LTA Youth Schools Champions & Glanville Cup Winners: July 2025

The Glanville Cup - the most coveted prize in GB school tennis drew over 350 schools, with only 16 earning spots at the Finals in Nottingham on Saturday 28th June. Ewell Castle Tennis Academy (Years 5-13) entered three teams—A, B, and C—and made history with all three qualifying for the National Finals, an achievement never before accomplished and concluded in spectacular fashion as the Ewell Castle School A team were crowned National Champions.

The A Team entered as one of the seeded teams and dominated their draw, not dropping a single rubber - 12-0, 12-0, 12-0 - enroute to the final against Reed’s. Neo Armus and Ollie Page both secured early wins, and although we dropped one singles match, Isaac Forde delivered a masterclass performance, sealing a third win. The doubles proved to be a nail-biting finale. Isaac Forde and Jesse Clarkson were fighting it out on one court and behind them, Ollie Page and Taiju Yuto, played with ice-cool precision, eventually clinching the deciding rubber. Tennis Captain Harry McDonagh played three of the four matches with immense power and style, leading by example and always putting his heart on the line, only dropping one set. The competition ended with Ewell Castle crowned National Champions.

The B Team who narrowly missed progressing in the main draw won the consolation draw and finished 9th nationally. Congratulations to Alex Borisov, Ryan Iacob, Sammy Mhizha, Theo Turton, Edouard Gerard Hay-Brown, and Koko Atanassov.  The C Team, one of the youngest squads (Years 9–10), reached the top 8 nationally - a phenomenal effort. Huge congratulations to George Lobb, Freddie Pratt, Nicholas Kizys, Felix Hsieh, Yushin Ishii, and later Keiju Yuto, who joined fresh off a Tennis Europe victory in Edinburgh.

The Independent Schools Tennis (ISTA) National Tournament began at Eton the day after the Glanville Cup Final, with teams competing for the Youll Cup in the Final on Wednesday 2nd July.  Isaac Forde, Jesse Clarkson, Ollie Page and Taiju Yuto were brilliantly supported through the week by Theo Turton, George Lobb and Ryan Iacob. Yet again the Final was tight, but the boys from Ewell Castle came away victorious after a Final set shootout! The other Final was the 15U Thomas Bowl where we were able to field what can now be regarded as the strongest pair in the country; Keiju Yuto and Sammy Mhizha. On the hottest day of the year, these boys were made to play five sets of tennis in one day. They sailed through to meet and beat Repton 6-0, 6-2.

Liz McManus, Head of Ewell Castle Tennis Academy commented “Four trophies in eleven days, three of them national. It doesn't really get any better than that!”

The Glanville Cup - the most coveted prize in GB school tennis drew over 350 schools, with only 16 earning spots at the Finals in Nottingham on Saturday 28th June. Ewell Castle Tennis Academy (Years 5-13) entered three teams—A, B, and C—and made history with all three qualifying for the National Finals, an achievement never before accomplished and concluded in spectacular fashion as the Ewell Castle School A team were crowned National Champions.

The Glanville Cup - the most coveted prize in GB school tennis drew over 350 schools, with only 16 earning spots at the Finals in Nottingham on Saturday 28th June. Ewell Castle Tennis Academy (Years 5-13) entered three teams—A, B, and C—and made history with all three qualifying for the National Finals, an achievement never before accomplished and concluded in spectacular fashion as the Ewell Castle School A team were crowned National Champions.

Medals for England at the International Schools Federation U15 Gymnasiade in Serbia - April 2025

Students from Ewell Castle School in Surrey took home a silver and a bronze medal after representing England at the International Schools Federation U15 Gymnasiade event in Serbia.

The competition – an international multi-sport event for countries all over the world – featured 25 sports including tennis.

Ewell Castle were selected to represent England in the event after winning the LTA Youth Schools Year 7&8 competition last year.

The LTA Youth Schools Year 7&8 and Year 9&10 competition see schools from across Great Britain compete in local leagues before going on to knock-out stages, regional finals and then national finals.

Nicholas Kizys and Daniel Pratt took home the silver medal in the boys’ doubles event with a stellar run to the final before losing out to Chinese duo Yaoyu Yang and Junze Wu.

Meanwhile, Neo Armus reached the semi-finals of the boys’ singles before closing out a successful week with victory against Talha Bulut to clinch the bronze medal.

Congratulations to the whole team on a brilliant week competing against top opposition from around the world.

Coach: Tom Burn

Teacher: Liz McManus

Players:

Neo Armus
Keiju Yuto
Samuel Mhizha
Yushin Ishii
George Lobb
Darnay Hunnygen
Nicholas Kizys
Daniel Pratt

LTA YOUTH SCHOOLS - 1ST IN THE UK - BOYS FINAL YEAR END RANKINGS 2024

Ewell Castle A Team were #1 in GB and our B Team are ranked #10.  This is across all ages from Year 8 to Year 13 and was achieved by gaining points in the National final 18U, wining points for reaching the Southeast final for Years 9&10 and winning points for winning the Nationals at Years 7&8.

13U (YEARS 8 & 9) NATIONAL CHAMPIONS - 2nd December 2024

Many congratulations to the U13 Boys (Years 8 and 9) Ewell Castle Tennis Team on winning the LTA Schools Tennis Championships. With over two thousand schools entered, they played 17 fixtures to reach the last four schools in the UK and overcame the final three schools over this weekend at the Bolton Arena.  An incredible achievement reflecting their many hours of hard training.