On Saturday 17th July the Cornish tennis team travelled up to Taunton (Somerset) for the county cup competition against Devon, Somerset and Dorset. There was challenging weather but everyone raised themselves up for the challenge. Generally grey with very blustery winds and at times hot sunshine. Three boys and three girls would represent each county. The players selected for the teams were Oscar Pringle, Freddie Stone, Dan Hocking, Niamh Snell, Emily Becconsall and Aimee Polyblank.
The formation was to be singles matches followed by a doubles match against each county. The scoring system was the traditional tie break scoring best of three (first to 7, first to two sets).
Firstly Cornwall boys played Somerset winning all of their matches in 2 sets. Cornish girls faced the experienced Somerset side and had some close fought matches, with Aimee Polyblank getting the first set off Ola Pitak. There were some stunning shots during the games.
Both girls and boys met the highly rated Dorset team next. Freddie Stone just couldn’t get around Toby Samuel losing 9-7 7-4 in a well contested battle. Next Oscar Pringle had us on the edge of our seats after taking the first set off Ben Samuel but in the end the experience of the Dorset player overcame Oscar with Ben winning-2-1. Even though Cornwall couldn’t overcome the Dorset players a great effort was made by all.
Next up was the local derby of Cornwall against Devon. The Cornish girls beat Devon in straight sets and the boys, in spite of putting up a good challenge, lost in straight sets. Emily Becconsall in her first year of competitive tennis played brilliantly to beat Danielle of Devon 7-4, 7-5.
The overall positions were concluded by the results of the doubles matches.
Freddie Stone and Oscar Pringle combined to overcome Somerset with a comfortable 7-1, 7-5 victory. The girls and mixed doubles were well played but ended as victories for Somerset.
Dorset v Cornwall in the doubles proved to show us some very exciting matches with Niamh Snell and Emily Becconsall narrowly missing out on victory with a thrilling 2-1 defeat.
The conclusion of the day was the doubles matches against Devon. The team spirit showed through with Cornwall being victorious in all 3 matches. Dan Hocking worked well with Freddie Stone to pull off a nail biting 2 -1 win. All the players did extremely well against some very tough opponents.
Throughout the day the results ended up as so:
1. Dorset
2. Somerset
3. Cornwall
4. Devon
Debbie Hale (TPC for Devon and Cornwall) commented –
“The Cornwall team headed into the day with great confidence. With many players never experiencing such top level tennis but everyone was up for the challenge, Fighting spirit and smiley faces , Cornwall would be proud of today’s performances well done to all the players, reporters and team supporters plus team captain Kate Flavelle.”
Kate Flavelle (TeamCoach/Captain) commented –
“ Well done to Cornwall U9 team! Fantastic team effort from all the players and a big thank you to all the supporters who travelled up for the day.”
By Will Daniell Age 8