Cambridgeshire boys 12 and under team of Yujiro Onuma, Rohan Iyengar, Felix Dean, Antonije Vujadinovic and Charlie Adams just missed out on the County Finals after narrowly losing to Essex in their final at Frinton on Sea over the weekend 25/26 June.
The Aegon 12 and under County Cup is played all round the Country and Counties are in groups of either 5 or 6 Counties and the winning county from each group progesses to the finals.
Cambridgeshire were in a group of 6 counties which were then subdivided into two boxes of 3 teams. Cambs had the toughest box with Essex and Norfolk and the winner and runner up then progressed through to the semi finals. On the Saturday Cambs played a very strong Essex team. Yujiro Onuma playing at number one lost easily to Adam Groves 0/4, 0/4. Rohan Iyengar then lost to Anthony Weingarten 0/4,1/4 while Felix Dean at number three battled very well but just lost to Sam Constantinou 3/5, 1/4. This meant an overall loss whatever the outcome of the doubles.
Rain intervened on and off for a lot of the day but in between showers Cambs then had to play Norfolk in a must win match to get to the semi-finals. Yujiro played Joseph Hendon and played very well to get the first set 4/1, but then Joseph got his game together and took the second 4/2 and Yujiro narrowly lost the tie break 7-10. Rohan Iyengar played much better and easily beat Barnaby Taylor 4/1, 4/1. Antonije came in for Felix Dean and played consistently to beat Reuben Porter 4/0,4/2.
This meant the match was all resting on the doubles. Rain intervened and the match was abandoned for the day.
On the Sunday, Cambridgeshire were without Felix Dean due to sickness overnight but again dodging the early morning showers the team of Yujiro and Rohan took on Joseph Hendon and Barnaby Taylor of Norfolk in the deciding doubles. Cambs lost the first two games on deuce points with errors but then fought back well and started to dominate and went 3-2 up before more rain. This time after the rain break the boys came out fighting and won 4/2, 4/0 only dropping 4 points in the second set.
Having reached the semi finals they then played the winner of the other box which was Suffolk.
Yujiro played the very strong but fiery Joshua Stokes and despite losing the first set 3/5, came back strongly to take the second 4/0 and then kept his cool to sneak the tiebreak 10-7. In the second match Rohan Iyengar played a solid game against Adam Rudolf and won 5/4, 4/1. Antonije Vujadinovic stepped in for Felix Dean and beat Matthieu Lee 4/2, 4/0. This meant Cambs were through to the final. In the doubles against Suffolk Antonije partnered Charlie Adams and they narrowly lost to Dean Hafermann and Matthieu Lee 2/4, 4/0, 10-12.
In the final Cambs were up against Essex again but this time they put up a really good performance. Yujiro played very well against Adam Groves but just lost 2/4, 3/5. Antonije at number three lost to the more experienced Anthony Wright 0/4, 2/4. This meant Rohan had to win his match to give the overall tie alive. He played magnificently using his head to out think Anthony Weingarten. Having narrowly lost the first set 3/5, he won the second 4/1 and then took the match tie break 10-5.
This then meant the match rested on the doubles with Yujiro playing with Rohan against Adam Groves and Anthony Weingarten. This was an excellent match with some high quality tennis. The Cambs boys got to 4/3 up and 40-0 up on the Weingarten serve but could not just get across the line and the set went into a tie break which they just lost. The second set was equally close but again the Cambs boys just came out second best and lost this 3/5 but both boys gave their best shot and were so close to taking the match into a deciding match tie break.
Overall captain Sue Rich said ‘It was a great performance and all the team should have been proud of themselves as they gave Essex a real scare.’