The late, and much welcomed, availability of Rob Carter for this year’s event gave Essex great hope of a good showing on home turf at Redbridge. He, along with Joe Hall and David Wright, gave the team some experience at the top of the team to complement the youth lower down the order- indeed we had five players making their first U18 JICC appearance. Although promotion was the goal, we knew that a win on the first day would also make relegation an unlikely prospect.
Essex duly managed to sneak a 5-4 victory on the Friday against Buckinghamshire, although it was more one sided than the overall score line would suggest. An inability to win the tight matches meant that the match came down to the doubles and, while not always plain sailing, the boys got the two straight sets victories that they needed. An excellent singles debut from Ben Stevenson was the highlight of the day, although shots of the day (and weekend) were undoubtedly from veteran Joe Hall.
The weekend provided stiffer competition for Essex, as both Sussex and Lancashire were stronger in depth. Although we threatened to win on both days, the greater strength in depth of both teams was enough to prevent Essex from gaining promotion. We did boast the best player in Rob Carter, who rose from his sickbed to win eight sets for the loss of ten games. David Wright finished his junior county career with an excellent win at number two against Lancashire, and Nick Hilder, on his first and last JICC appearance, was a combative number six who very nearly had three singles victories.
Captain Howard McGuiness was, for the most part, impressed with how a young team improved and matured as the weekend wore on, and they will be stronger and better equipped to go for promotion in 2012.
Team: Robert Carter, Joe Hall, Nick Hilder, Frankie Langan, Joe Rees, Ben Stevenson, Lewis Thompson, Louis Watts, David Wright, Howard McGuiness (Captain)
Simon Harston