Marlow, Cradock reign supreme in PA junior tennis tournament
Inaugural U15 event a success
Marlow Landbouskool High boys and Cradock High girls proved too strong for opposition schools when they won their respective inaugural U15 Port Alfred Tennis Tournament events organised by SA schools tennis coach, Handri Westman.
The PA Tennis Club, Port Alfred High School and Southwell Country Club (clay court) venues were abuzz with tennis activity on Friday 1 and Saturday September 2 as 10 teams battled it out for the top prizes.
Cradock Boys Invitational team came in second and Kingswood College took third place in the two-day event.
In the girls section, Cradock High swept the boards, with East London’s Stirling High taking second place and Kingswood in third spot.
Among the school teams participating were Marlow and Cradock High, Kingswood, Kenton-onSea, Emntsalani Tennis Club, St Andrew’s, PAHS, Stirling High, and Diocesan School for Girls (DSG).
Cradock High put up dominant displays, winning all their matches in their round robin matches for girls, repeating the same in their final encounter at PA Tennis Club.
In their match against runners-up, Stirling, they won all their four singles games and two doubles encounters to accumulate an 18-point whitewash of their opponents.
In an exciting final match of the day in the boys’ section on the clay courts of Southwell CC, Marlow and Cradock
ended up 3-3 in their singles and doubles matches.
However, it was Marlow who were declared the overall winners over the two days by shading their runners-up rivals on total points accumulated.
Coaches Westman and Jakolette Thiart agreed that the standard of tennis was particularly high, with especially Marlow and Cradock Invitational showing that with the talent at their disposal, they have a great future in building a formidable tennis legacy.
Tennis academy coach, Thiart, who is involved with coaching schools through their TTA Academy, said the sport had shown a significant increase in player numbers over the last year.
“There are now a total of about 600
junior tennis players at Eastern Cape schools and it is down to hard work by coaches, teachers and schools who are taking an interest in growing tennis at junior level.
“We are working together as coaches at various schools to cast the net wider than East London so we can grow the game in the region.”
Thiart said the tournament, which followed a team competition format, proved a great innovation as it encouraged camaraderie among the players.
“The team dynamic lifts every player’s game and boosts the team spirit among the players. It truly was a great experience to see such a high standard of tennis being played among
the juniors I was absolutely impressed by their commitment.”
Thiart said Marlow and Cradock High Schools stood out as the top competing schools in the boys division, with Marlow displaying an excellent team attitude that helped them emerge tournament winners.
“The Cradock girls were exceptional going through their tournament unbeaten and it is quite remarkable that after being victims of a robbery at their accommodation on Friday night they kept their nerve to play the way they did.”
The Cradock High girls were robbed of their cellphones and sneakers while sleeping through the incident on Friday night, showing great composure to shake off the unnerving experience and coast to victory.
Westman, who now resides in Port Alfred, said the inaugural hosting of the junior tournament had been a success.
She applauded the organisers who assisted with the tournament.
“Without any good school organisers and teachers this tournament would be impossible to manage and organise. So a big big thank you to all the teachers and of course the parents and players.
“A huge thanks goes to Sunshine Coast Tourism, PA clubs, Southwell CC and PAHS for availing their facilities and club members at PA Tennis Club for the food and service there.
“We had some assistance from Pick n Pay, and takeaways from Stoompot; we also had support from people putting up gazebos, and so on.
“I could ask anybody for anything and they directed me in the direction where I could receive help,” she said.
Westman said the level of tennis played among the top teams was high.
“The Cradock girls were very very strong maybe too strong for the other teams and maybe they won too easily, but congratulations must go to them on their achievement,” said Westman.
“The other teams had good allround players such as at PAHS but if they [PAHS] want to compete against the other teams, they will have to focus more, practise more and definitely gain some experience but good on them for participating.”
Westman said the Kenton-on-Sea team deserved some mention for their competitive streak.
“Khaya Ngangqu is the coach there and they are really doing a good work to the point that the team can now compete. They may not be able to beat the top schools yet, but they can now compete, which is wonderful.”