The Essex Under 12 girls team did themselves proud at the recent County Cup competition near Corby in Northamptonshire in the middle weekend of Wimbledon.
The team of Katie McGarringle, Denva Mai Bird, Sophia Herman and Zuzanna Glowacz ended the weekend with some new friends, some great memories and some stiff legs after hard-fought matches against Camridgeshire, Norfolk, Bedfordshire and Suffolk.
Action on a windy Saturday morning with the first tie against favourites Cambridgeshire. It was always going to be a tough task to beat a team full of higher-rated players and so it proved.
Katie was beaten by Anna Loughlan, Denva lost to Kira Reuter and Sophia was beaten by Aisha Brown before Denva and Zuzanna teamed up for an entertaining doubles match, losing a couple of close sets.
Next up was Norfolk. Team captain Roddy McGarringle shuffled the pack a little with Katie, Denva and Zuzanna playing the singles and Katie and Sophia teaming up for the doubles. Katie lost a close match against Rosie Pooley, Denva lost to Megan Lait and Zuzanna was a little unlucky not to win the first set against Katherine Barnes.
As the rain fell, Katie and Sophia battled away in a howling gale to lose a tiebreak second set against Norfolk’s doubles pair.
That concluded the day’s action and despite none of the girls having won a rubber, there were no long faces and they all headed back to the hotel around the corner for some relaxation. Later that evening the girls and their parents enjoyed a lovely meal in an old-fashioned pub in Rockingham village, which was overlooked by a huge castle. After that it was back to the hotel to watch Andy Murray play Marcos Baghdatis on the television.
Sunday morning and the girls were all up for their matches, determined to get a win.
It was windy again and cool, but that did not deter any of the players who showed a great attitude all weekend in testing conditions.
Bedfordshire were the next opposition and although the match again ended 8-0, that did not really reflect the closeness of the tie.
Sophia was steady against the harder-hitting Olivia Scott, taking the first set 4-1, before losing her way a bit in the second and losing it 4-0. The match tiebreak was poised at 6-6 before Olivia reeled off four good points.
Denva and Katie both battled away also before Denva and Zuzanna teamed up for the doubles, losing 5-3 5-4 (4).
That left Suffolk to play and Essex ended the weekend on a high after winning a thriller.
Katie got her first win of the weekend when she beat Georgia Davis 10-6 in a match tiebreak and Denva then pulled out all the stops to beat Florence Kenworthy.
Zuzanna lost a match tiebreak to Harriet Petley and then in the deciding doubles it was nip and tuck between Katie and Sophia and Sofia Khalyaeya and Georgia Davis. After losing the first set and going 3-0 down in the second Sophia and Katie stormed back to win five games in a row.
Sadly, Essex lost the match tiebreak to leave the score at 2-2.
Sophia and Katie then returned to court to play a deciding match tiebreak and came through 10-6, with some great on-court celebrations, to clinch a first victory of the weekend.
All four girls played their hearts out and would have learned a lot from the experience and Roddy really appreciated their efforts.
“The event was really well run despite the conditions and I would like to thank all the girls for making my job easy with their enthusiasm , effort and team spirit,” Roddy said. “I would also like to thank the parents for their help and support.”