After a winter of progressive training, hard work and team bonding Cumbria’s 9&U squad took to the courts of the Sunderland Tennis Centre on Saturday the 19thof July for the annual 9&U County Cup.
With a strong but pretty young squad on show there was a heady mix of nerves and excitement as the team of Freddy Blaydes, Oscar Morgan, Daniel Woodcock, Lucy Dickinson, Lauren Bell and Romily Murray set out to compete against teams from Durham & Cleveland and Northumberland. And perhaps it was that heady mix combined with a physically stronger set of boys from Durham & Cleveland that meant the team struggled to settle early on and never really got the chance to show their true form. That true form though did start to appear and with each wining point despatched, each set claimed and each rubber won there was a sense that each player was becoming more confident as the event went on with both matches still being alive (4-2 down v Durham & Cleveland and 4-2 up v Northumberland) as we went into the crucial doubles stages. Like the singles there wasn’t really much to separate the three teams as match after match ebbed and flowed in the doubles and in two matches Cumbria had match points but were just unable to get over the finish line but, in the end the final scorelines of Durham & Cleveland 6 Cumbria 3 and Cumbria 6 Northumberland 3 with Durham & Cleveland winning the event were a fair reflection of the day’s play and the young Cumbrian team were pretty happy with their day’s work.
Apart from being superb ambassadors for their county with impeccable on and off court behaviour the young team were given 3 tasks for their day. These were to:
- Learn
- Improve
- Above all ENJOY!
That they all managed to achieve all 3 tells you everything about how proud I was of the way they played and the way they represented Cumbria and the positivity I feel for the future of these fantastic players.
- David Wise, Team Captain