, Lauren and Ashley couldn't manage to overcome their powerful opponents and once again St Joseph's won 5-1.

When all the matches had been contested and won, the children retired to the clubhouse for drinks and refreshments. Each and every one of them was as excited as if they had been playing at Wimbledon and even more so when they received their medals and certificates from the CTP at the end of the day. Evenlode will be the next opponents to face St Joseph's in the grand final to be held at Windsor LTC today (Thursday, July 11).