The journey for this year’s Lancashire girls’ team, consisting of Holly Clark, Holly Staff, Lily Hutchings, Madeline Frediani and Natalie Flinn, began at Chatsworth Tennis Club in Carlisle over the weekend May 2nd/3rd/4th.
On day one Lancashire’s first opponents were Cumbria; the girls had an extremely fast start winning comfortably in each singles position and continued in the same dominant manner for the doubles, making the final score 6-0 to Lancashire. After a quick lunch break the team faced the second county of the day, South of Scotland, in the doubles rubbers. Again, a confident and energetic Lancashire team came away with two wins and more importantly a 2-0 lead going into the singles matches on day two.
The following morning, however, proved to be very frustrating with the weather delaying play till the afternoon. When the courts were finally cleared as fit, Maddy and Lily swiftly got back down to business and claimed both rubbers to complete the result for Lancashire as a 4-0 win; our other singles not needing to play.
In the final of the qualifying rounds on Day 3 Lancashire’s opponents were Yorkshire, a very strong team all the way through the line-up but the Lancashire girls were excited and determined to fight right to the end. From the start the matches were tight and looked like they could go either way. Maddy Frediani at No 4 singles finally forged ahead to clinch Lancashire’s first win over Abigail Wild. Meanwhile Natalie Flinn at No 3 was battling it out against Amber Woffindin and was unlucky to just fall short this time in a three set marathon. Holly Staff was next to finish at No 2 singles putting on an impressive display to take down Leona Clarkson 6-3 6-1. Holly Clark at No 1 position faced Elli Chawner, another tight match with Yorkshire taking the first set 6-4. But Holly managed to dig that bit deeper producing some excellent tennis to take the second and third sets 6-1 and give Lancashire a fantastic 3-1 lead. Going into doubles the girls were confident but it was by no means over as Yorkshire came out firing and won at No 2 doubles. The aggressive play from duo Clark and Staff at No 1 doubles proved too much for their opponents and gave Lancashire the win over Yorkshire and a well-deserved passport through to the finals weekend at Nottingham. Final score: 4-2 Lancashire.
Over the weekend the girls showed tremendous spirit and professionalism, each one playing their part- a massive team effort! The team could now look forward to the finals event over the weekend of 16th/17th/18th May. WELL DONE GIRLS!
Danielle Hock