This years Lionel Cox trophy was held on the weekend of 30th April / 1st May at Queenswood School.
The U12 Boys and Girls started the weekend brilliantly winning their first matches 3-0 each. The Boys then went on to beat Essex 2-1 with superb wins from Yujiro Onuma and Rohan Iyengar. The girls lost 3-0 to Suffolk despite every match being very close and then 3-0 against a strong Herts Side. On Sunday, the Boys continued in imperious form with a quick 3-0 win over Northants and then defeating Oxfordshire 3-0 with superb wins from Yujiro, Rohan and Felix Dean to make the final. The girls came close against a strong Bedfordshire side with Tiffany Qin winning and Weiqi Ye losing in 3 sets. Lydia Sivirentsava also played superbly against Bedfordshire. The Boys played a very strong Hertfordshire side in the final and although they lost 3-0 the standard of tennis in all three matches was excellent and the boys showing tremendous fight and spirit on court. The girls finished off by beating Norfolk 3-0 to claim 7th place.
In the U10 section section, the boys had a tough box and found themselves with 3 losses on Saturday. The team of Ganesh Mullaparthi, Rafael Tan, Zander Brock and Jeremy Shao all battled hard with good individual victories for Jeremy against Norfolk and Rahael Tan against Suffolk. The girls teams of Sophie Tjurina, Marennah Prempeh and Gabriella Zailer Fletcher were defending their title from the U9’s the previous year and started very well beating Bedfordshire and Norfolk 3-0 on Saturday. On Sunday, the boys played their last round robin match against Essex, narrowly losing 2-1 with a good win for Ganesh and very close matches for Rahael and Jeremy. They finished on a high though after a tough box to beat Bedforshire 3-0 to finish 9th. The girls faced a tough Sunday against Suffolk and Essex, winning both 2-1 with superb performances from all 3 girls to put them in the final against Herts. Gabriella managed to come from behind to send Cambs 1-0 up but Herts fought back to claim a 2-1 victory so the girls claimed a silver medal this year.
The U9 Girls played their event on the Saturday with a young side in Florence Pitchard-Gordon, Daniella Pam and Rezi Onibere. In a strong box, they lost 2-1 to Norfolk and Bucks with good wins for Rezi in both matches. The girls lost 3-0 to a strong Berkshire side but managed a great win against Northants with wins for Rezi and Daniella. Finally the girls played Bedfordshire with Daniella and Florence providing strong wins for a 2-1 win for Cambs and a 7th place finish.
The U9 Boys played their event on the Sunday, again with a young side in Cassius Jessup, Jonny Cross and Zac Tabaczynski. A strong start saw the boys claim a 3-0 against Northants. Then they lost 2-1 to both Oxfordshire and Suffolk with good wins for Zac and Jonny. In their final round robin match the boys lost 3-0 to a very strong Herts side. In their final match, Jonny and Zac both won to give Cambs a good 2-1 victory over Berkshire and also finish 7th.
Overall Cambridgeshire finished 5th with Hertfordshire claiming the overall title and Essex in runners up position. Congratulations to all the players who represented Cambridge extremely well over the weekend.
Jon Rademeyer and Lisa Kennedy
Team Captains
