A depleted Cambridgeshire U14 boys did themselves proud in the County Cup that was held in Northampton earlier this month. The team without their top 4 ranked players Harry Wendelken (representing GB in Europe), Vincent Chen (injury), Derrick Chen (playing European tournament) and James Murphy (injury) got off to a great start beating a Northants team on their home ground 5-1.
It was a chance for some of the players who wouldn't necessarily get a chance to play to stake a claim and they all did themselves and the county proud with their efforts.
The team of Charlie Taylor, Vicente Castillo, Darius Fatemi-Ghomi and Ethan Lee beat Northants 5-1. Ethan and Darius both won hard fought matches in three sets to give Cambs a 2-0 lead before Vicente went down in straight sets. Leading 2-1 with Charlie's singles to play, Charlie's opponent retired through injury late in the second set to hand Cambs an important 3-1 lead going into the two doubles. Charlie and Ethan soon despatched their opponents 6-1 6-1 to give Cambs the win before a good win from Darius and Vicente for an overall 5-1 win.
The rain came down on the 2nd day and the start was delayed. After hours of waiting around, the boys eventually played Berkshire and there was to be no repeat of the first day.
Darius lost 3-6 4-6 before Ethan again battled superbly before coming unstuck 3-6 in the 3rd set. Vicente found it tough playing at number 2 but kept fighting to the end and Charlie Taylor lost a very close match that meant Cambs 0-4 down after the singles. Charlie and Ethan won the doubles to make the final score 1-5
Playing the favourites, Sussex on the last day who had only dropped one rubber in twelve, Cambs knew it was a David vs Goliath moment and unfortunately Goliath won.
Sussex went on to win all four singles without dropping a set and carried it on with the doubles too.
Captain Chris Johnson said “the boys did well considering the inexperience at this age group as they could have played in the Lionel Cox U12 event. It was unfortunate that our top players couldn’t play as we would have had a good chance to win the whole event. However, it was a chance for others to gain some valuable experience and they all learnt lots from the weekend”