An early start to get to Corby and get on the practice courts before Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire and Yorkshire. The team consisted of Alex Groves, Joseph Lampon, William Shepherd and Johnny Price. Essex boys had a couple of injuries so it allowed the team to have some fresh faces.
Pictured left to right: Alex Groves, Johnny Price, William Shepherd and Joseph Lampon
Herts
Alex won comfortably in straight sets dominating from the start. Joe took the first set against a boy who was a rating higher, but couldn't keep up his performance eventually losing in the Championship tiebreak
.
Will who came in as a last minute reserve who was still recovering from sickness, battled well but went down in 2 sets. So Essex was behind 2-1 with Johhny to play, He played amazing but like Joe lost in 3 close sets.
Yorkshire
Essex got well beaten by Yorkshire with our No 1 & 2 losing in Championship tiebreaks.
Our 3 & 4 lost in straight sets to very strong opponents. To be fair we lost 4-0 but could've been 2-2 if we had taken our chances.
Cambs
Alex started off fantastically well for Essex getting his 2nd rating win of the day in a titanic 3 set battle. Joe played his best match of the day but again lost in a Championship tiebreak. Will played an in form Derrick Chen, he played his best match but lost in 2 sets. So it was up to Johnny to give us the draw. He played fantastic attacking tennis and won in straight sets to make the match 2-2
So overall we competed well but just came up short against higher rated and ranked opposition. But with younger players getting vital county experience I'm sure we will be ok for the summer county cup.
Special mention to the players, who put in tremendous effort on the day. Thanks to William who was given 12 hours notice to play and Joe who missed out on 3 wins by courtesy of 3 shoot out tiebreaks. Alex was determined as normal and will now be missed as he goes into 14's from April.
Thanks to the parents who supported the team and again supplied me with hot beverages.
Darren Rogers
U12 Boys Captain