Avon boys do Bolton 14/15 June.
We all arrived in Bolton on a Friday, went in the hotel pool and played tag. Then at six o'clock we went down to the arena for our training session. We had a small physical warm up, then went into rallying in the service boxes then back to the baseline. We had some point practice, then went into to a doubles match and then before we knew it, the next balls we would hit was the next day in the county cup national finals.
The day came when we walked from the Bolton football stadium to the Bolton sports arena. When we arrived there were all ready some counties warming up in the car park and on the pavement, we could all feel the pressure that was about to unfold on us.
Our first matches were against Surrey and soon enough James Vincent our number one was called on the court to play Finn Doyle. This was a comfortable win for James the result was 4-04-1. Then Henry Thomas our number two was next to play surrey’s number two Raffeilo Papicech. It was a tough match for Henry just losing. Next it was Arthur Yirrell who was playing Muhktar Andho, yet again a tough match and just losing.
The next county of the day was Hertfordshire, James had the challenging match of Olivier Tarvet in the top five of the country. James was in control at the start but then gradually Olivier grew in pain and had to retire. We all thought it would be a breath taking match but turned out to be an easy match for James. Next was Henry again against the number two ( name unknown ) but he was just too good for Henry and he lost that match. Next again was Arthur Yirrell and in that match he was in control and won a easy win 4-1 4-1. Our final match for the day was a doubles match with James Vincent and Henry Thomas. They played very well and won very easily. After the first day of matches we all went back to the hotel. All the boys played tag in the car park and then Henry found an anonymous star bust packet which he kept (and shared with us!)
The next day we played Shropshire and Middlesex. James played first and lost to Roan Jones in a set tie break. Next was Henry Thomas, he lost that match but it was extremely entertaining. Then Arthur Yirrell played and lost in a champion tie break 10-6. It was doubles for our next match with Luke Johnson and Tobey lock. It was against Shropshire's one and two, a tough match which they lost 4-0 4-2. The next was Middlesex, first match on was James against Oscar. James knew he had won before he had finished as the result was 4-0 4-1. A switch around which gave Tobey and Luke a chance to play the singles. First up was Tobey with some stunning tennis. Unfortunately Tobey’s opponent was on fire only making six errors, Tobey played very well considering it was only his first singles match. Tobey lost in straight sets.
Last of Avon's singles was Luke Johnson, his match consisted of lots of winners mostly by Luke. His opponent had a one handed back hand and Luke was finding it all the time, but his opponent was very nimble and fast on his feet. The match could have gone either way. In the end Luke's opponent just scraped a victory as Luke was growing tired. The final match for Avon was the doubles James Vincent and Henry Thomas vs Oscar Johnson and Ayaan Haneef. At the start Avon were making some errors and had lost the first game but Avon won the match and then had to play the shot out straight away. It was a close shot out but Middlesex won it. Overall Avon came sixth. A great result after two days of quality tennis.
Reporty by Arthur Yirrell