Buckinghamshire Boys at Bromley Tennis Centre Group 3A
Team: 1. Thomas Schmidt (Halton) 2. Jack Molloy (Reed School) 3. Barnaby Smith (Reed School) 4. Oliver Levi (Halton) 5. Calum McKinlay (Halton) 6. Alex Fage (Halton) 7. Kushal Kansagra (Milton Keynes) 8.Lee Tribe (Milton Keynes) Reserves: Edward Taylor (Halton), Michael Shaw, JJ (Jack) Clark. Manager / Coach Andy Scholfield (GXLTC)
Andy’s Quote: ‘ We had a historic event, all players performed magnificently, showing total commitment and supported each other tremendously. Like the Davis Cup the captain was allowed on court to speak to the players at the change of ends. The boys were perfectly behaved and acted very professionally on and off court. To win this event was a culmination of a lot of effort by many people and the feeling at the end was ‘it doesn’t get better than this’ - particularly after three years of relegation play-offs’
Opposing teams were Suffolk, Devon, Hampshire
Format: each match consists of six singles matches followed by three doubles.
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 seven pre event training sessions proved vital for team selection and team bonding. All players showed great enthusiasm at all times and were always desperate to get onto court.
Day 1 opponents our old enemies Hampshire.
All of us occasionally have had days when we play poorly for no apparent reason and this happened to Alex Fage as he went down 6-1 6-2 to George Barfoot. Calum McKinlay at number 5 played with his normal flair – brilliant play mixed with loss of focus and over ambitious strokeplay. However he dominated the first set tie-break and came through 7-6 6-3. Oli Levi playing at number 4 proved too consistent for Sam Bird and won 6-2 7-6. Barnaby Smith was on fire, his energy levels unparalleled as he trounced Taylor Vane 6-0 6-1 (it may have been as a result of his best ever meal at the Premier Inn haha). Jack Molloy at number 2 had a fluctuating match with Cem Ortel. Jack looked to dictate with his consistent groundstrokes against his counter attacking opponent. Jack gradually wore Cem’s technique down and came through confidently 5-7 6-6 6-2. Tom Schmidt at number 1 faced a great attacking player Miles McDowall. He fought very hard in the second set but lost 2-6 4-6. Lee Tribe was also making his U18 County Cup debut and played exceptionally well with Oli Levi to win 6-3 7-5. Thomas Schmidt and Barney Smith played exceptional doubles moving tremendously at the net to win 6-3 6-3. Jack and Calum rounded off the win with great netplay by Calum and great returning and groundstrokes by Jack (he made only one unforced error in the whole match). So a resounding 7-2 win but Suffolk had won 8-1 ! Kushal Kansagra arrived after sitting a French exam and was able to see some doubles play. We trained after the matches and Kushal was clearly rusty but talent is permanent ! We stretched and made our way to the Premier Inn Beefeater meal deal. Relief ….. we won on the first day !
Day 2 new opponents Devon
How could Barney stay so energised ? Well his support off court was outstanding he was also the official deputy to motivate the players at change of ends. We were able to involve all eight players against what we thought to be a weaker Devon side – Jack Molloy was rested in the singles. However we were soon under pressure. Kushal at number 5 was improving each game but ran out of time – his second match point down he hit a winning volley only for the opponent to claim a let for a ball straying onto his court. His opponent then hit an extraordinary backhand passing shot on the replayed point. Lee Tribe at number 6 was rushing into a nervous disaster at 4-1 down but was able to calm down and turn the match round against a technically weak opponent 7-5 6-3. Against a strong opponent, Calum played a brilliant set of tennis 6-0. As often happens in these situations he lost a bit of focus and his opponent broke serve to lead 3-1. Calum stormed back with excellent stroke-play to clinch the second set 6-4. Oli Levi was forced to play some of his best-ever tennis against the excellent Lewie Parker. Oli became passive at 6-3 5-2 up and Lewie cut out errors to lead 6-5. In previous years Oli would not have been able to come back from this situation. However at 40-15 down he produced excellent returns to break back to force a tie-break. He absolutely made sure to continue to dictate the rallies and came through 7-3 to give Bucks a 3-1 lead. Barney dominated with his forehand and big serve to take the first set 6—1 but his opponent upped his game and almost upset our plans before losing 7-5 giving Bucks 4-1 lead. However Devon fought hard and came back at us with Tom competing very well but losing 4-6 4-6 despite a phenomenal backhand single handed pass. The doubles became even more stressful with Buzzy Avis and Pat Daykin beating our own Alex Fage and the improving Kushal Kansagra 6-1 1-6 4-10. Surely Barney and Tom would win after their superb previous day performance ? No wrong, tennis is so unpredictable, Lewie Parker played amazing with Erik to rip our players apart 4-6 3-6. However fortunately on court playing another great match were Calum and Jack who won 6-2 6-2 to give us a hard fought victory 5-4. Suffolk won again meaning a promotion play off (far more relaxing than a relegation play-off in the previous three years (!)) ???
Day 3
At 2.30am on Sunday morning in a booth at Bromley University Hospital I could not have dreamt of what was about to unfold. Tom Schmidt had phoned NHS Direct at 10.30pm with chest pains and was told to go immediately to Urgent Care. He had an ECG and blood test. Fortunately he was ‘normal’ with a viral infection which commonly causes tightness. We both thought there is no way we would be ready for the match preparation which started in just over 4 hours. Tom stayed in bed while the rest of the team arrived at the Bromley Tennis Centre at 8am. Fortunately he was playing at number 1 singles and doubles so had time. We knew we had to get off to a good start. Fortunately Kushal was still improving from the previous day and eventually got back to his 2013 level. After a very tight 1st set Kushal started to dictate the play more and more with his serve and forehand linked to great net-play. Once his smashing zeroed into the court there was no stopping him ! 7-5 6-1, first blood to Bucks. An absolutely crucial match was unfolding on the court beside Kushal, Calum McKinlay was a set up against Toby Cutting. This match was vital to our cause. At 5-4 in the second set Calum held two match points and Toby’s 2nd serve was long but Calum - ‘You forgot to call it out !’ – stunned silence on the balcony. Calum stormed into a 4-1 lead in the tie-break but Toby came back to win 10-8. The third set was unbelievable; neither player able to hold serve.’ Calum, when you’re serving you have to construct the rally, be patient, dont blow it out of court!’ Finally he did so and held to go 5-3 up and took the next game in exemplary fashion. Oli Levi had a really tough match up at number 4; Ryan Lambert countered everything and Oli couldnt find his stunning form from the previous day. At 2-1 up we had Barney dominate Smith on court. However he played very nervously and was not the same player of the previous two days. He managed to turn the momentum round at the start of the second set by breaking Ben Jones’s serve – courageous play! He then steam rolled through but I felt the stress rising. Despite great performances Tom and Jack lost in two sets at numbers 1 and 2. The match score 3-3.
So emotionally how were we feeling ? What was going to happen ? We had resounding team spirit, we had many amazing performances…..
What came was even better than that …….. in fact……. it could not get any better ! At 3-3 after the singles play, in the deciding tie of the competition, our team spirit ballooned into the stratosphere……
We absolutely stunned the opposition into submission with an outstanding ending to the match winning an unbelievable 3rd pair doubles match (Kushal Kansagra who improved by 50% over 24 hours and debutant Lee Tribe reaction volleys sublime) crashed their way through a 3rd set match tie-break 10-5 with outstanding rallies (having lost 1st set to a very strong pair).
Running parallel to this match Jack Molloy and Calum McKinlay were brilliant again in their match totally out-gunning and out-psyching their opponents 6-3 6-4
Barney and Tom showed total commitment (motivated by showing Jack and Calum their dedication to a Bucks win), by dominating the opposition to lead 4-1 at first pair.
Our play and support was RELENTLESS. We wanted it more than our opponents ….come on Buuuuuuccks
An unbelievable experience of winning all the doubles matches (just like a penalty shoot-out in football) left the team exhilarated and exhausted. We celebrated with a McDonalds at the Motorway services, listened to Heart FM Club Classics, chanted our brilliance, basked in our glory and looked forward to next year .
Thanks goes to the whole team squad and reserves, Janice Roach for excellent admin back-up, Venetia Cosier for reinvigorating Bucks Teams, Bucks Indoor for training sessions and players parents in particular Mr and Mrs Schmidt, Mr Smith and Mr and Mrs Molloy who came to watch the awesome displays.