Captain: Simon Thornewill
VENUE: Graves Tennis Centre, Sheffield
Teams in Group H: Yorkshire, Cumbria, Northumberland, Cheshire, Isle of Man
Team: Leo Harbey, Nathan Bates, Adam Rogers, Sam Butler
Event Format: 3 singles and 1 doubles (match shootout if needed)
On day 1 Derbyshire were drawn in the same box as Cheshire and Yorkshire. We started of against Cheshire, this proved to give us a good indication of how the weekend would pan out. The boys didn’t fair to well in the singles against Cheshire, where we lost all 3 matches. It was a eye opener for the boys because they don’t regularly compete at this level. With that said, the boys showed unbelievable fighting spirit and were willing to give it their best shot.
Later that day we came across another strong Yorkshire team. Once again the boys were up against national players and found it difficult to made any inroads against the Yorkshire team. All three of the boys lost their matches but there was some notable performances especially from Nathan Bates who was leading in the first set, he just couldn’t convert his chances. After the singles the boys played doubles against Cheshire and Yorkshire. Leo and Nathan lost to Cheshire 4-0 4-0, Adam and Sam lost to Yorkshire 4-0 4-0 . Tough day for the boys.
Derbyshire finished third in the group which meant we would play the team which finished third in the second group for the wooden spoon. That team would be the Isle of Man who was captained by a former Derbyshire coach Ian Watson.
The team were in good spirits after the disappointment of day 1. Leo and Sam started their singles matches brightly and it wasn’t long before Derbyshire were claiming their first set of the weekend. Leo won the first set 4-1 with some quality tennis, he went on to win the second 4-1 we had our first rubber of the weekend. On the other court Sam couldn’t convert his chances and ended up losing 4-2 4-1. Next up was Nathan playing at number 1 for Derbyshire. Nathan lost out 4-1 5-3 against a tough competitor which meant we were 1-2 down going into the doubles. Unfortunately Leo and Adam didn’t win the doubles losing 4-1 4-0, Derbyshire ended up losing 3-1 against Isle of Man.
It was a tough weekend for all of us, the boys were surprised by the level of players at county cup. All of the boys will be disappointed but will know what they got to do for them to compete at this level on a weekly basis. There was the usual Derbyshire team spirit that will hopefully remain there as they progress through the age groups.
Simon Thornewill