The 18U Boys County Team travelled to Prestwick, Scotland to compete in group 6 of the Aegon County Cup event. The team consisted of Ben Lakeman, Kieran Roskell-Thomas, Kieron Butter, Alex Wright, Finn Leverton, Oshi Leverton and Liam Manning. Traveling coaches Matt Trudgeon and Tim Webster The other teams in our group were South of Scotland, Isle of Man and Durham and Cleveland.
Day one, saw us take on the home team, South of Scotland. Liam playing at 6 and Finn at 5 got the competition started and both delivered wins for Cornwall. Liam in a comfortable win and Finn fighting back from a set down and saving five match points in a match that lasted over three hours. Alex Wright played at 4 and Kieron Butter at 3. Alex produced a solid performance to overcome is opponent and Kieron again battled past a tricky opponent winning in a very competitive three sets. Kieran Roskell-Thomas played at 2 and Ben Lakeman at 1. Both Kieran and Ben went out and quickly stamped their authority on the match and took control bringing in two more rubbers and giving Cornwall a 6-0 rubber count after the singles, Something that doesn't happen that often in County Cup.
Knowing the tie is already won the doubles pairings of Ben Lakeman and Kieron Butter No1, Liam Manning and Kieran Roskell-Thomas No2, Alex Wright and Oshi Leverton No3 all played well and with the thoughts that rubbers could be important by the end of the weekend all produced good wins to give Cornwall a 9-0 win over South of Scotland.
Day two, we played Isle of Man. With the team on a high from a good win the day before Liam Manning (6) and Oshi Leverton (5) got day two off to the perfect start with both players proving to strong for their opponents and quickly firing Cornwall into a 2-0 lead. Alex wright (4) and Kieron Butter (3) not wanting to be left out of continuing the good results also quickly dispatched their opponents and doubled Cornwall's lead to 4-0. Kieran Roskell-Thomas (2) and Ben Lakeman (1) took on their opponents knowing that if either of them won, it would mean we could not be caught and neither of them disappointed, both winning good matches and again giving Cornwall a rare 6-0 lead after the singles. With strong performances from the day before the doubles line up remained the same and all three pairs once again produced and we won all three ties, giving Cornwall another and extremely rare but well deserved 9-0 win over the Isle of Man.
Day three, was a the group decider against a strong Durham and Cleveland. They had also won both days so it was a straight shoot out to get to five rubbers.
Liam again played at 6 and unfortunately found his opponent to strong on the day. Oshi at 5 also found his opponent in great form and suffered defeat. This meant that we trailed 2-0 after the first round of matches. Alex Wright at 4 also lost out in a very tight match that kept moving back and forth as both players would take what looked like a convincing lead only to be pegged back by the other. Kieron Butter at 3 competed extremely hard , but it was not to be, missing out in a very close match and leaving Cornwall 4-0 down. Kieran Roskell-Thomas at 2 produced some great tennis and fighting spirit to come back from 5-2 down first set to win it 7-5, and then recover from loosing a tight second set to go on and win in convincing style the third giving Cornwall a life line and our first rubber of the day. Ben Lakeman at 1 was taking on a player a few ratings above him and although a year younger ranked in the top 6 in the country for his age. Ben got off to the best start possible leading 5-2 in the first set but then his opponent showed why he is ranked and rated as he is and reeled off the next 5 games to take the set and turn the tie in his favour. Unfortunately this loss now meant Durham and Cleveland had got to the magic number five and win the group with Cornwall finishing as runners-up.
All players couldn't of given more. They all worked extremely hard, showed good team spirit and represented the county well, fighting for every point. It was a real pleasure to travel with them and I think a good insight and experience for the players to feel what its like to travel like a full time player by getting different modes of transport planes, trains and automobiles....etc.