Tennis - Regional Ball Squad and Schools Teams Eventt

Two events took place in Tennis on Sunday 25 August. Held at Carrara the Regional Ball Training Squad saw some of the best players and coaches participate, while on home turf Somerset played Sheldon College in a Schools Teams event.

Regional Ball Squad

A Regional Ball Training Squad kicked off at KDV in Carrara on Sunday. Some of the best players and coaches around the Gold Coast participated in this event with Somerset being fortunate enough to also participate.

This Training Squad is designed for some of the top Green Ball and Orange Ball players to not only show their skills, but also improve their skills with the guidance of some of the best coaches on the Coast.

In the Orange Ball, we had Paxton Ryan and Jack and Lucy Pluss. Being the youngest there was quite daunting but a fact they did not focus on. They played some outstanding tennis, really listening to the coaches' advice, further improving their skills and sportsmanship as tennis players.

In the Green Ball Mia and Mason Richards, Kona Baldock and Fynn Busuttin participated. The standard of the Green Ball was extremely high with a majority of these players playing in the Super 10s programme, with some of the best 10 year olds in Queensland competing in this event. Similar to the Orange Ball, our students showed some amazing Spartan Spirit, performing some great tennis and taking in every bit of advice from the coaches.

Not only was there some great tennis being played, there was also a talk to parents by Kim Birrel. Currently ranked in the top 200 players of the world, she is an amazing role model for young female tennis players.

Overall, another great event that Somerset had the amazing opportunity to participate in.

Somerset verse Sheldon College

For the first time, Somerset College went up against Sheldon College from Brisbane in a Schools Teams event, Sunday 25 August. It was an amazing day with 12 players competing from each school playing incredible tennis and showing outstanding team spirit.

Each school entered six teams, three Orange Ball teams and three Green Ball teams. Each team consisted of two players, playing both a doubles and singles match each, making it five matches in each rubber.

In the Orange Ball teams pairing up together was Roneel Khatri and Justin Kim, Denver Bannerman and Patrick Deacon and Leny Grigor and Tima Korin. Somerset dominated the Orange Ball, winning all three rubbers for Somerset to take a 3 nil lead overall. Leny and Tima were undefeated in their rubber, winning all five of their matches convincingly. An outstanding performance by the boys.

In the Green Ball teams, pairing up together was Huw Hoffman and Orion Burdett, Kaii Norman and Liam O’Nuallain and Kaylan Von Papen partnering with William Pluss. Once again, there was some outstanding performance by the boys. Sheldon took out the Green Ball, winning two out of the three rubbers. It was an amazing performance by our Green Ball players, especially from Liam, who was up against Sheldon’s best Green Ball player. In the final match he displayed excellent tenacity and sportsmanship, with some incredibly shot making which got everyone on their feet.

Overall, Somerset took the win, winning four out of the six rubbers. Not only was it an amazing event, but it was great to see everyone getting behind each other, showing an endless amount of courage.

On behalf of the Somerset Coaching Team, we would like to thank the coaches, players and parents from Sheldon for coming down to our facilities, and making this event possible.