Day 1 vs Staffordshire / Hampshire and IOW
After a delayed start due to rain, play finally got under way under grey skies in Nottingham. Hannah and Lizzie kicked things off, after completion of matches 3 and 4 we stood at 0-2. Claudia put on a strong performance to get us back to 1-2 and Maria had a fantastic match against one of the top girls in the year above just being edged out to put us 1-3 down. At number 1 doubles, Maria and Claudia played a fantastic match to get us back into the match at 2-3 followed by, Hannah and Lizzie, who sent us to a tie break shoot out with another fantastic win. Claudia and Maria clinched the tie break shoot out to give us a 4-3 win over Staffordshire much to everyone's delight. Because of the changed format of county cup we then had to play half of our match against Hampshire and IOW. After the first 2 singles matches we stood at 1-1, due to injuries India stepped in and put on a good performance at 4. Lizzie had a win against a very strong Hampshire player. It was starting to get late but the referee decided to carry on with play, Hannah went on and edged out a tough first set 7-6, at which point play was stopped for Hannah's match to resume on Saturday morning and Maria was also left to play on Saturday.
Day 2 vs Hampshire and IOW / Surrey
Everyone woke up feeling good as it was Claudia's birthday :) The day got off to a great start with Hannah coming out on top in her match and Maria winning at 1. The strong play continued into the doubles and we took 2 convincing wins to beat Hampshire and IOW 5-1. Struggling with injuries we rested Claudia in the singles and Ella stepped in. Lizzie and Ella played some great tennis at 3 and 4 but Surrey came out on top in both matches. Hannah played a fantastic match to win at 2 and Maria against another very strong opponent from the year above played some great tennis. We knew going into the doubles at 1-3 the pressure was on our doubles teams. Due to form both pairs displayed some of the best tennis of all the doubles teams in the tournament and we came away with 2 victories locking us at 3-3 with Surrey and sending us into another tie break shoot out. After some of the best tennis of the weekend Surrey came away victorious 10-8, which put us into a 3/4 play off match with Middlesex on Sunday. The girls disappointment was soon gone celebrating Claudias birthday with lots of cake and ice cream :)
Sunday vs Middlesex
Finally the sun found its way to Nottingham and it was a beautiful day for tennis. Sadly, due to the increased amount of tennis that had been played over the weekend most of our team were struggling with injuries, the girls gave it their best shot and we ended up finishing 4th overall. It was a really fantastic weekend of tennis and all of the 6 girls played brilliant tennis and worked brilliantly together as a team. Everyone had a great time and Claudia's cheers of "winner winner chicken dinner" definitely helped keep us going at all times!! Thank you to all the girls for representing Avon and congratulations for finishing 4th in the country.
Team: Ella Reeman, India Britland, Maria Budin, Lizzie Burton, Claudia Hallsworth, Hannah Davies
Captains: Rob Hawkins & Thaddea Lock