UH Take Top Tennis Titles
Edward Norman
Guest Writer
The All England Lawn Tennis Club was the spectacular venue for the annual United Hospitals Tennis Club AGM midway through October. Members of all five London medical schools were in attendance for the evening during which the UH Challenge Cup, UH Mixed Doubles Shield and MPS Mixed Doubles Cup were presented to the teams. There were over 50 students in attendance and some alumni also turned up to help support the event. It was the first AGM to be held at The All England Lawn Tennis Club and it encouraged a big turn out from across the medical schools.
The evening started with the students regaling stories of the last 12 months of UH antics over a drinks reception in the Champion’s Room inside Centre Court. The night then got underway with the previous year’s committee, headed by Zain Juma, giving its report on the highly successful year. UH Tennis Club has flourished getting more students involved in both the matches and socials. 2011 also saw a number of training sessions held to help the team try and get more competitive before the season commenced. Over the year the UH side played matches against Kenton Lawn Tennis Club, Cambridge Grasshoppers and the President’s Match which took place on the grass at Wimbledon shortly after the Championships had finished.
After the reports from the committee the presentation of the UH league champions’ was made. Every summer the UH leagues take place with each medical school playing each other and the top two advancing to the final. This year it was ICSM vs St. George’s in the mixed final and ICSM vs RUMS in the men’s. ICSM managed to do the double, winning both the men’s and mixed doubles’ titles. The trophies were presented by Professor Mortimer, a former UH champion with Barts, to the winning captains, Edward Norman and Beth Nally. The MPS Mixed Doubles Cup, which took place in November 2010 was won by the RUMS team of Robin Vasan and Katie Groom.
The election of the next year’s committee took place with a large number of candidates standing, who represented all five medical schools. Robin Vasan was elected the men’s captain and Hannah Kirk was elected the women’s captain. Dave Hillier was appointed secretary and Katie Groom social secretary. The newly elected committee is now busy planning the 2011 MPS Mixed Doubles Cup taking place at Westway on 20th November. The tournament is a whole day of tennis followed by a meal and night out and is an UH Tennis Club tradition having taken place since the 1980s.
Other plans for the year ahead include holding more training sessions;; the reintroduction of the UH women’s league and the rediscovery of the tennis players at GKT. With the new committee elected it looks set that UH Tennis will continue to expand and build on over 124 years of history.
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