Chapter 3
Here I am in my first term of sixth form at Benenden, a very well regarded and expensive school for girls of good breeding. Why my parents decided that it was for me is too far out of left field for me to contemplate. I, a child of two middle-class office workers, sharing a room with the daughters of a peer and top lawyer.
Lucky for me that I was brainier than they were and could help them in the class work that we shared. Neither would be any good with Further Maths. The other lucky thing was that I had proven, somehow, to be a good opponent on the tennis court, which really surprised me as I had never played before arriving here.
Over the first couple of weeks of term, I had developed a regular habit of getting a run on the track or working out in the fully equipped gym, mainly building my leg and upper body strength. Weekdays were for classwork and study; weekends were exercise and as many games of tennis as I could find. My speed on court, combined with my stronger arms were a great help. As I played, one other of my skills came into focus.
My ability to think ahead of the play kicked in as I played opponents more than once. I could begin to predict their shots, just as I used to be able to predict the moves of back line players in football matches. I was building up a memory of their ‘tells’ when they were trying to set up a winning shot.
The school was to be my home, and I began to feel that it was just that as I got to know the other girls and the teachers. By just being here, my past wasn’t questioned. The fact that I had only arrived to do the Advanced courses wasn’t out of the ordinary, as there were several others from overseas who had come to get the schooling before going on to finishing schools across the world.
One thing that they did do that wasn’t expected, was to kick you out for one or two weekends a term. They were called exeats. The first one was coming up and I asked the other girls what they usually did. They knew that I didn’t have a car, which meant that a parent would need to come and pick me up.
Geraldine went into our bathroom with her phone, coming back with a grin.
“You’re in luck, Alice. My folks will be home that weekend. You can come and stay with us. We have our own tennis court but can go to the club if the weather’s good. Father will probably be going to play a round of golf.”
So, on my first experience of an exeat, I was sitting in the passenger seat of her BMW on the Friday evening, on the way to Godalming, in Surrey. As we got further from the school, the more relaxed she became. We talked a bit and then she put the radio on to a pop station. There was a song that we both liked, and we sang along with it at the top of our voices. For me, this was another new experience, being happy with another girl that I would never have expected to know. Perhaps my mother was right, and she could be the first name in my contact book.
Her home was large and welcoming. Her family were smiling and happy to see the two of us. I had my own room with ensuite. I went to bed after dinner and a talking session with Geraldine and her mother, her father going to his study to read up on a case.
In the morning, we two were in our tennis outfits with our bags for racquets, bottled water and towels, plus a new outfit for lunch. Her father took us to the West Surrey Golf and Tennis Club, where he had a round booked with his friends and we had a two-hour court booking for ten-thirty. We sat and watched others play while commenting on their skills. About ten, a guy came over and said hello to Geraldine.
“I see that you’ve bought a visitor, Geraldine.”
“Yes, Tony. We’re at school together and play regularly. I think that we’re about even on wins, but we don’t keep count.”
“You must be good, Miss. Geraldine was the Junior Champion here.”
“I really don’t know how good I am. I only took the game up in the week before term started.”
“That’s interesting. I’ll watch you playing. Have you ever played doubles?”
“A few times with the other girls.”
“I’ll see how well you two are and put together a couple of opponents, if you don’t mind, Geraldine.”
“That could be fun, Tony.”
When he left, she spoke quietly.
“When he sees you play, he’ll get a couple of the adult women doubles players to test us out. I’ve seen him do it before. Hold back a bit on your serve and we’ll have a ding-dong match, best of three games of six sets, OK?”
When we were called to a vacant court, we warmed up with five minutes of serving and hitting. I could see Tony and a few others watching. She served for the first set, which she won six four. We got into our match and ended up with her winning two – one, with the last point giving her the win.
Tony brought a couple of women onto the court and Geraldine gave me a wink. I was introduced to them, and we tossed for first serve, which we won. As we stood at one end, she grinned.
“These two are the current ladies doubles champions. You take first serve and unleash your power.”
Tony called play and I served at full power, my first for the day. It surprised everyone except the two of us. We took the first set to love. In the end we won the match on a tiebreaker in the third game. We had gone way over our allotted time on the court and there was quite a crowd watching as the game had progressed and there was some applause when we took the win. Geraldine hugged me before we went to shake hands with our opponents.
We went for a shower and dressed for lunch, Geraldine bubbly with her happiness at our win. We had lunch with her father, who had finished his round in time to see our last game, and Tony, who was very serious. He wanted us to enter the regular county championships, but we had to tell him that school came first, which made her father happy. By the time we finished lunch, her father had agreed to fund us to spend a week of the half-term, in October, with Tony giving us further coaching.
Later, back at the house, I tried to get him to take my payment for my part of the week.
“No way, Alice. This is the first time I’ve met you and you’ve impressed me. Geri has told me how you help her out with some subjects, and I’ve seen how you two get along so naturally. I’d rather help you, while helping her play better. We had that Clementine here a couple of times last year. Snooty little minx who thinks that her looks will give her a career. You’re welcome here whenever you like.”
Sunday, we all attended the Godalming Minster church, and I was taken with the stained-glass windows, made by William Morris, and tuned the sound out. I was absorbing the ability to appreciate beauty that I had resisted in my early years. After lunch, we were back on the tennis courts.
This time, we were both guests of the ladies we had beaten yesterday. Geraldine drove us there as her father needed to get back to London and his apartment for an early call at the Old Bailey. We played singles, on separate courts, in earnest. They were out for revenge.
It was a hard workout for both of us. Geraldine went down with two tiebreakers, while I won against my opponent, six-four in the last game. After we had redressed, we met up in the main clubhouse, where I found out that both of the ladies had played in pro-am competitions. My opponent, June, losing in the first round of this year’s Wimbledon as a qualifier. She promised to help me when we came back for further coaching, as she said that there were a few things that I could improve on with my serve.
We went back to school that evening, after an early dinner, both getting hugs from her mother. We sang along with the radio on the way, laughing at our interesting weekend. That next week, I found out where Geraldine had been spending two evenings during the week. She had been playing drums with a group of girls and dragged me along to try out as a singer.
It turned out to be a good time and I was invited to join the group. They had been a straight foursome, with the bass player doing the main singing. I was given a sheaf of lyrics to get acquainted with and told that we would be playing at a social before the end of term, in the last week of November and before the exam week.
I was coming to realise that being a full-time boarder was what made the difference. We didn’t get distracted by outside influences and stayed in the bubble of study. I wondered if this was how the girls trained to be full-time society wives and mothers. It certainly worked towards all of us keeping up our academic standards.
When the half-term holiday arrived, Geraldine and I had bigger bags for a week away. I had bought two extra tennis outfits in Benenden colours. We left on Saturday morning and took it easy until Monday at the club. Over that week, we both improved our game. Geraldine worked on her volley game and was urged to study her opponent as they played, to predict plays. I worked on my serve for the first two days until my arms were tired. It appeared that I was a little loose in my stature and needed to make my body like a coiled spring as I tossed the ball up. The rest of the time, I was introduced to creating spin. At school level, nobody used it.
At the end of the week, we played the same doubles pair again on Saturday afternoon, with a crowd watching, including Geraldines’ parents. We won in straight sets, which pleased her folks and made me realise just how much better we were both playing. That was the last weekend of the season, as the courts were de-netted for the winter. At school, outside play was also suspended, with just a single indoor court set up in the gym for the few tragics to keep playing.
With less tennis, it was more classwork and singing. Running was out, with gym work and a treadmill taking its place. On the exeat weekend before the social, Geraldine and I joined the other three band girls in London to look for simple outfits for our performance.
We went up to the city on the Friday evening. I was glad that she knew the way, as I was hopelessly lost as soon as we got to the outskirts. Up until now, the closest I’d been to the big smoke had been a weekend in Canterbury with the high school. The apartment tower had a car park in the basement, and she had the pass code to get in. The family apartment had two spaces, with her fathers’ Bentley in one.
In the apartment, I was staggered at how big it was. I had a room to myself, looking out the window to see the lights of the Shard along the river. As it was just her father here, dinner was take away, delivered. I had protested often enough about paying my share to keep the peace.
Breakfast was continental style which didn’t need a lot of washing up. We left on foot to meet the other girls, walking across Blackfriars Bridge and alongside the river, past Kings College and then into Covent Garden. The others had already been around and had declared that most of the other shops were too expensive, too good for the stage, or too tailored. We met with them outside of the Free People store.
I wasn’t certain, as most of the stock looked like something from a middle eastern bazaar. There was, however, a rack of lightweight dresses that looked like long, cape-sleeved tee shirts. They went from black to white with a number of other colours. As I was to be out front, I preferred the orange but was overridden and ended up with white one. Lucy, the lead guitar, chose the orange, while Tina and Martina, the bass and rhythm, went with light green and light blue. Geraldine took the red.
We all changed into one each and stood in a line in front of a mirror to check ourselves out. It wasn’t over the top or overdressed and silver tights would look rock and roll with all of them. We each bought two of the dresses. It was almost a strange experience, going girl shopping and taking close to the first thing we’d seen.
We walked past a number of other stores and then kept on going until we reached Carnaby Street. There, in a shop called Office, we found reasonably priced plain tan trainers at fifty percent discount.
I had been wearing a sweatband as my hair got longer, to keep it from falling in front of my eyes as I played tennis. In Carnaby Street, I saw a shop selling hair products and there, in the window, were a number of springy plastic things that would do the same thing, so I said that I was going to get a range, as they were cheap enough. The girls followed me in and browsed. The assistant asked what I was looking for, so I pointed at them.
“Ah, you want some Alice bands. They are good any time of the day, in colours that match a range of dresses. I’ll do you a special price if you take a dozen assorted.”
Lucy laughed and called to the others.
“Girls, we’ve been trying to find a good name for the group. We have Alice out front now, wearing one of these. If we wear them as well, we can just call ourselves ‘Alice Band’.”
We all bought a dozen each, which made the lass happy. Then we found a hosiery shop and got the silver tights. After that, we went to the Flat Iron for an expensive steak meal. With a group hug we parted company, with the two of us walking back towards the river, across Waterloo Bridge and back to the apartment, stopping to put our purchases in the car before going up to the apartment.
Seeing that it was so close to the end of term, we had bought some books with us to revise. We did that for the rest of the afternoon. The two of us had a light meal as her father came out of his bedroom looking statesmanlike for a Chambers Dinner. That evening, we watched one of her collection of Genesis concerts, followed by another of an Eagles show. I could see that she liked bands where the drummer is a lead singer. After a light breakfast, we left her father snoring and packed the car to go home. The apartment was serviced, so I was told to leave the room as is.
We drove back to school, almost ready to see the term out. We stopped at a market and bought gifts for Christmas, getting gift wrap to finish them off. Before we got to the evening of the social, we had gone through the whole show one evening in our outfits, with some girls from the drama class filming us for posterity. That’s when I discovered that the social was truly social, with an influx of lads from a partner boys school. The evening of the show was a wonderful experience. We had played our music with a couple filming, but it was another thing to play in front of several hundred.
We were the plainest dressed in the whole place. The rest of the school were in their finery, with the older girls sporting diamonds. The lads were from a similarly high-class school, so were all well-dressed and polite guests. The evening started with tables loaded with finger food and tureens of fruit drinks. We mingled with the others and then congregated with our sixth form friends, telling any boys who wanted to book a dance that we were the band.
When most of the food had gone, the tables were taken away, rubbish picked up, and we went up on the stage to start the entertainment. Geraldine had cut pieces of plastic sticky back to put ‘Alice Band’ on her bass drum in the same colours as our dresses. We were on stage for nearly three hours, in forty-minute segments with breaks. We had a lot of fun, played better than we had before, and my throat held out, but only just. I was croaking a bit on the Sunday and sucking lozenges.
After that weekend, we were in serious mode for the term exams and getting ready for the Christmas holiday after that. Mum would be picking me up on the Saturday, while my room mates would be leaving on Friday afternoon. The exams took place with the usual quiet desperation of students knowing that this could be the point of no return if you flop. The Wednesday, Thursday and Friday after that, however, were set aside for individual meetings with teachers, to learn what we needed to do better with in the Spring Term. After Geraldine had been seen, she came back and gave me a big hug, thanking me for my help. Clementine merely thanked me with a peck on the cheek. When it was my turn, on Friday morning, I went into the office and took the seat as offered.
“Miss McConnell. I have to congratulate you on many fronts. We took a chance admitting you with your background, but not only have you been an excellent student, you’ve integrated into our student body as if you were born a princess, of which we’ve seen more than a few. You’ve made a lot of friends here without dropping your excellent scores, even with the large number of subjects that you’ve taken on. Keep on like this, and I can see you graduating as one of our best girls.”
“Thank you, Miss. This has been a wonderful experience and a lot more fun than I had expected.”
“On top of that, other activities are classed as co-curriculum. Your input to the band at the social has been noted, with all five of you getting high marks for what was a very professional performance.”
“Thank you, Miss. It was a lot of fun for us, as well. I can’t see me going back on the stage after I leave here.”
“Nevertheless, the Alice Band will be called on over the next few years for other events. We do go to socials in other schools. Now, the PE teachers have remarked about your training.”
“It’s to help with my tennis, Miss. I only took it up before the start of term but seem to have a talent for it. I enjoy playing, and I enjoy the competitive nature of the sport.”
“We have been contacted by Geraldines’ father. He has been spoken to by the professional at the West Surrey Club. They have asked if you can be given a special dispensation towards the end of next June, along with Geraldine. They want to enter the two of you into the Eastbourne Tournament, which is a qualifying event for entering the qualifying days for Wimbledon. It will mean both of you having to take the exams in the days after the exeat in mid-June. If you don’t qualify, you’ll come back to school for the last couple of weeks. If you do, term will be over while you’re playing. Geraldine has agreed to this.”
“No wonder she gave me a big hug, Miss. I’ll agree, if it works for the school as well.”
“Alice, if we have a couple of our girls in the first-round doubles at Wimbledon, it will make a lot of very influential girls very happy, including the Princess Royal. If either of you are in the singles, it will be a first for Benenden.
“No pressure then, Miss.”
“We have discussed this, and there is an extra incentive. If you qualify for the first round in either the singles or the doubles, there will be a ten percent reduction in fees for the rest of your time here. For every win, another ten percent comes off. Would that help?”
“It would make me happier, Miss. I was shocked when I found out how much this was costing my parents. I’ll have to find out if I need to stay amateur or go pro to qualify.”
“Geraldine said the same thing. She will find out and let you know before the local season starts.”
“That would be good. If we do get in, it’s going to mess with our future education.”
“Only if you let it, Alice. You’re bright enough to take the odd couple of weeks to play enough tournaments to keep you ranking. The Tour is really only a small number of Grand Slams and regular WTA events. Most of the other players burn themselves out with the regional events to make money. You’ll have the skills and the contacts to make your own way without tennis, if you have to.”
When I left the office, I went and sat by a window, looking out over the park-like grounds as others came and went, until Lucy came out and sat down beside me.
“Well, Alice. This is a funny situation we’ve got ourselves into. We turned a bit of fun into marks towards our passes. I expect that Geraldine was happy.”
“She was so happy, she couldn’t tell me why. I thought that she was pleased that a few of her subjects had improved. The two of us are going to have a long talk before she leaves, that’s for sure.”
We both stood and hugged.
“Merry Christmas, Lucy. Are you getting a new guitar for Christmas?”
“That has been asked for, something vintage and very expensive. Merry Christmas to you, Alice. It’s truly a pleasure to know you.”
“You too, Lucy. Give my love to Tina and Martina when you see them.”
“You too, when you see Geraldine.”
We strolled back towards the Beeches, waving to Clementine as she drove off without looking at us. I saw Geraldine packing her car so gave Lucy a hug then walked over.
“I’ve just had one hell of a shock, Geraldine.”
“Which one, the Alice Band success or the tennis. I thought that was a wind-up before it sunk in. In six months’, we’ll be working our butts off to do what’s been asked. I’m going to have a good talk to my father when I get home, setting us up like that without asking.”
“I’m told that you agreed.”
“Of course, I bloody agreed. One would have to be stupid to miss a chance to play Wimbledon! I’m just mad that they dragged you in as well. You’re not even a member of a club, for goodness sake!”
“That can be rectified, couldn’t it.”
“It takes a nomination and a vote, plus there’s a fee.”
“So?”
“Don’t tell me that you agreed as well.”
“How could we play in the doubles if there’s only one of you.”
She shrieked and hugged me so hard that I thought my ribs would break. A few of the other girls, walking past, gave us odd looks. One called out.
“When’s the wedding?”
We were laughing too much to answer.
That night, alone in the room, I thought about the first term in such a remarkable school. I had a dream where I was standing on centre court while the world number one was being handed the trophy. When I looked around, expecting to see the other ball-girls, I discovered that I was standing alone, with my own trophy at my feet.
Marianne Gregory © 2026