Essex Under 18 Boy’s 2014 County Cup Report
Essex Boys Under 18 team have failed to retain their Division 1 status despite best efforts against strong Surrey, Yorkshire, and Warwickshire sides.
The squad consisting of Sam Bayda, James Caddies, Jared Linzell, Peter Odegbami, Kane Patience, Ryan Peniston, Thomas Pudney, Thomas Styles, and Lewis Thompson assembled at Redbridge on Thursday morning in order to travel down to Bath for a long weekend of tennis against what we knew was going to be quality opposition.
Our first test was against Yorkshire and this was a match where Essex were on the receiving end of a number of close defeats as our players struggled to get used to the slow pace of the courts. A number of players went very close with the excellent Ryan Peniston recording our only win in an 8-1 defeat.
Day two and the opposition was Surrey. We had been joined by Shamael Chaudhry who came into the side at number 6 and was quickly engaged in an epic singles battle which he eventually won in three sets. Thomas Pudney followed Shamael with Thomas making his U18 County Cup debut. A superb match followed with Tom battling back from a set down to eventually lose in three sets. This was a really gritty effort with Pudney battling through injury and cramp. Despite best efforts Bayda and Linzell were unable to overcome strong opposition. Peniston showed his class with a second singles win to leave us 4-2 down going into the doubles. There followed two tremendously exciting doubles with Peniston and Styles and Chaudhry and Thompson both triumphing in third set match tie breaks. Bayda and Linzell battlerd hard but were unable to resist a very strong Surrey first pairing and so we were defeated 5-4.
Day three saw us playing the undefeated Warwickshire. James Caddies made his U18 debut playing at number 5 against the very strong Bjorn Thompson and although James was defeated he made an impressive effort and was never dominated by his opponent. Shamael was unable to finish off his opponent in a long match and Kane Patience also struggled against a strong opponent. Ryan Peniston and Thomas Pudney put Essex on the scoresheet with excellent singles wins. Unfortunately Lewis Thompson suffered a recurrence of an arm injury during his singles and we were left 4-2 down going into the doubles where Warwickshire were able to close out the match and get their hands on the National Title for the first time in 47 years.
We were of course all disappointed with the result, but all of the players worked very hard in every rubber and we had to accept that we had lost to strong opposition that had played very well.
Many thanks to all of the parents who turned out to watch and cheer the boys on your support was, as always, most welcome.
Finally thanks to my Vice Captain Luke Spooner and to Selection Committee member Graham Ray for your advice and constant support.
Will Calvert – 2014 Essex Boy’s County Cup Captain
Photo: L to R:
James Caddies(kneeling)/Will Thomas Pudney/Jared Linzell/Peter Odegbami/Ryan Peniston/Kane Patience/Sharmael Chaudhry/Lewis Thompson/Sam Bayda/Luke, Tom Styles