Cambridgeshire girls 8 and under mini red team finished second in the Inter County Mini Red Team event at Redbridge on Sunday 19th February. The team of Megan Carmichael, Charlotte Laing, Laurie Cruickshank, Sophie Price, Tiffany Qin and Jessica Wood played extremely well.
The team event consisted of each player playing a tie-break to 10 points against each of their opposite number from the other Counties of Northants, Buckinghamshire, Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire.
The girls got off to a good start by.beating Northants 4 – 2.They then beat Bucks 6 – 0. They had a tough match against Essex just drawing 3 matches each but then beat Suffolk 5 -1. Beat Norfolk 6 – 0. Despite a really close match against Hertfordshire where four matches went to 9 points all and then the deciding point the team narrowly lost 1 -5. In the final match they then beat Bedfordshire 5 – 1. Overall Megan won 5 matches, Charlotte won 6 matches, Laurie won 5 matches, Sophie won 6 matches, Tiffany won 5 matches and Jessica won 3 matches.
It was an excellent team effort for the girls to get the silver medals.
In the afternoon it was the turn of the boys. The team of Zac Cox, Leon Kewney, Alexander Boyd-Bench, Yujiro Onuma, Darius Fatemi-Ghomi, and Antonije Vujadinovic. They again all played very well and despite some really tight matches were just pipped on the very last match of the day into fourth position. They beat Northants 6 – 0 in convincing fashion, beat Buckinghamshire 6 – 0 but then lost to Essex 1 – 5 but each of the matches was again really close losing two matches 8 – 10 and then losing two matches 9 – 10! The team then beat Suffolk 5 matches to 1, narrowly lost to Norfolk again two matches going to 9 – 10! The team responded well beating Herts 4 matches to 2 (Herts had earlier beaten Essex!). In the final match they beat Beds 4 – 2 to finish fourth overall. Zac won 4 matches, Leon won 5 matches, Alexander won 6 matches, Yujiro won 5 matches, Darius won 4 matches and Antonije won 4 matches.
Adding the girls and boys positions together Cambridgeshire came third overall.
Thanks to Katie Goodman for her umpiring. Sue Rich the captain was delighted with the results and said ‘It was a great team performance by everyone and with a bit of luck on the sudden death points the team might even have finished second – well done everyone.’