The Berkshire under 12 boys were drawn in a very tough group facing Oxfordshire, Middlesex, Hertfordshire and Bucks and the county event in Corby. The team selected included Elkan Dillon, Gregor Webster, James Okonow and Kushal Tandon.
The first day saw Berkshire lose 3 close singles matches against the favourites Middlesex with Gregor narrowly losing 5/3, 5/3 in a marathon encounter. The boys bounced back however to play some great tennis against Local rivals Oxfordshire in the next round with Elkan and Gregor pulling off 2 great singles wins. Unfortunately James had to retire his match through illness so the tie rested on the doubles. Elkan and Gregor were on top form again for the deciding doubles match and won comfortably 4/0, 4/2 giving Berskire their first win of the weekend.
Day 2 saw Kushal Tandon stepping in to take the place of James as Berkshire played Buckinghamshire in the morning match. Kushal played some brilliant tennis and came back from 3/0 down to take the first set 5/4 on a tie break. However the Bucks player managed to level the next set taking the opening match to a deciding Match tiebreak. Kushal however held his nerve and pulled of an outstanding win taking the tiebreak 10/8 to put Berks 1/0 up in the tie. Gregor then put Berkshire 2/0 up with a fantastic win over the Bucks number 2 player. Elkan then played some of his best tennis of the weekend against the Bucks number 1 with the match going to 3 sets; however he was not quite able to get over the line against his much higher ranked opponent. Elkan and Gregor were not quite able to pull of the same heroic doubles as the day before and lost a tough fort match against the Bucks boys. With the tie levelled at 2/2 the match was finely balanced on a doubles shootout decider. Unfortunately the Bucks boys managed to hold there nerve and won 10/7 to win the tie overall, a tough blow for the Berkshire boys.
The final match of the weekend saw the boys play Hertfordshire who were playing a very strong team. Elkan again put in an amazing performance against the Herts number 1 but lost another epic match narrowly losing in 3 sets. Gregor also came up just short in another marathon 3 hour match against Herts number 2. Kushal was also not able to claim that much needed match for Berkshire and the Herts came out the victors.
The boys played some fantastic tennis over the weekend, and were extremely close to pulling of victories against Bucks and Herts. It was a good weekend for Berkshire and some brilliant tennis to watch.
All match results can be found here - http://lta.tournamentsoftware.com/sport/teammatches.aspx?id=109A80A8-FD50-474C-91AF-7E9B9CE6D2A9&tid=2
Written by Jamie Mckinnon (Team Captain)