The Girls qualified again this year for the Finals of the Aegon U&12 County Cup in Bolton. Here comes our 5 hour drive. Well done Scott!
After a good practice session on the friday but without 2 of our strongest players, due prior commitments, it was going to be a tough task to win the event. This was our original goal and to initially receive a favourable seeding position.
Hence we drew Surrey the number 1 seeds in the first match ! However, we still had a strong side, but faced a Surrey team with 2 top 10 players in their lineup. We eventually lost 3-1 after a spirited win by Hannah and India in the doubles, whilst Hannah had equally impressed after a close loss in the singles . So now playing for positions 5 to 8 we wanted to come 5th and were now facing Leicestershire. Hannah again unlucky in the singles after losing a 3rd set tie break at position 1, set the team up for a great fight back. India and Emily both competed admirably in their matches, producing very solid, hard fought, nerve biting victories which set us up for a convincing win in the doubles. So our last match was against the East of Scotland and again a good competitive match for Hannah playing the highy ranked Alexandra Hunter, saw a great match that was narrowly lost in the match tie break. India came good again with another very polished performance and a rubber win for team Avon. Emily also a good solid performance but lost a very competitive 3rd set tie break after having match points. This time a good doubles performance from India and Hannah saw them lose tightly to the Scots, so a loss of 3-1 in that match but a very competitive match.
Surrey did in fact go on to win the title, so we can argue we had a tough draw.
However, without 2 of our strongest players the girls did remarkably well and most importantly were very competitive throughout, finishing 6th in the Country . Well done girls!!
Team:
Hannah Davies
Emily Thomas
India Britland
Report by Team Captain: Martyn Bray