Team: Will Butler, James Caddies, Alex Curaba, Matthew Doe, Alexander Groves, Cameron Isbell, Edward Pudney, Tommy Smalley
Essex U18 Boy’s team have been promoted to Division 2 after a nail biting and dramatic finish to this years County Cup competition.
Pictured above: Will Calvert, Captain Boys JCC Captain and the U18 Boys Team
There was bad news a few days before departure when Rittik Anand was forced to pull out due to injury but spirits were still buoyant when the Essex convoy departed on a very windy Thursday lunchtime and made a very careful journey up to Grantham passing two over turned lorries on the M11 on the way.
Having safely booked into the Premier Inn we travelled to the venue for the event, the fabulous Grantham Tennis Club, surely an example to any venue of how it should be done, and keen to point out that they are a Tennis Club and not a Tennis Centre.
With practice over the squad prepared for Fridays play against the strong looking Sussex team and once the match got under way things started well for Essex with Matthew Doe making a winning debut at number six and James caddies at five coming through a tense three set struggle. Essex joy was short lived as Sussex struck back to win the next three rubbers in quick time. This left the number one singles to be played with Essex’s Edward Pudney pitted against the very strong and highly ranked Kai Maxted. What followed was a titanic struggle with Ed losing a tight first set 5-7 and than battling back from 2-5 down in both sets two and three to win an epic match 5-7, 7-6 (4), 7-6 (4) in 3 hours and 30 minutes. Everything was now down to the doubles and Matt and James quickly put Essex in front with a comfortable win but Sussex than fought back to level the match at 4-4 and than ran out a 5-4 win as the Essex first pair were defeated. A further team effort was required when Ed cramped so badly in the car on the way back to the hotel that he had to be carried to his room.
With a good nights sleep and a hearty Premier Inn breakfast under our belts we were ready for day two against the North of Scotland who had recorded a surprise 6-3 day one win against Leicestershire. Once again Essex got off to an excellent start with a fine debut from Alex Curaba and another good performance from Matt Doe we were 2-0 up in less than an hour. There was a slight hiccup when James Caddies lost to a strong North of Scotland number 4 but there were some fine performances from the Essex top order with Will Butler recording his first County Cup win in three sets and Tommy Smalley making a superb comeback from a desperate position to win another three hour plus match 3-6, 7-6(8), 7-6(3). Ed Pudney underlined the Essex mood and showed his physical resilience with a ruthless 6-0, 6-0, demolition at number one – this was not a case of his opponent playing badly, Ed produced a ruthless and near faultless display of sustained quality leading the Essex team from the front as he did all weekend. With an unassailable 5-1 lead the doubles was a little less tense than usual – Caddies and Doe continued with the quality they showed all weekend winning in less than an hour while Will Butler and Alexander Groves were unlucky to lose a tight second string doubles 10-8 in the deciding tie-break. Essex ran out to a 7-2 win when Ed paired at number 1 with one of the team’s youngest members – Cameron Isbell – to win the top doubles.
Meanwhile in the Sussex Leicestershire match things had gone to the wire and we assembled on the balcony to watch the top two doubles pairs play a third set match tie break to decide the whole tie. With the score at 9-8 the referee made an overall in Leicestershire’s favour and amongst uproar awarded the rubber and the tie to them. This meant that all teams had now recorded one win and that on day three anything could happen – promotion, relegation, or remain in the division – for all four teams.
We decided that the team for this crucial match would be unchanged and with the atmosphere at the venue having an electric quality day three began with Essex quickly off to a lead when the excellent Matt Doe again won in quick order and James Caddies than followed suit at number 4 to put Essex 2-0 ahead recording his second singles win of the competition. Alex Curaba finally succumbed to Daniel Tarokh in another three hour match tarnished by a number of disputes over line calls. Will butler increased the Essex lead building on his day two result and we were 3-1 ahead. Leicestershire quickly hit back with a win in the number two singles before we were treated to another fantastic number one singles with Ed playing the talented and free swinging Rahul Dhokia who simply couldn’t miss. It was a credit to Ed and his resilience and competitiveness that he was nearly able to turn this match finally going down to 4-6, 6-7(3), defeat.
While this had been going on James Caddies and Matt Doe had recorded their third doubles win and Essex were 4-3 ahead this quickly became 5-3 when Will and Alex Groves who had been very unwell for the two weeks prior to the event recorded an excellent doubles win with Groves superb both at the net and on return of serve and ably supported by some characteristic big hitting from Will. Meanwhile it became apparent that this lead was not going to be enough with Sussex finishing 7-2 winners against the North of Scotland it would be necessary for Ed and Cameron to win the first string doubles, anything less would see Sussex promoted and Essex remain in Division three. The performance from the Essex boys can only be described as inspired as they took to the court against the very strong Leicestershire pairing that included Ed’s singles opponent. From the outset the Essex boys displayed huge energy with both serving magnificently and hitting spectacular returns and making daring interceptions at the net. We lost count of the number of times the opposition tried to lob Cameron only to find another tremendous smash fly past their flailing rackets. The first set seemed to go in a flash – 6-3 Essex – and than Essex built a second set lead only to be broken at 4-3. Not to be phased they struck back immediately and having not got near Rahul’s serve for the whole match produced some inspired returns and volleys to break him for 5-4. Ed now showed his class with a top quality service game under the greatest pressure to serve the match out to love to the delight of the Essex team and supporters.
Luke and I would like to thank all the boys for a fantastic weekend of tennis where everyone worked as a team to make it happen – this was very much what the County Cup is about – everybody played and everybody won at least one rubber and at the end of the day one rubber was the difference.
We would also like to thank the parents for their support both at the event and of course for the tremendous commitment they make to their children’s tennis on an on going basis.
Massive thanks to Luke Spooner and Graham Ray for their unswerving support and commitment both before and during the event – this result could not have happened without you.
Finally, for two players this was their last of many junior County Cup campaigns across all age groups. James Caddies and Tommy Smalley have been loyal supporters of Essex Tennis since they were Mini Tennis players and have helped carry the Essex day on many occasions with this weekend being no exception. We wish them both well as they pursue both tennis and academic studies in the USA college system from August this year.
Will Calvert
U18 Boys JCC Captain