Fourth Year Triumphs at Trebizon by ANNE DIGBY

Author:ANNE DIGBY [DIGBY, ANNE]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Tags: Fiction
ISBN: 9781899587247
Publisher: STRAW HAT
Published: 2011-07-14T16:00:00+00:00

NINE

FILMING CONTINUES

Rebecca had discovered the significance of the county closed tournament around about the middle of June. It had come as a very great surprise to her.

The conversation with Joss Vining had come as a shock!

Both girls had filled in all their results on special forms provided and submitted them to the Lawn Tennis Association for their LTA ranking to be updated. These had to be in by the 12th of June and, after the computer had done its work, they knew they could then expect to receive their new rankings early in July.

'You've done very well so far, Rebecca, but you won't yet have reached the top 32 in your age group!' Mrs Ericson had informed her. 'If you had, you'd be almost certain to be accepted for Eastbourne. But of course they accept 48 entries in total and I believe you stand a chance of being amongst those 16 acceptances that don't come off the computer.'

After taking the top 32 off the computer, it appeared that the selectors took all sorts of other factors into consideration when picking a further 16 girls to bring the entry up to its full 48. Sometimes players had not entered important tournaments which scored high under the computer ranking rules – but in official LTA fixtures, such as county matches, had one or two notable victories which the selectors could not ignore. Or they might be previously top ranking players who'd lost form through illness or injury, only to find it again in the nick of time.

So in selecting the field for Eastbourne it was the best results right up to July 2nd, the closing date for entry forms, that mattered – not by any means just the summer rankings, which would by then be to hand but were not regarded as infallible.

Around about the middle of June, coming back in the school minibus from an away match (where Rebecca and Joss had enjoyed a very exciting doubles victory against Helenbury's first pair), Joss was a little more relaxed and talkative than usual.

Rebecca had long given up asking Joss for a match, but now – in a roundabout way – the other girl raised it herself.

'I gather you took the champion to three sets at half-term,' she said, giving Rebecca a sidelong glance. Joss usually sat in the single seat behind the driver on these journeys but on this occasion Trisha Martyn had grabbed it, she was in the middle of exams and wanted to read through her A level history notes. So Joss was sitting next to Rebecca, at the back. 'That must have felt good.'

'It did,' said Rebecca.

'Look, Rebecca, I'm sorry we haven't had a proper match yet,' said Joss. 'But it doesn't seem worth it now. It's not very long till the county closed and everybody seems to think we'll meet each other in the final. It'll be played according to LTA rules and will really count for something. It's going to be very important, I think.'

'You mean for me? For Eastbourne?' asked Rebecca.

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