James Ardley Shines at the Snows Thorndon Tennis Club Winter Junior Tournament

Thorndon Tennis Club is a venue for all ages, located in Chandlers Ford. It is Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) affiliated and Tennismark accredited, with a range of membership packages available, so it’s no surprise that it’s a popular destination amongst tennis players. Snows proudly sponsors the Club, and it’s always great to hear about how the next generation of tennis champions is getting along.

On the weekend of 19th and 20th December 2015, the Snows Thorndon Tennis Club (TTC) Winter Junior Tournament took place, beginning at 9am on Saturday. A range of talented players took part, but on-the-scenes reporter Bill Chatterton noted that two performances by James Ardley were “the highlights of the weekend”. Take a look below to see how the weekend panned out.

Snows is a proud sponsor of Thorndon Tennis Club, which caters to all ages and abilities.

Match Report

Saturday 19th

The Girls were represented by Magda Korniczjuk, Jocelyn Kwan, and Nakshatra Sridhar. Magda played her way to the final, but was beaten by Alanda Unitt from David Lloyd 3-5, 4-5, and so went home with the still impressive title of runner-up. Without a win in the round robin stage, Jocelyn and Nakshatra ended up playing against each other for 6th place, which Jocelyn won comfortably. Her experience showed, as this had been the first ever competitive tennis for Nakshatra.

Meanwhile, James represented the Boys alongside Milan Bharadia, Leo Gamon, and Freddie Swan. He won the final, beating his opponent Rory Penrose 4-0, 5-3. Milan just lost his first round match, but did go on to win the Consolation. Leo won his first (second round) match but then came up against James Ardley. Similarly to Nakshatra, Freddie was new to tournament tennis, having only started to train at Thornden in September. But he did get the chance to play in one match and participated in some unofficial games too.

Sunday 20th

Sunday began with four boys in the Under18 tournament, but sadly there were no girls because Madga was playing at David Lloyd. James Ardley, Felix de Merode, Tom Flynn, and Leon Chatterton all took part with gusto. James began well, beating a higher-rated opponent 4-5, 4-2, 10-5. Felix lost 0-4, 1-4 to the number one seed, and Tom was beaten 0-4, 2-4. It was Leon’s first tournament since injury, and he fell to the number two seed at 0-4, 0-4.

The semi-final saw James triumph over Sam Hunt 4-2, 4-2, earning his place in the final. Tom beat Felix 4-0, 4-0, and Leon managed to take a game in each set but eventually went into the 7th:8th play-off with Felix.

In the final, luck finally ran out for James, as he lost 0-4, 1-4 – albeit to a much older player! Tom won the Consolation 4-2, 5-3, and Felix beat Leon 4-1, 5-4. Meanwhile, Moly Walsh won over Jasmine Williams 4-1, 4-0. Congratulations to all who took part.


Posted on 05/01/2016 by Snows in with no comments