Results:
v Warwickshire Lost 1-3
v Northamptonshire Won 4-0
v Leicestershire Lost 1-3
v Lincolnshire Lost 1-3
Team: (from left to right) Dan Blackburn, James Wood, Cameron Ravenscroft , Harry Harold-Vaux with captain Dan MacShane
Captain's report:-
We had a very tough opening battle against the eventual winners – Warwickshire. The boys went out excited and played very well. The opening sets of all 4 matches were great tennis and it could have gone either way. Unfortunately on the day Warwickshire remained too strong and our best attempts from the boys to break them down fell short.
In our second match we came out strong and quite obviously the boys had put their past matches behind them. We took all 4 rubbers in this match against Northamtonshire and everyone showed great fighting spirit after having been so disappointed in the last round.
In our 3rd match there was a little rivalry from a close county – Leicestershire. They had a tough team out and a competitive and focused attitude among them - they were out to beat us. Team Notts, came out strong with Dan fighting like I’d never seen him before. He made his team proud, although sadly his tough opponent got the better of him this time. The highlight of this match was taken by Cameron, who showed incredible fighting spirit and focus, belief in his game and undeniable will to find a way to win. He won 11-9 in the 3rd set tie break against a very tough opponent who just didn’t have enough for Cam on the day. Our boy was just too tough. Well done Cameron.
Our last match against Lincolnshire was another long and tough match. It was the end of the weekend and Nottingham were ready to go out and fight harder than ever. There spirits were up, but their bodies were tired. With all our efforts in the singles we only took one. Cameron once again showed great spirit and fight to go on a win 4-2 4-1. Sadly this was our only win of the day.
In summary this was a very tough weekend for the boys. As Captain, I was incredibly proud of Nottingham U12’s. They came out with passion, fight and determination in every match, and although the matches did not always end in our favour, the attitudes of the four boys were amazing throughout the whole weekend. I was a very tired, but proud captain.
Dan MacShane