Aegon County Cup 10U Boys Team Report by Team Captain James Goodchild
This year we travelled back to Bromley to compete in the qualifiers for the u10 County Cup. Hopes were high this year as the team had had more training in preparation for the event. The weekend started off on the Friday eve with all the players arriving to our team hotel in Swanley. We were up early on the Saturday and the team of Miles Groom, Josh Bright, James Pearson and Jack Shawyer were raring to go. We were drawn in a group of Dorset and home county Kent.
Our first match was against Dorset, we were full of confidence as they had a weaker team than last year. James Pearson and Josh started off for Bucks but struggled in the opening games. Both losing in straight sets despite battling hard. Miles then came on court to play their number one. Despite a promising start Miles struggled to enforce his favoured game style. This resulted in him also going down in straight sets. It wasn’t the greatest start but the boys didn’t let their heads drop and remained positive.
Our next matches were singles vs. Kent. Again James Pearson went first for Bucks and despite some great shot making and consistency he lost in straight sets. This result was followed by Josh also losing to their no2 in similar fashion. The day wasn’t looking great when Miles took the court for his singles match. However Miles seemed to have shrugged off the disappointment of his first singles match and played some great tennis to overcome the Kent 1 in straight sets. This gave to boys something to play for in the afternoon.
Both doubles matches were played in the afternoon after Kent and Dorset had played their singles. Josh and James took on the Dorset doubles pair and with some fantastic doubles play they beat them in straight sets. Miles and Jack played vs. Kent knowing that a win would take us into a match shootout. Both boys played some brilliant doubles and eventually won in a tight match in the champ tie-break. This took us into an immediate shoot off doubles to see who would make it through to the playoffs. Unfortunately Kent came through this and it was just a step too far for our boys. This meant that we would be battling it out with Hampshire and IOW the next day for 5/6th place. The boys were understandably disappointed but kept their heads up and focussed on the positives of the day.
Sunday started a bit later for us as we were due on court at 10am. The boys were still at the centre nice and early for a good warm-up. Miles started our match vs. Hampshire & IOW and produced his best tennis of the weekend beating their 1 4-2, 4-0. At the same time Josh was battling back from 1 set down to level the match with some great patient tennis and controlled aggression. This took the match to a champ tie-break and despite storming into a 5-0 lead he could quite convert losing 10- 7. Jack then came on for our last singles match and had an epic match against their no3. There was some really great play and some really close line calls. Jack managed to hold it all together and won in straight sets. This meant all we had to do was win our doubles. Miles and Josh started our dubs brightly but were outfoxed when their opponents pushed both back. Despite trying to play the right way they eventually lost in to close sets 5-3, 5-3. Unfortunately they let a call at the end of their first doubles effect them in their match shootout and ended up going down 10-5. This completed what was a tough weekend results wise for the boys finishing 6th. However all the boys agreed that they had learned some vital lessons and could take some real positives out of the weekend. Throughout the whole weekend there was some great team spirit and they never let their heads drop. It was a great experience for them and I’m sure they will learn from these lessons and become stronger players as a result.
My thanks to the boys for a great weekend and also to the parents for their continued support.
James Goodchild
U10 Boys Captain