IT WAS disappointment all round for the Queen Mary’s College Boys A Tennis Team and PE teacher Sarah Goldson, after, for the first time in three years, they failed to reach the Senior Students National Finals to be held at Bolton Arena.

The team of Loic Armstrong, Ali Olrog, Liam Church and Stan Brown travelled to Kent with Goldson to play Sevenoaks School in their second knock-out round after fantastic group stage wins against Guildford College 12-0, Rikkyo School 10-2 and Cranleigh School 12-0.

In the singles, Olrog came back from 4-2 down to win his match 6-4 but his team-mates did not fare so well, Armstrong and Church both losing 6-1 and Brown 6-2.

With everything left to play for in the doubles matches, the boys were unlucky, struggling with the unfamiliar court surface, with Armstrong/Olrog losing 6-2 and Church/Brown defeated 6-1 and the final overall score 10-2 to the home team.

Sevenoaks School will now play Hampton School, who defeated QMC’s local rivals Peter Symonds College, Winchester in their round two knock-out match.

Goldson said: “We were aiming to reach the Senior Students finals for the fourth year in a row.

“However, the players found the surface so fast it was difficult to get any rhythm. It was a shame to go out without being able to really play our best tennis but the boys had had a good run and will be a better team for it next year with another year’s experience under their belts.”

Goldson added: “It was a real shame that the boys were unable to play their best tennis in this match.

“From the outset, the court surface proved very challenging and as early as the warm up we realised that we would struggle to cope with the speed of the courts, despite training on indoor courts ourselves.

“Unfortunately, this was the last team we had left in the Senior Student’s competition so we will not be at the finals this year – but we are all looking forward to the Ganvill and Aberdare Cups in March.”