The best of Cornwall’s young tennis players competed in the Aegon Junior County Cup over the last weekend in February.
The Boys U18 team travelled to Shrewsbury to play in group 5a, the team consisting of Tad Maclean (Newquay), Kieran Roskell-Thomas (Truro), Nick Peters (Redruth), Charlie Newman (Truro), Oshi Leverton (Newquay), Jacob Holmes (Newquay), and Ben Vulliamy (Truro). The team was accompanied by team captains Tim Webster and Adrian Williams.
Joining Cornwall in the group were Staffordshire, Durham & Cleveland and Devon. On the first day Cornwall faced Staffordshire, which proved to be a tough opening fixture. After losing the first four singles rubbers Cornwall’s numbers 1 and 2 Maclean and Roskell-Thomas came through extremely difficult matches victoriously to keep the tie alive, meaning the tie came down to the deciding doubles fixtures. Again the Cornish boys fought as hard as they could but could only manage to win two of the three rubbers they needed to avoid defeat. This resulted in a narrow Staffordshire 5-4 win on the day.
Durham & Cleveland awaited Cornwall on day two. Again this proved to be an excellent display of tennis but the northern team had a little too much for the Cornish boys and ran out 7-2 winners. Cornwall’s wins came from Tad Maclean, who then teamed up with Oshi Leverton to take a doubles win at 2nd pair.
Devon had also lost their two ties on the previous days and so the final day left old foes Cornwall and Devon to face each other in what was a relegation battle. This proved to be the tie of the weekend which neither team wanted to lose. After the singles, the Cornish boys had built up a 4-2 lead with great displays from the whole team but a very special mention must go to Cornwall’s number 3 Nick Peters who claimed a vital rubber 7-6 in a third set tie break in no less than 3.5 hours of on court battle. All that was left was to win one of the remaining three doubles rubbers and the Cornish were safe. After a few more hours on court, it was Cornwall’s first pair doubles team of Nick Peters & Kieran Roskell-Thomas that delivered the result with an outstanding three set win, and Cornwall beating Devon 5-4 to remain in Group 5. 
The Girls 18U team, in Group 5b, had less distance to travel as they were competing at the Tarka Centre in Barnstaple.
The team was comprised of Nadia Rawson, Arielle Fitkin, Beth Cole, Holly Drew, Anya Gough, Niamh Snell, Flossie Cameron-Webb, Macey Laidlaw, with Ryan Fern and India Rojano team Captains.
First up was Northamptonshire, who fielded a much younger and inexperienced side then the Cornish girls. Cornwall go off to a flyer to record a fantastic 8-1 win, the only defeat coming in a very tight doubles match at second pair. This set up a match against Lincolnshire on day 2. This proved to be a very tight match with lots of twists and turns, Nadia Rawson and Arielle Fitkin at numbers 1 and 2 came through relatively unscathed and Anya Gough enjoyed a three set victory at Number 4. This left the tie at 3-3 after the singles, but unfortunately the Cornish girls could only pick up one of the doubles rubbers and again Cornwall were on the wrong end of a 5-4 scoreline. This left Cornwall to play the unbeaten team of Wiltshire who had lost only one match throughout the competition and included a player who had recently played in the Australian Open. This turned out to be a step too far for the Cornish team, however it was a great team effort by all the players and there is every reason to be positive as we look forward to next year.