SPORT
Tennis
Tennis has been incredibly popular at Yarrells this year with a full diary of exciting events and many pupils excelling in county and local tournaments. Many of the pupils have improved their tennis greatly and have enjoyed taking part in clubs and tournaments organised within the school. We have seen the appointment of an Assistant Tennis Teacher, Mr Simon Kevern, who has been working in a supporting role to Mr Darragh by helping cater for the huge demand for individual and shared lessons, assisting at team events and teaching a new after-school club for Years 5-8.
All of the pupils from Year 1 up to Year 8 have taken part in the School Tennis Championships, with over 200 matches completed over the spring and summer terms. All of the results are posted up on the notice board in the entrance lobby. The finals took place on Tuesday 5th July throughout the school day, with each year group coming out to watch the finals of their event.
There were a lot of fixtures and tournaments organised for Years 3-6 this year. We had three teams competing in the County Mini Tennis Festivals in Bournemouth in April for Red (8 & under), Orange (9 & under) and Green (10 & under), where we played against tennis clubs from all over Dorset. Our Red team (George D’Arcy-Smith, Max Richards, Yasmin Müller and Benjamin Wright) came 3rd out of eight teams. Both the Orange team (Thomas Pitman, James Palmer-Snellin, Joshua Brook and Rosie Bradshaw) and Green team (Tom Lemans, Daria Dehghani and Eleanor Pitman) did extremely well and came 2nd in the county!
Pupils in Years 4 and 5 scored Yarrells’ first victory over Park School in a friendly match in November at Esporta, by 9 matches to 7. Park then gained revenge when we hosted our annual Yarrrells Under 8 Mini Tennis tournament for pupils in Year 3 and below in May. Four teams of eight players took part: Yarrells ‘A’ and ‘B’, Park and Sunninghill. For the third year running, in a nail biting finish, Yarrells ‘A’ were narrowly beaten by Park, with the deciding match tied at 6 rubbers all, Park beat us on points by 94 to 80.
We had a good turn out for our Year 4-8 adult/child tournament in June, with 10 pairs taking part. We also ran a Wimbledon trip for eight children in Year 4, who all enjoyed watching some of the top tennis stars on Day One of the Championships.