After gloomy month or so on the south coast, we were very lucky to enjoy a glorious day for our 9U county cup competition in Taunton on Saturday.
The competition took place in Taunton Tennis Club and ran on a round robin format. Our mixed team was made of; Alex Knox-Jones, Harrison MacDonald-Taylor, Rory Bale, Sophia Hurrien, Jessica Holloway and Aysha Roocroft. The team defeated Somerset, Cornwall and Devon on the way to clinch the title!
The morning saw all the counties competing against each other in their correspondinf singles matches. There were some amazing battles between Sophia Hurrien and Grace Piper of Somerset, and between Sophia Hurrien and Emily Simms of Devon. Aysha Roocroft and Jessica Holloway won all their singles matches with solid performances.
In the boys section Alex Knox-Jones played as in the number one position and had to battle hard in every single match, however managed to come through and win 2 out of the 3 matched he played. Harrison struggled in the morning but still managed to gain a vital singles win for the team. Rory Bale managed to beat 2 players who he had never beaten before, these being Will Chesterman of Somerset and Mathew Ratter of Devon. Rory battled bravely to defeat his rivals and secure another vital 2 wins for the Dorset team.
By lunch time we were 4 points to 2 up against each of the Counties within the group, which meant that the team only needed to win one out of each of the 3 doubles against each county to secure the title.
First up in the afternoon were Somerset, and the team did enough to secure victory by winning one out of the three doubles matches. The next in line were Cornwall, where the team managed to win two out of the three doubles matches. Last but not least we had to beat Devon, and the team rounded off the day in style. After 25minutes and 3 sets later Jess and Aysha won the girls doubles. Alex and Harrison's partnership was the most dynamic and exciting, however it wasn't quite enough to beat their opponents, however Rory and Sophia pulled off a great mixed doubles win to claim the round off a highly successful day!
The team was captained by Aviran Reuven, who looks forward to captaining the team next year to defend our title!
C'MON DORSET!!