Following a heart breaking summer Aegon County Cup, where the ladies narrowly missed out on promotion, the team had to pick themselves up ready for the winter event!
This was never in doubt and the attitude and commitment was second to none with all players training prior to the event at various locations across the North East and down south. We knew the competition was going to be tough but the positive team ethos travelled down to Barnstaple and everyone was determined to represent the County with pride and honour!
To entertain us on the 7 hour road trip, DJ’s Yasmin Tanfield and Iona Amos played a fine and random selection of tunes (once Jo had worked out how to sort bluetooth out)!!! We were also treated to the team sweet shop, which included anything from flapjacks, tangfastics and the extra-large box of maltezers!
Waking up after a 7 hour journey the night before could have gone 2 ways but fortunately the girls were up for facing North Wales and the matches got underway at Tarka Tennis Centre.
Iona, Yaz and Lydia were on first round and we were 2-1 up after these singles. Jo, Nicola and Caitlin followed them on court and going into the doubles we were 3-3. Close was an understatement but we knew our doubles teams were strong throughout. Proof of our doubles strength saw us take all 3 matches and overall team victory 6-3! That deserved a team selfie!
The positivity that we took from the North Wales match saw us wake up Saturday facing Devon. We knew we had to give our all because they were a very strong team and after all singles and the first 2 doubles it was 4-4. Caitlin and Libby were the last match on but playing against an extremely strong pair. They lost the first set and it was nose to tail in the second but with grit, determination and cheering on from the team they kept going to take it to a tiebreak! Finger nails were gone and voices lost because it couldn’t have been any closer but in the end we lost the tiebreak and the overall match 5-4.
This meant we had to beat Somerset the next day to have a chance to gain promotion and after a great team dinner and banter on the Saturday night we were as relaxed and pumped as we could be! We even found a new team van in Barnstaple with ‘living the dream’ on the side!!!!
So Sunday morning came with a slightly earlier start and we were off to a flyer with Captain Fletcher slicing her way to victory (she has never lost it!) and then Lydia winning in 3 close sets against their number 4. 2-1 after the first round so pressure was on with the final 3 singles to play. Jo went on first and after a bit of a slow start came through to win in 2 sets. Nicola lost to a tough opponent and the warrior of the weekend, Caitlin Hindmarsh was on against Natalie Ayton who was unbeaten throughout the weekend. Caitlin had played incredibly well all weekend showing us her true grit and determination to succeed. The Sunderland based player battled till the end but eventually lost after another marathon match. So 3-3 again after the singles but once again the doubles pairing were confident heading into the final round of competition. With arms aching and toenails missing Lydia and Jo started really strong but then started to stop doing the things that had got them into the first set position! After a talking to each other at the change of ends they took the first set. They then went on to take a 4-1 lead and then the opposition played 2 unbelievable games to bring it back to 4-3! But realising the consequence of losing a 2nd set means a match tiebreak instead of 3rd spurred the pair on to win the next 2 games!
This meant Yaz and Nicola needed to win their doubles to 1) seal victory and 2) save Libby and Caitlin’s bodies from playing another match before the 7 hour road trip home! The pair did themselves and the County proud by winning a very close match with fine volleying and perfect team work. This meant D&C had won the tie 5-3.
The last doubles wasn’t played because the referee had spent the previous hour working out all possibilities but Durham & Cleveland couldn’t catch Somerset. Although this was a gutting outcome to a tremendous weekend all of the team felt it had still been a victory. Mainly because everyone had given their all, the team ethos had been spot on and all teams had played fairly and played the game how it should be!
The team consisted of Caitlin Hindmarsh, Nicola Tweedy, Jo Cunliffe, Lydia Perkins, Yasmin Tanfield, Iona Amos and Libby Fletcher (Captain).
Captain Libby Fletcher said,
“I am so proud of the team and their performance. We were a team this weekend and it shone through to see us win 2 out of the 3 ties. We are all very excited about the future and looking forward to Aegon Summer County Cup next July!”
This left the 7 hour DJ set part 2 to take place, along with the D&C Team sweet shop reopening for the journey back to the North East!!!
The team are eagerly waiting the venue for Aegon Summer County Cup 2015!
Aegon County Cup events give players the opportunity to represent their County in team competition in national/regional stages. The age group categories range from 9U to 35+.
Events are held at different times of the year and in order to compete players have to be selected by their County.
In the Summer, Winter and 18U Events, the 44 competing counties are organised into groups according to their performance in the previous year’s event.
Team composition and match formats vary from event to event with singles matches qualifying for rating wins and ranking points.