The team turned in a superb performance to upset favourites St Peter’s College Senior One team 7-2 to win their competition on Saturday, 9 April at King’s.
In the pool matches, they beat Pakuranga College One, Sancta Maria College One, Lynfield College One, Sacred Heart College Two and then went on to record another 5-4 victory over Lynfield College One in the semi-final, recovering from 2-4 down to win 5-4.
In the final on Saturday, the team was missing two of its stalwarts in George Pope (Europe trip) and Alastair Hadlow (injured), but every player stepped up a gear and improved their results from the previous encounter with St Peter’s.
In the doubles, James Pollitt and Nian Xu Wang went down 1-6, but the other pairings of Ryan Simpson/Nathan Archibald and Joshua Grant/Samuel Thomas both won their matches 6-2 and 6-3 respectively.
In the singles matches, James Pollitt, who is ranked seventh in the school and top seed for the Senior Two team, has faced uphill battles all season, competing against the top player in our opponent’s school every week, but has competed valiantly. On Saturday, against a highly ranked player who beat him 6-1 in the first round, James was on fire and pushed him all the way before going down in a tie-breaker 1-7. Second seed Nian Xu Wang went one better and turned around a 4-6 defeat in the first round to win a nail-biting tie-breaker 7-6 (10-8). There were also singles wins for Ryan Simpson, a comprehensive 6-0, Nathan Archibald a stylish 6-2, Joshua Grant 7-6 (7-2) and Samuel Thomas 7-6 (7-2). Joshua Grant’s win was notable in that it meant he went through the whole season unbeaten in both singles and doubles. Samuel Thomas’ win saw him fight back from 3-5 and 0-4 down to win his match.
Well done to the players in the Senior Boys' Two Tennis team for these fantastic results.
