Page 182 - AGC Journal 2018

AGC JOURNAL 2018
Tennis
An Exciting Year
By Lieutenant Martin Evans
Between Inter Corps match ups and one day events, our Corps
Championships and coaching sessions, our representation on the Army’s
Inter Services team and Stewarding at Wimbledon and those lucky few
invited to train with the Army team in Spain, Corps Tennis has served up a
full calendar this year.
Corps Championships
Sunhat, sun cream, water bottle were the
regularly emphasised, key points that opened
the glorious four days that were the Corps Tennis
Championships. With 19 entrants from across
the Corps, these were the second Corps Tennis
Championships since their revival following a
15 year hiatus. Unfortunately, any existing Corps
Tennis trophies had been lost in the mists of time.
Many hours were spent sifting through the ‘silver
vaults’ in Worthy Down to identify some suitable
pieces. We are proud to say that we now have
three very smart Corps Tennis trophies as follows:
• Men’s Singles – a Royal Army Pay Corps tennis
trophy called the Musson Challenge Cup.
• Ladies’ Singles – a Women’s Royal Army Corps
trophy.
• Open Doubles – a Royal Army Educational Corps
tennis trophy.
Coaching
Building on last year’s success, more participants
competed, which was perhaps also reflective
of the Corps team’s successes through the year.
The Championships started with a much needed
coaching session from one of the Army coaches.
This provided those with rusted potential to
dust off the cobwebs, those new to the sport to
make quick progress, and the seasoned veterans
to be put in their place and reminded of the
fundamentals: ‘Footwork to die for, racquet work
to die from’ being one of my favourite lines. The
mix of experiences created a great atmosphere
around the Championships of competition and
coaching from the more experienced players,
contributing to the identification of talent and the
espirit de corps from the Championships.
The Winners
The next day, the Championships started in
Men’s Singles earnest with the Men’s Singles, Ladies’ Singles,
Champion Novice Singles, and Open Doubles brackets, and
Corporal one keen individual participating in three of the
Taraman four tournaments. All brackets largely centred
Gurung on a round robin to maximise everyone’s playing
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Ladies’
Singles
Champion
Major Charlie
Cherry
time. After a lot of tennis (and lasagne) we came
to the semi finals and finals, in which an incredibly
close encounter in the Novice Singles Final saw
Corporal Pravin Rai narrowly beat Lance Corporal
Mark Langman 10-8 in the final tie breaking set.
The Ladies’ Singles final was won by Major Charlie
Cherry, whilst Corporal Taraman Gurung absolutely
blew away all comers en route to winning the Men’s
Singles title. This set up an enticing Open Doubles
final, which saw Ladies’ Champion Major Charlie
Cherry team up with Major Greig Taylor to take on
the team of Men’s Champion Corporal Taraman
Gurung and Captain (now Major) Amy Roberts.
In the end, the team of Major Amy Roberts and
Corporal Taraman Gurung was just too strong.
Inter Corps League
Ladies Representation on the Army Inter Services Team; Major Amy In the Army Lawn Tennis Association’s Summer
Roberts, Major Charlie Cherry and Corporal Hannah Bacon with League our Corps team sought to consolidate their
Lieutenant Colonel Jason Hurndall promotion and position in the A League against
the heavy hitting teams of the much larger Corps. It
came down to the last match, with four out of the
six teams in the division playing for survival. I am
delighted to inform you that the Corps will again
be competing in the A League for the 2018 winter
season.
Army Teams
The successes of the Corps team are emphasised by
the number of our players who have turned out to
represent the Army over the past year. Along with
Major Charlie Cherry who captains the Army Ladies’
team, Major Greig Taylor, Major Clare Griffiths,
Major Amy Roberts, Corporal Hannah Bacon and
Corporal Taraman Gurung have all been involved in
Army Tennis, which is a huge achievement.
Call to Arms
Many thanks to all those who turned out for the
Corps this year, and to those who attended the
Corps Championships. Going forward, we intend
to grow Corps Tennis further by creating more
Open Doubles Champions opportunities for everybody to get involved. The
Corporal Taraman Gurung intention is to start hosting Corps coaching days
and Major Amy Roberts through the year at various locations around the
country.
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