Cambridgeshire girls and boys teams of Sophie Tjurina, Marennah Prempeh, Gabriella Zailer-Fletcher, Ganesh Mullaparthi, Rafa Tan and Jaylen Cheng were up against the Counties of Suffolk, Norfolk and Bedfordshire at 9 and under County Cup.
Each match consists of 3 girls singles, 3 boys singles, 1 girls doubles, 1 boys doubles and 1 mixed doubles match so each player played two matches against every other County in the best of three tie breaks to 7 points with a winning margin of two points.
All the singles matches were played first and then the doubles matches. Cambridgeshire played Suffolk first. The boys started and despite some good performances lost all three matches. Ganesh Mullaparthi at number one lost to Saul Hindmarsh 4/7, 3/7; Rafa Tan lost to Aston Boswwell 9/7, 0/7, 1/7 and Jaylen Cheng narrowly lost to Max Griffiths 2/7, 7/4, 4/7. The girls then came to the rescue with Sophie Tjurina beating Amber Harding 7/1, 7/1; Marennah Prempeh beating Alana Bristow 7/3, 7/4 and Gabriella beating Jasmine Payne 10/8, 4/7, 7/1. The match was tied at 3 rubbers each.
Next up were Bedfordshire and this proved to be an easy win with all players winning their singles. Ganesh beat James Dagg 7/4, 7/1; Rafa beat Harrison Taylor 7/4, 7/4 and Jaylen beat Zion Kelly 7/3, 7/4.
The girls won all their matches Sophie beat Maddie Whitley 7/3, 7/2; Marennah beating Megan Howlett 7/1, 7/2 and 7/1, 7/2 and Gabriella beating Katerina Verhbitskaya 7/4, 7/4 to give Cambridgeshire a 6 – 0 lead.
In the final match Cambridgeshire played Norfolk and everyone except Ganesh won their singles. Ganesh lost to Ludovic Valentine 5/7, 5/7; Rafa beat George Woodcock 8/6, 8/6 and Jaylen beat Jacob Gandy 7/4, 7/3.
In the girls Sophie beat Isabella Taylor 7/4, 7/3; Marennah beat Georgina Cohen 8/6, 7/5 and Gabriella beat Darcie Jarmy 8/6, 7/5 to give the County a 5 – 1 lead.
Next up were the doubles and against Bedfordshire Jaylen and Ganesh beat Zion Kelly and Harrison Taylor 7/3, 7/2; Sophie and Gabriella beat Katerina Verzhbitskaya and Maddie Whitely 10/12, 8/6, 8/6 and in the mixed Rafa and Marennah beat Ed Dagg and Megan Howlett 7/2, 7/0 to give an overall win of 9 matches to 0.
In the doubles against Norfolk the team again won all 3 matches. Ganesh and Rafa beat Ludovic Valentine and George Woodcock 8/6, 8/6. Sophie and Marennah beat Georgina Cohen and Isabella Taylor 7/4, 7/3 and then Jaylen and Gabriella beat Jacob Gandy and Darcie Jarmy7/2, 7/3. This gave Cambridgeshire and overall 8/1 win.
In the deciding doubles against Suffolk the boys Ganesh and Rafa lsot easily to Saul Hindmarsh and Ashton Boswell 1/7, 3/7 but the girls again played very well as Sophie and Marennah beat Amber Harding and Alana Bristow 10/8, 7/2.
This meant the overall result depended on the mixed doubles between Jaylen and Gabriella against Max Griffiths and Alana Bristow. I am pleased to say the mixed team played really well and beat Suffolk 7/1, 7/3 to give the Cambridgeshire team a 5- 4 win and the gold medals.
Captain Sue Rich said it was an excellent team effort and was very proud of all the players with the girls playing particularly well in the match against Suffolk.