It has been a busy few weeks on the tennis courts at St Mary’s. The league matches are being played on Tuesdays and both the St Mary’s Senior (Forms III, IV and V) and Junior (Forms I and II) School championships are being played during the practice sessions. Over the past two weekends, many St Mary’s players participated in the Gauteng Central school trials and in the annual A and B inter-high competition.

The St Mary’s tennis players played scintillating tennis from the beginning of the pool games to the end of the finals to clinch both the A and B inter-high titles. This is the fourth year in a row that St Mary’s has emerged victorious over the 28 schools that participated in the A inter-high, and the 10th year in a row that St Mary’s has won the B inter-high. The A inter-high is for players ranked from 1 to 4 and the B inter-high is for players ranked from 5 to 8. St Mary’s also entered a C team in the B inter-high and this team achieved an excellent 7th place. Twenty-four schools participated in the B inter-high.

Congratulations are extended to Maja Gledic, Tamsin Hart, Ruth Moore and Sarah Millard, all members of the A team, who beat a strong Helpmekaar team in the semi-finals and the team from St Stithians in the A inter-high finals. The B team, comprised of Amukelani Mokone, Nina Patience, Hannah Moore and Julianne Klingenberg, beat St Andrew’s in the semi-finals and Helpmekaar in an excellent final to win the B inter-high. Well done to Simone Voigt, Sarah Roy, Jessica Rogers and Kate Jones on their high standard of play and for representing the C team at the B inter-high. I am extremely proud of all the players who participated in this event.

Thank you to Ms Murray and Mrs Ingersent for taking the time to look after the B and C teams respectively. Thank you to all the parents for their support. Thank you, Mrs Hallendorff and Mrs Turner-Coetzee, for coming to support the tennis players.

Our congratulations are also extended to the following players who have been selected for the Gauteng Central inter-provincial teams, which will be competing in the schools’ inter-provincial during the April holidays. This is a great honour for all these players, as only a handful of players are selected in each of the two age groups.

René Plant
Head of tennis