A First-time Win at Bradfield College Mixed Doubles Tournament
Published by St Mary's Calne on Monday 16th of June 2025
On Saturday 12 June, May K and Eliza F were selected from LVI to represent St Mary’s in the Bradfield College Mixed Doubles Tournament. Needless to say, this is a difficult tournament to enter for a girl’s school, so we partnered up with Marlborough College for the day.
Prior to departing the heavens opened and we were sure the tournament would be cancelled. With no cancelation received and rain lashing down the entire way to Bradfield, we entered the gates to the courts to be greeted by full sunshine and very fine tennis weather.
The draw consisted of 16 teams from schools such as Eton, Bradfield, Marlborough and Wellington Colleges, Stowe, Charterhouse, St Edward's and St Mary’s Ascot. Even in the warm-up, it was evident how much talent there was out on courts and how hard this tournament would be progress through.
May and Eliza met their doubles partners and took to the competition courts in a first round. While Eliza battled for every point and played consistently well throughout the competition, they lost to the eventual semi-finalists in first round. A tough start, but a strong finish for Eliza and her partner, who won their 4th and final match of the day to end on a high.
Onto May’s side of the draw which consisted of the 1st pairs from Bradfield College, St Edwards and Stowe. It was impressive to see May and her partner Kai instantly gel on court as if they had played many tournaments together in the past. A convincing first round win against Charterhouse saw the pair into quarter-finals where they would face St Edwards. Our pair took and early lead and never looked back, taking us into the semi-finals against the 2nd seeds of Bradfield College. Kai’s serve got broken early on and although only standing at 1-1 in games, the performance from the opposition was a step up and the pressure was on. However, our pair stepped up and took yet another convincing win to book a place in the finals.
It was time to pay closer attention to the opposition which ended up being Eton and St Mary’s Ascot. Looking at the Eton player alone who could 100mph on his serve and be able to crunch forehands, backhands and volleys with the same degree of intent, this was not going to be easy, and so it proved. The match yo-yoed in momentum when finally at 6-5 up, May and Kai had 3 match points. However, the opposition were not willing to give up the title that easily and fought back to take the match to 6-6 and to be decided on the dreaded tie-break. At 3-0 down in the tie-break, things were not looking good, and it was our turn to demonstrate our resilience and fighting spirit. When it was time to step up, May took the lead and produced the kind of tennis that we have come to expect from a top player at St Mary’s. Purposeful, aggressive and targeted hitting off the forehand saw our pair fight their way back to the lead, match point, only this time for it go our way.
And that was that. In a blink of eye, May and Kai were champions with a trophy presentation and applause to follow. Well done for winning St Mary’s Calne Tennis Academy’s first trophy! The coaching team and the St Mary’s community are incredibly proud of what you have achieved, congratulations.
Mr Jonathan Hayes, Director of Tennis
