Royal Grammar School, High Wycombe - Tennis - Youll Cup Winners, 1963
The 1963 Youll Cup-winning team with the trophy - left to right - David Orchard, Maynard Panter, Peter Moores and Geoffrey Seale.
Reports from 'The Wycombiensian' [school magazine of Royal Grammar School, High Wycombe], September 1963, p518
LAWN TENNIS CLUB
The Youll Cup
At last we've done it. The Tennis team covered itself with glory on the tennis courts of Eton on Friday, August 2nd, 1963, when it defeated Charterhouse in the final of the Public Schools Lawn Tennis Association Youll Cup. The captain, David Orchard, and Peter Moores formed our 1st pair, and Geoffrey Seale and Maynard Panter the 2nd pair. They played good fighting tennis throughout the week and on the way to the final, defeated Abingdon, St. Paul's, Winchester, Marlborough and Bradfield.
It is true that as the Daily Telegraph tennis correspondent put it, "the team leaned heavily on Moores", but there were times during the week when each man played a vital part in the eventual victory.
Many years ago when we first entered a team for this competition, it was done purely for experience, but when Moores and Orchard appeared on the scene tennis entered a new era at the R.G.S. The winning of the Youll Cup now became a possibility and the standard of tennis improved rapidly. Last year Charterhouse beat us in the quarter-finals – this year we had a good draw and beat them in the final. The four boys played splendid tennis and were in every way a credit to the School.
A word of thanks is due to Mr. C. M. Haworth, who contributed in no small way to our victory. He looked after the team throughout the week, nursed them along during the very considerable tensions of such a hard-fought tournament, and the boys knew he was always there.
M.M.D. [Mervyn Mort Davies]
...
YOULL CUP
The 1963 knock-out competition organised by the Public Schools Lawn Tennis Association was held at Eton College instead of at Wimbledon, where the Davis Cup European finals were being played. Eighty-five schools fielded teams at the start of a week of gloriously hot weather: on Friday afternoon, August 2nd, the School team beat Charterhouse by three rubbers to two in an exciting final. Stowe's four-year run of success was ended, and the cup was brought to High Wycombe in triumph and Mr. Davies' venerable car. It was Charterhouse who had beaten us in the quarter-finals at Wimbledon last year.
In the previous rounds the School team had beaten Abingdon, St. Paul's, Winchester, Marlborough and Bradfield, and from the start of the competition they had looked to be possible winners. Our first pair, D. G. Orchard (captain) and P. J. Moores, had not lost a set in these five matches; but twice (against Winchester and Bradfield) the second pair, M. E. J. Panter and G. M. Seale, were beaten by the opposing second pair, so that each time Moores had to play and win a deciding singles match.
In the final round the situated was reversed: the strong first pair for Charterhouse got the better of Orchard and Moores after losing the first set. Their retrieving was magnificent, their defence solid and well planned. All seemed lost, for our second pair was thought by those who had been watching the earlier rounds to be too unsteady to have much chance of winning against Charterhouse II. To their great credit, Panter and Seale rose to the occasion. They won their first set and lost the second more or less unwatched, but when the match between the first pairs was over, the spectators moved over to their court in a body, and the tension increased. Both sides played cautiously, with much use of ballooned lobs and a wise reluctance to risk a full-blooded smash. From this nerve-racking ordeal our pair came out the winners by six games to three.
After the first pairs had beaten the second pairs, the score stood at two rubbers all, and everybody wondered whether R. M. C. Gilliat, an excellent all-round games player [Richard Gilliat - future Oxford University and Hampshire cricket captain], could hold his own again Moores. With a wonderful display of skill and controlled nerves, Moores reassured his delighted team-mates and supporters by winning in two sets, 6-3, 6-4, against a determined and intelligent opponent equipped with powerful ground shots.
Having had the pleasure of watching the team throughout the week, I know that the School has every reason to be proud of them and to congratulate the captain on his team's deserved success. The President of the P.S.L.T.A. [Ben Clark, president of the Public Schools’ Lawn Tennis Association] presented the team with the cup and gave each of the four players a silver spoon.
C.M.H. [Christopher Matthew Haworth]
My thanks to David Orchard for sending me the photos.
I've put full-sized versions of the two photos in a Flickr set with those of the 1964 Youll Cup winning team here.
List of Youll Cup winners, 1946-2019
