League win wraps up a super season (From Basingstoke Gazette)

League win wraps up a super season

8:00am Wednesday 27th July 2011 in Tennis

QUEEN Mary’s College Mixed team have ended the college’s successful tennis year with more silverware, this time winning the Hampshire Sixth Form League.

With the withdrawal of a couple of local teams, both the mixed and girls doubles events came down to a three-way tie between QMC, Peter Symonds College and Alton College.

The annual event was once again hosted at Totally Tennis and organised by Sarah Goldson, QMC’s PE teacher.

The QMC team consisted of Totally Tennis performance players Ben Jubin and partner Aimee Paterson and Andrew Spencer and his partner Amaarah Mirza.

They had already beaten Farnborough in an earlier group round, 8-0, but with their withdrawal this fixture did not count towards the overall placing.

The matches consisted of one tie break set with the pairings playing their opposite pairing in the initial matches, followed by their own pairing in the second match.

The first match saw Peter Symonds take on Alton and securing a 6-0 overall victory, winning three matches all 6-3 and losing one 6-2.

QMC then took on Peter Symonds in the most decisive tie. Jubin and Paterson beat their second pair 6-0 and then defeated the top pair 7-3 in the tie break after a 4-4 score line.

Spencer and Mirza lost to Peter Symonds’ first pair 6-4 but beat the second pair 4-2, giving QMC an overall 6-2 victory.

So that left QMC needing to beat Alton to secure the title they won last year.

The team did not disappoint, rising to the challenge with some strong serving and good teamwork.

Jubin and Paterson defeated Alton second pairing 4-1 and their top pair 4-2 and, with Spencer and Mirza also winning both matches 4-1 and 4-1, the QMC team secured an impressive 8-0 victory.

Goldson said: “The team were really pleased to end the season with a win, particularly given it was the last college match for Ben, Aimee and Amaarah, all of whom have contributed significantly to the college’s tennis programme and its success over the last two years. Andrew will continue to represent the team next year.”

She added: “It has been a brilliant year for all the teams and was so great to finish with a trophy. This has been probably the most successful year for the College tennis teams to date.

“It was especially great to see the two girls, Amaarah and Aimee, rewarded with a win to finish off the season as they have both been committed and enthusiastic members of the team for the past two years.”

The girls’ event was dominated by the PSC team, who had a very strong team that have enjoyed some great successes this year, winning gold at the British Colleges Doubles National finals, as well as qualifying for the Aberdare Cup finals. They were convincing winners over both the Alton (6-0) and the QMC team (6-2).