After the disappointments of last season the aim this season was to get the Club back in winning ways. With the return of three players from injury or year abroad, and two particularly good freshers coming up from St Paul’s, the outlook was far more positive.

           

The season started well with a good core of players travelling to training at Oundle each week and winning three out of four matches in the run-up to BUCS. The Club hasn’t entered anyone into BUCS since 2007 but this year, with the championships being held at our home courts in Oundle and having a strong squad, we entered eight. Everyone played well and in the end Cambridge was represented in three out of the four finals. In his first year at university Ed Kay reached the Singles final, which was an extraordinary feat. Charles Compton reached the final of the Plate competition, where he was also beaten. The final match of the tournament contained the Cambridge dream team of Kay & Chase, who, after a hard fought semi-final, won the final with something to spare.

 

The BUCS tournament had shown the whole squad that maybe we could beat Oxford this year and from this point on each player was focused on improving his game to ensure that we came out victorious in the Varsity Match. We had several fixtures down at St Paul’s School, London - the location of the Varsity Match. We gained one particular scalp that has not been taken in recent memory by beating St Paul’s as a X by four points.

 

The weekend before Varsity, as always, we had our fixture against the Past. This turned out to be a very tight and competitive game with the Past eventually coming out on top in the closest game since 1998. As always in the evening the Present team dined alongside the Past in Magdalene College.

 

On Saturday the 19^th February we headed down to St Paul’s School for the Varsity Match. In my four years I have never felt a more tense and focused atmosphere from the squad. All four Singles players for Cambridge, Kay, Malone, Chase and Brubert, played exceptionally and we found ourselves up by a slightly surprising 23 points. In the first round of Doubles there was great play across all four pairs and we were up by 47 points at the turn. In the final round of Doubles, even with a fight-back from Oxford, Cambridge’s lead could not be caught and the winning score was 238-201.

           

This was our first victory since 2006, and with further good players arriving next year and a great spirit amongst the team, this is hopefully the start of a long run of victories for the Club.

 

This year we also entered a Sparrows team (a second team) to compete against the Oxford Beavers. They played well, but unfortunately came off second.

 

The Club must thank Michael Case, Tony Burrows and Oundle School for allowing us to use their courts, without which the Club cannot survive. I would also like to thank Peter Reynolds, our Senior Treasurer, who ensures there are no problems with the accounts. I would like to finally thank the President of the Club, Bob Dolby, for his hard work throughout the season. He ensures the website is kept up-to-date and organises one of the highlights of the season, the annual ‘Past versus Present’.