Cambridgeshire’s girls team of Chaaya Malik, Sama Malik, Megan Carmichael and Charlotte Laing played very well in the Aegon 10 and under County Cup to finish third overall.
The Counties competing in the event were Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk. The event took place over 2 days with each County playing against every other County and the winning County then progressing to the finals. Each match consisted of four rubbers , 3 singles and 1 doubles and if the match was tied at 2 rubbers each then a tiebreak shoot out to 10 points was played. All the singles matches were played first and then the doubles to add more excitement to the day.
In the first match up on the Saturday Cambs played Bedfordshire. Megan Carmichael at number three got the team off to a good start with a 4-2, 4-0 win over Maddie Axford. Next up was Sama Malik who played extremely well to beat Chloe Gallagher 4-2, 4-0. Number one player Chaaya Malik had the toughest match against Natalya Ogunwale and despite some good points was beaten 1-4, 2 – 4 to leave Cambs in a 2 -1 lead prior to the doubles.
In the second match against Norfolk, Charlotte Laing came in at number three and beat Mia Bartram 4-0, 4-1. Sama Malik again played a good hard hitting match to beat Josephine Jarvis 4-2, 4-0. In the top singles Chaaya Malik had a really tight match against Emily Barrett before eventually losing 4-1, 4-5, 10-12. Chaaya had managed to get herself into a really strong position but Emily fought hard to come back and win. This again left Camsb in a good position of being 2-1 up after the singles.
In the first doubles against Bedfordshire Sama Malik and Megan Carmichael had a really good match against Natalya and Chloe before succumbing 4-1, 2-4 and 7-10. This meant the match went to a tie-break shoot out. Sama and Chaaya played this and won 10-3 to give Cambs an overall win.
In the second doubles against Norfolk Sama and Chaaya lost to Emily and Josie 0-4, 5-4, 3- 10 so again this match went to a tie break shoot out. Sama and Charlotte played the shoot out and despite getting 7- 5 up could not quite hold on and lost 8-10 to give Norfolk a win.
On the second day Cambs were up against harder opposition in the form of Herts and Suffolk who were clearly the best 2 teams.
Cambs played Herts first – Megan Carmichael had a very good win over Sophie Underwood 4-1, 5-4 to give Camsb a great start. Sama Malik then played Kiana Mokhtari and unfortunately lost 0-4, 1-4. In the top singles Chaaya Malik played the very promising Indiana Spink and despite some good points was out played 0-4, 1-4.
In the final match against Suffolk Megan Carmichael again got the team off to a good start with a 4-2, 4-2 win over Maddie McLoughlan in what was a highly competitive and tense match. Sama Malik could not reproduce her form of Saturday and lost easily to Isabelle Eaton and in the top match Chaaya Malik lost to Kylie Bilchev – one of the top players in the Country 1-4, 0-4.
In the doubles Herts pairing of Indiana and Kiana were far too good for Sama and Charlotte who lost 0-4, 1-4 – giving Herts the overall title and winning the Group.
In the final match against Suffolk Chaaya and Megan played a really good first set before losing 3-5, 0-4 – although they did have their chances.
Overall the girls competed well and despite only one overall win, because they had picked up extra rubbers on the way they ended up a very creditable third.
Sue Rich – Captain said ‘the girls all played with great pride for the County and had a good team spirit which bodes well for the future’.