Division 1 at Bath University 28 February – 2 March 2014
Travelling squad: Alex Jhun, Andrew Watson, Samuel Kiladejo, Andrew Perrin, Joshua Pistorius, Freddie McGeehan, Lamar Bartley, Sacha Modica, Stefan Rhodes and Alistair Hobson.
Day 1 vs Warwickshire
Singles
- Alex Jhun
- Samuel Kiladejo
- Andrew Watson
- Freddie McGeehan
- Lamar Bartley
- Sacha Modica
Doubles
- Jhun/Watson
- Pistorius/Rhodes
- McGeehan/Modica
We thought we had a good chance of winning five points with this line-up against a solid but unspectacular Warwicks side but luck was against us from early on when Lamar pulled a calf muscle at 3-3 in the first set. He struggled on valiantly but the loss was inevitable against a tough opponent. Sacha having got off to a slow start came into his own by taking the second set tie break to give us hope of getting a crucial point but unfortunately he couldn’t quite get over the line and went down after a quick third set.
Freddie and Andrew got Surrey off the mark and leveled the match at 2-2 with commanding performances befitting of their hunger and desire to compete hard for Surrey!!
Samuel Kiladejo made his County Cup debut but came up against a stronger opponent and went down in straight sets after a good second set battle. With Surrey 2-3 down we were hoping for a banker victory from our no.1 Alex. The bad luck however, continued with Alex suffering from severe knee pain, which made pushing off from the corners very difficult and against a very strong opponent this was always going to be a tough task. Alex went down in two painful sets to leave Surrey 2-4 after the singles. We had wanted to be at least 3-3 at this stage knowing that we had at least two strong doubles pairings to come.
Jhun/Watson and McGeehan/Modica did indeed take care of business and get us to 4-4 but the rookie pairing of Pistorius/Rhodes did not have enough to win the deciding rubber.
RESULT: 4-5 Warwickshire
Day 2 vs Essex
Singles:
- Alex Jhun
- Samuel Kiladejo
- Joshua Pistorius
- Andrew Watson
- Freddie McGeehan
- Stefan Rhodes
Doubles
- Kiladejo/Pistorius
- Jhun/Watson
- McGeehan/Modica
Essex had been beaten comprehensively by Yorkshire on the previous day and so we knew that we had to get a win to keep our chances of survival and overall victory alive.
Stefan lost a close three setter and Freddie won in straight sets at no’s. 6 and 5 respectively. Andrew saw off his opposite number in two quick sets at no.4 and debutant Josh Pistorius from Sutton TA showed a big heart in seeing off a resilient Essex no.5, to put Surrey 3-1 up. Samuel had a tough ask against a very good Essex no.2 but Alex came back from his disappointment and pain from the previous day to win at no.1 – albeit with a lot of support from Mr. Ibuprofen!
Surrey 4-2 after the singles and feeling good. After losing two of three doubles in tight match tie-breaks, nerves were steadied by Jhun/Watson who ensured a Surrey victory in two clinical sets of doubles to give Surrey the 5-4 victory and close out day two. Warwicks beat Yorkshire 6-3 to guarantee a decisive last day.
Day 3 vs Yorkshire
Singles
- Alex Jhun
- Sanuel Kiladejo
- Joshua Pistorius
- Lawrence Perrin
- Freddie McGeehan
- Stefan Rhodes
Doubles
- Kiladejo/Pistorius
- Jhun/Rhodes
- Modica/McGeehan
We started the weekend knowing that Andrew Watson was off to Luxembourg for an ITF and would be missing from the Surrey line up on the Sunday, but what we didn’t expect was to be carrying so many injuries; which combined with the inexperience of our team meant that Yorkshire would be a tough ask……
Freddie’s hurt his back and struggled to a tough loss and Stefan gave everything but just came up short in our first two matches. Lawrence gave a good account of himself during his first U18s Surrey match but lost a tight three setter at no.4 and Josh had a hard time at no.4 despite doing his best. Samuel and Alex put up strong resistance at the top two singles positions but it just wasn’t to be and we were beaten before stepping onto a doubles court.
Warwickshire beat Essex to lift the 18s County Cup for the first time in 47 years and very well done to them for a strong performance over the three days. I did just wonder what would have happened if we had sneaked one of our ‘banker’ singles wins against them on the Fri and if we’d not had quite so much bad luck with injuries over the event – things may have been quite different – but there we go!!
Many thanks to all of the organisers and Bath Uni for hosting a great event and to our great Surrey support staff especially Tina for all of her hard work.
Jono Ward, our team coach tried his best to pull the boys to a place not many had been before but between us all we didn’t have enough quality to stay in Division One.
Good luck to the boys for the rest of the year and hope to see a couple of them in Danny’ men’s team in the summer
Thank you.
Justin Sherring
U18 Surrey Boys Team Manager