The U14 girls headed to Roehampton for their qualifying group. We had a last minute withdrawal from the team due to injury but Tyra Nicole-Whyte stepped in at the last minute. On the Saturday the girls took on Oxfordshire and we went 4-0 up after the singles without the drop of a set. The doubles was another clean sweep so 6-0 to Essex. Due to the weather that was going to deteriorate on the Sunday we played our singles against Gloucestershire as well. The winds picked up and began to get quite cold, we had 3 matches on the go so it was hard to cheer and support all of them but we did our best and the girls did well winning 3 out of the 4 to lead 3-1. It was a long day not leaving the club until 730pm so by the time we got back to the hotel it was a quick change and dinner before all of us crashing out.
Sunday we only had 2 doubles to play and the girls won both matches to beat Gloucestershire 5-1 and set up a final day showdown with Surrey for a chance to make the finals.
Every match was a hard fought contest with no 3 player Ashleigh Hale just losing out in a 2h45 marathon match to ELISA Van Meeteren. Andre Lukosiute battled very well to come through in 2 close sets against Jizel Matos-Sequeira Fernandes and keep hopes alive. Both doubles were a must win to level the match but unfortunately this didn't quite happen. Our No 1 pair of Annail and Andre narrowly losing in a match tie break to the strong Surrey pairing of Gemma Heath and Jizel.
The girls were a credit to their county with good sportsmanship and team spirit so well done to you all.