After a hard days tennis on the 1st day against eventual winners Essex and runners up Suffolk, Cambridgeshire responded well on the Sunday to beat both Norfolk and Bedfordshire to finish 3rd in the group.
Playing Essex, the favourites first Luigi Murton won his match against Alexander Dodd 4-2, 1-4 (6) to give us a good start. Alex Wardley and Jan Ortonowski both had very difficult matches and both lost in straight sets to give Essex a 2-1 rubber lead.
Next up was Suffolk, and Luigi Murton was on first and didn’t get the better of Jonathan Simmonds losing two tight sets 4-5, 3-5. Alex Wardley lost to Oscar Cutting in a very close three setter going down 5-4 (3) 1-4 (7). Jan Ortonowski went in to his singles match knowing nothing other than a win meant that the doubles was irrelevant. Jan battled well but lost to Will Cooke Wharton 2-4 3-5.
After playing the singles, the doubles were to be played at the end of the day and with the Essex match still live, Luigi Murton and Jan Ortonowski had the responsibility of trying to get the match to go to 2-2 rubbers and have a match tiebreak shootout. In the end, Essex were just too strong and won 4-2 5-4 meaning that Essex won 3-1 in rubbers.
Next up was the remaining doubles against Suffolk and Alex Wardley and Rory Dixon making his debut beat Jonathan Simmonds and Gabriel Watson 4-0 4-2 to mean Suffolk won 3-1 in rubbers also.
Wanting a good response the following day, Captain Chris Johnson rallied the team and Cambs came out fighting straight away. Luigi Murton and Alex Wardley both got off to great starts winning in straight sets beating Tomas Baker and Matt Cott respectively. Jan Ortonowski couldn’t give the team an unassailable 3-0 lead going down to Owen Tudor 0-4 2-4 which meant the match hinged on the doubles later on in the afternoon.
Bedfordshire was the last match of the day and Jan Ortonowski got his 1st win of the weekend at number 1 beating James Wallace, while Alex Wardley came back from a set down to win a very competitive match against hard hitting Peter Jamieson and Luigi Murton won his in straight sets to mean we were 3-0 up going in to the doubles.
Alex Wardley and Luigi Murton were selected to play the doubles against Norfolk and some great doubles was played in some nervous conditions with Cambs coming out on top 5-3 2-4 (7) which meant a good 3-1 win against Norfolk.
In the other doubles against Beds, Jan Ortonowski and Charlie James couldn’t quite make it a whitewash with a very close 11-13 loss in the final championship tiebreak.
Overall, it was a good finish on the Sunday after a hard start on the Saturday and the boys certainly kept their spirits up but Essex were the deserved winners of the group who now qualify for the National finals.