Boys Under 18 County Cup 2013
At Newport Tennis Centre Group 3A
Team: 1. Thomas Schmidt (Halton) 2. Calum McKinlay (Halton) 3. Alex Fage (Halton) 4. Kushal Kansagra (Milton Keynes) 5. Kiran Kudravilli (Milton Keynes) 6. Oliver Levi (Halton) 7. Nick Rennie (GXLTC) 8. Edward Taylor (Halton) Manager /Coach Andy Scholfield (GXLTC)
Andy’s Quote: ‘After last years’ stunning reversal in the last match we again found ourselves needing to win the last match tie-break of the whole competition. This is a fantastic team competition with players forcing themselves to play as well as they can for the team. All players enthusiastically supported each other and like the Davis Cup the captain is allowed on court to speak to the players at the end of each set. The boys were perfectly behaved and acted very professionally on and off court’
Opposing teams were South Wales, Cheshire, Derbyshire
Format: each match consists of six singles matches followed by three doubles.
The event turned out again to be a very emotional experience for all players involved. The venue provided excellent facilities which were used to the maximum by all the managers / coaches and team mates. Each tie ran from 9am to 5pm each day with teams warming up and preparing for their matches from 8am.
The first day we competed against South Wales who had a lot of home support. Oli Levi at number 6 played an excellent match (he was awarded performance of the day) dictating the majority of rallies with his attacking groundstrokes against a consistent player Callum Findlay to win 6-4 6-1. Kiran ran down every ball but proved too defensive in his game plan. After a very tight first set he lost 7-6 6-0. Kushal was clearly short of match practice and lost the first set 6-0 however he was dominating most rallies but making too many unforced errors. His all court game started to gain momentum and the match swung his way; taking the second set 7-5. However his opponent Jay Sinnadurai continued to play well and fought back to force a third set tie-break at 6-6. Kushal looked confident throughout and won 7-5 causing a frenzy on the balcony. However this was short lived with Calum and Tom Schmidt (v top national player Simon Pritchard) fighting hard but going down convincingly. Alex Fage at number 3 staged an excellent recovery against a very impressive opponent Matthew Storey from 1-6 1-5 down to recover to 4-5 and have break points but Matthew was forced into playing unbelieveable points to take that game. Kiran and Edward Taylor played at number 3 doubles and just scraped a win 6-4 0-6 11-9 to keep the match alive at 3-4 overall. Despite excellent fight backs in the second set our other two doubles pairs lost. Meanwhile on the other courts Cheshire were thrashing Derbyshire 9-0 so we knew we had our work cut out for the next day.
Nick Rennie arrived in the evening after A2 exams and all players wanted to practice with him after dinner. This proved a good idea because the next day nearly all our players performed even better.
Nick played a great match at number 6 and after 3 hours he broke serve to lead 6-4 3-6 3-2. He then upped his level again taking the ball on and hitting harder. However this caused him to make more errors and his opponent fed off the pace on the shots. Nick continued to battle hard and after a great performance lost the third set. Kushal and Oli again had close matches but their opponents were too strong. Calum McKinlay played inspired tennis at number two against a very good consistent opponent Sean Sivewright. It was by far his best singles performance of the tournament. His intensity was excellent and his huge forehand was hit with devastating effect. After many enthralling rallies he was edged out 6-3 3-6 2-6. His opponent gasped and said he could not believe some of the amazing shots Calum hit ! Tom at number 1 played even better than the day before against an older and very experienced Jacob Whalley losing 4-6 2-6. Kushal and Tom won at number 1 7-6 6-3 but Nick and Ed plus Alex and Kiran lost their doubles to very strong pairings.
A long meeting convinced us we had to sort strengthen our 2nd and 3rd doubles pairing within the rules of the tournament for our match the next day against Derbys.
In the morning of the last day the team agreed changes to the doubles pairings with Nick and Calum and third pair being our bankers.
Nick got us off to a good start in a very nervy match against Jonty Holtum who gave him no pace to play off, he won 6-3 6-3. Oli played solid, patient tennis to outlast his equally consistent opponent 6-4 6-2. Kushal played against an inspired opponent who made no errors in the first set ! Kushal recognised he was dominating most rallies but had to take the ball even earlier. He turned the match around to crucially win 4-6 6-4 6-3. A 3-0 lead but ideally we needed to take another singles ! Alex Fage at number 3 played his best singles to win the first set 6-3 however his opponent started to dominate from the net and continued into the third set to win 6-3 6-0 to give Derbys their first win. Calum who was struggling with a bad cold allowed his opponent a four game start to each set before fighting back but he lost 2-6 3-6. Thomas played his best ever singles match against Jacob East counter attacking with compact groundstrokes to force the match into a third set. He continued to fight magnificently before losing 3-6 6-2 3-6. So Derbys had fought back to level at 3-3. Nick and Calum played a great doubles to win 6-2 6-3. Alex and Kushal scraped through the 1st set against East and Bywater 7-5 but lost the second set 2-6. With Oli and Tom 7-6 3-0 down in the other doubles it meant Bucks had to win a crucial match tie-break to avoid relegation for a second year running. Encouraging words by Andy at the end of the second set helped focus Alex and Kushal who kept their tactics simple – continuing to hit to the weaker player when the opportunity arose. They went a mini break down at 6-5 fought back to 9-8 up with Alex returning. He hit his best backhand of the tournament followed by a topspun forehand to Bywater who under great pressure volleyed out.
An unbelievable experience of winning the deciding match tie-break (just like a penalty shoot-out in football (but unlike the England team Bucks tennis win !)) left the team exhilarated and exhausted. We celebrated with a KFC at the Motorway services and looked forward to next year with all players still young enough to represent the County !
Andy Scholfield 11th March 2013
Bucks U18 County Cup Captain Boys