The Durham & Cleveland 14 & Under Girls team represented by Beth Laybourne, Vaniya Moradi, Georgia Brennan, Cara Todd, Ellie Tweddle and Halle Pringle played at Chatsworth Tennis Club in Carlisle over the bank holiday weekend.
With five other teams also playing D&C were put in a group with Yorkshire and East of Scotland, Saturday’s opener against eventual runners up Yorkshire ended in a 5-1 loss but was closer than the score suggests. After losing our first 3 singles matches in straight sets Beth Laybourne put up a great fight at number 1 against a higher rated player but narrowly missed out 7-6, 6-7, 6-4. Both doubles matches then went the whole distance with Beth and Cara Todd pulling out a win at number 1 in a match tie break 3rd set and Vaniya Moradi and Georgia Brenna just being edged out in their match tie break.
Day 2 saw a long rain delay and so short sets were used against East of Scotland, the team went about business in a very professional manner given the way the day had dragged and all 4 singles matches were won comfortably by Beth, Vaniya, Georgia and Cara. The doubles then gave the team 1 extra point with Beth and Halle getting a very convincing win at number 2, the result against East of Scotland ended with a 5-1 victory.
On day 3 D&C were playing off for 3rd place against South of Scotland, again the girls were focused from the beginning and Cara, Georgia and Vaniya all won their matches reasonably quickly. Beth had a more challenging match at number 1 but showed good determination in just managing to win in straight sets 6-4 7-6 (9-7). With four rubbers in the bag D&C had already secured 3rd place, and to finish the weekend off Vaniya and Georgia won their doubles match to give a 5-1 win.
A challenging weekend given the weather and after a tough start against Yorkshire the girls did very well to convincingly take third place behind very strong Yorkshire and Lancashire teams. Well done to all 6 girls.