Essex Men and Ladies were in action once again in the Winter County Cup. The men were at the University of Bath and the ladies at Redbridge Sports and Leisure. Both teams did us proud and we have our two teams up in Division with the ladies gaining promotion. Well done to all!
Men - Group 1 Berkshire/Essex/Surrey/Herts.
Players
Will Butler/Robert Carter/Alex Grovdes/Matt Pearce/Ryan Peniston/Ed Pudney/Marshall Tutu/Richard Wire/David Wright
Ladies - Group 2
Middlesex/Essex/SussexDerbyshire
READ THE REPORTS FROM THE CAPTAINS
Report from the Mens Captain, Jamie Willson
Essex Men travelled to Bath with a somewhat weakened team compared to the summer, with Henry Patten
unavailable as at college in the USA and Simon Harston unable to get time off from his coaching
role in the USA. Tom Higgins was unavailable, and Richard Wire could not get Friday off of work.
During the build up week it was looking even worse with Ryan Peniston and Rob Carter still playing
a Futures in Greece. They had reached the semi-final of the doubles, but decided to pull out and
return home on the Thursday and Graham Ray was kind enough to pick them up at Stansted airport, as
they needed to travel directly to Bath to be ready for Friday morning.
Without Rich Wire, Friday against Hertfordshire was always going to be difficult, although there
was a great win for Ryan against Neil Banford (6-4, 6-3) and a fantastic effort by Alex Groves to
defeat Lewis Roskilly (6-2, 4-6, 7-5) in a match that really seesawed back and forth and was not
over until the last ball was hit! Marshall played superbly and won 2 straight against the
Hertfordshire number 3, but 3 rubbers was all we could actually muster and unfortunately lost 6-3.
On Saturday with Richard Wire back in the team, we had an excellent win against Surrey and after
losing both singles at 5 and 6, went on to win 7-2 which then meant that it was all to play for on
Sunday, as either Berkshire or ourselves would be runners up and the other team relegated.
Sunday was in fact a really tough day and started with Dave Wright performing superbly to come back
and win in 3 sets and Matt Pearce unfortunately going down in 3 sets. Rich Wire then had a great
win, overcoming injuries in his shoulder and forearm, although Marshall was unable to recapture his
form from the previous 2 days, which left us sitting at 2 all before the last 2 singles.
Rob Carter lost to Neil Paulfrey, but Ryan had a fantastic 3 set win over Markus Willis. (Both
Willis and Paulfrey are ranked in the top 500 in the world and Willis was 3 round doubles at
Wimbledon this year).
Dave Wright and Marshall Tutu hardly errored in a 6-2, 6-2 win against Berkshire's 2nd doubles, but
unfortunately heavily injured Richard Wire playing with 16 year old Alex Groves could not continue
their form of the previous day and lost 6-2, 6-4 which left the final doubles on court with Ryan
and Rob facing Willis and Oliver Okonkwo.
Despite some very strong serving from both opponents our boys managed to pull through 7- 6 (6), 7-6
(4) in the last match of the day, which was being watched by everyone left at the centre!
Essex ended up runners up to Hertfordshire and with the promotion of Essex ladies from Group 2,
both the men and the ladies will be in the top flight next year.
Jamie Willson
Essex Men's Captain
28/11/2017
Report from the Ladies Captain,Mel Holmes
The ladies team were in division 2b at Redbridge with Derbyshire, Sussex and Middlesex.
Day 1 we took on Derbyshire. Sian Green, fresh out of retirement won comfortably at 6, Andre the Lithuanian giant won convincingly at 5, Annali was unstoppable in her win at 4, and Livs of super solid winning at 3. Iva Saric fought hard through 3 sets and although having match points in the third set tie break she was closely defeated.
Aimee at 1 also tried her best to grind it out, but her opponent managed to hit bombs from all over the Court.
We then finished up the day with pairings of Eden (off the back of her first £15k singles title) and Aimee at 1, Iva and Livs at 2 and Annali and Andre at 3 all bringing in wins for a 7-2 finish.
On Day 2 we took on Sussex who had lost to Middlesex 9-0 on Day 1.
Everyone won everything and we also managed the 9-0 win.
Day 3 saw Essex playing Middlesex with the winning team to gain promotion to division 1. We started very strong with Sian, Andre and Annali all securing wins. Unfortunately the top end of the Middlesex team was very tough and we finished the singles with a 3-3 score.
Sian and Andre brought in the first doubles win, taking us to a 4-3 lead. Then Livs and Annali clawed back from being a set down, to win the second set 6-2. It then went to a ten point championship tie breaker for the third set. The Essex supporters (parents and Redbridge members) stepped it up a gear (special mention to Nick Sof for his mega loud clap) lifted the Essex pair and they won 10-6.
What a fantastic 3 days with a team aged from 15 to 34 all supporting, all fighting for their wins and all celebrating such great success.
4 players were undefeated all weekend, Sian, Andre, Annali and Eden, and Aimee and Eden now have a 30 match winning streak representing Essex together in doubles.
What a team to be proud of! Division 1, here we come.
Mel Holmes
Essex Ladies Team Captain