LTA County Cup Summer 2017
Captains Reports
Men
This was certainly a topsy-turvy week for the Essex Men’s Team playing in the premier Group ONE down at Devonshire Park Eastbourne last week. (24th-28th July). The team started the week with a resounding 6-3 victory over Suffolk, with local player Ryan Peniston and Manningtree’s Henry Patten winning all 3 rubbers.
Pictured: Our Ladies County Team together with Mel Holmes (Captain) and Darren Rogers (Selector)
Tuesday was a very narrow 5-4 defeat against last year’s champions Kent, with local player Rob Carter and Woodford’s Rich Wire winning 2 rubbers.
Wednesday was a rain day and only 1 round was completed, meaning that 2 further rounds had to be played the following morning, before another full match in the afternoon. Essex ended up 4-2 up against Middlesex by midday on Thursday, but unfortunately lost all 3 rubbers in the 3rd round, meaning another 5-4 defeat. In the afternoon the team took on the so far unbeaten Hertfordshire side and with some good tactical changes in team pairings, literally blew them apart for 7-2 victory. Rob Carter and Rich Wire won 2 as did Ryan Peniston and Dave Wright, but Gidea Park’s Tom Higgins was in superb form, as was partner Henry Patten and they pulled out all the stops to beat the Hertfordshire 1st pair who had won 11 from 11 before playing Tom and Henry.
The last day was very much rain interrupted, although the team managed an 8-1 victory over Surrey and were then again in with a shout of winning the entire competition. This may have happened if Kent’s Captain Andy Begoyne had not injured himself in the 2nd round final set tie-break. Essex ended up runners up with victory going to Jeff Wayne’s Herts team.
It was a really hard fought week and there was a point where we were just 1 game away from a 4th win, which would have given us the championship.
The Men will now be in Group One for the Winter County Cup in Bath.
Jamie Willson/Essex Men’s non-playing Captain
Ladies
The Essex Ladies Team were back in Cromer in Division 2 this summer.
Our full team was Eden Silva, Aimee Gibson, Olivia Sofroniou, Iva Saric, Alex Jones, Andre Lukosiute, Annali Olivelle, Rachel Porter and Phoebe Collins.
On Monday we played Yorkshire and lost 6-3, The only matches won, were from the impressive pairing of Aimee and Livs. All 3 of Alex and Andre's matches were winnable but they were unsuccessful. Our young pairing of Phoebe and Annali also had close battles but just didn't get those big finishing points.
Tuesday saw Monday's rained off match being finished first thing in the morning, and then we started our match against Norfolk. Unfortunately Rachel's flight from Madeira had been cancelled, but Eden managed to get to Cromer for the second and third round, winning the only 2 rubbers for that day with Aimee.
Wednesday we had our strongest team available (although Rachel still remained stranded in Madeira) and our 1s Aimee and Eden continued their success of remaining undefeated together after their 15/15 last year.
At number 2, Iva paired up with Livs, who after a year at Loughborough, now showed strong seniority and the pair took out Cheshire's number 1 pairing of World ranked Eden Richardson and Hannah McColgan in a nail biting 10 point tie-breaker third set. We beat Cheshire 6-3, with Andre and Alex getting their first win of the week.
On Thursday against Bucks our 1s and 2s won all their matches and Andre and Alex won 1 match at number 3 to give us a 7-2 win.
Going into Friday, we had a chance of winning division 2, staying in Division 2, or being relegated!
Winning overall was out of our hands because it depended on Norfolk's match.
The only thing we could do was go out, guns firing and win everything we could.
We won 8-1!
So, overall we finished second and we are off to Eastbourne to join the lads next year.
What a fantastic team we now are. The atmosphere was fab. Team spirit was great and I can't wait for them to experience D1 at Eastbourne next year.
All support will be welcomed as always, and massive thanks to those who came and cheered us on this year.
We would also love your support at Redbridge for the Winter County Cup in November.
Mel Holmes/Ladies Captain