With 8 strong players it’s always tough to make the right decisions with the line up and our opponents provided different propositions with a good mixture of youth and experience in the opposing sides.
On Day one we began against Nottinghamshire and Eva Dench making her senior debut got us off to a winning start beating the higher rated (and former national junior finalist) Sarah Usher 6-2, 6-0. Abigail Claydon and Aimee Gibson won comfortably at no.5 and no.3 respectively while Georgina battled it out at no.4 to beat an incredible athletic veteran and former top British player Isabelle Tyler (nee Wild) 6-2, 4-6, 6-2 who is used to taking some young scalps with her incredible speed and consistency. Charlotte Phillips was much in form beating Carla Bell and Stephanie Cornish made things look easy at no.1 beating Emily Crowe 6-1, 6-2 to put us in a winning 5-1 position.
Nottinghamshire had their strength at no.2 in the doubles and Carla and Faye Watts recovered well from a shaky start to lose a close championship tie break. Mandy Wainwright and Georgina won at no.3 6-4, 6-2 and Steph and Aimee won 6-0, 6-4 at no.1. A 7-2 victory felt like a good performance as we thought this team could do well against the others. In the other match, Sussex led Cambridge 4-2 going into the doubles and I had planned our team as if were to play the losers Sussex on the next day. In a turnaround though, Cambridge took all 3 doubles to win 5-4 putting us against Sussex on day two.
With a slight amendment due to our opposition, Mandy came in at no.5 singles while Eva was rested. Having joked about Mandy being on court for a good few hours retrieving balls, she literally got on her bike to defeat an old junior rival, Julie Hanger (nee Dawson) 6-0, 6-0 in a flash. Abi lost a tough three setter at no.6 and Georgina couldn't finish it off at no.4 which put us 2-1 down with Aimee at set down against Elizabeth Thoms. Carla was battling at no.2 but despite being up in both sets lost out to Kate Smith. Aimee was fighting hard but found herself 5-4 down in the 2nd to Thoms. In a closely fought game, Thoms won a 24 stroke rally to give her match point. Aimee chose that moment rip an unstoppable forehand down the line and then also played the next match point down very well! From that moment on, she never looked back Providing the least grief at all was Steph at no.1 whobeatLucy Warburton 6-1, 6-1.
Carla and Abi won at no.3 with a spectacular match tie-break which they won 10-0! The other two doubles were both won in 2 tight sets so it was good the thirds had taken the pressure off.
Eva started off brilliantly, again playing a higher ranked opponent, but she soon saw a 4-1 lead drop and having held a set point lost a competitive tiebreak 7-5 and the second set unfortunately quickly followed. Sbi then lost out at no.5 to put us 2-0 down. Georgina at no.4 did well to win the first set 6-2 in her match but apart from a 2 game purple patch at 0-3 in the 2nd got worse to trail 2-5 40-0. Poised three courts away to get down on the court for the set break she turned a switch and found her game plan to make an impressive comeback to 6-5 up. Aimee meanwhile had a tough match against an undefeated Laura Oates and lost the first 7 points in a row with Laura flashing winners all over the place. She stuck in there though and turned the match around in that second game. Using her variation and attacking the balls that were on she dismantled the power and flare of Oates to defeat her 6-1, 6-1 in a truly impressive performance. While that was going on, George dumped a return in the net on her match point at 6-5 and found herself in a tie break. She saved a further 2 set points and then clinched the tie break to 10-8 to put us at 2-2 in rubbers.
Carla stormed through her match to win while Steph was in unfamiliar territory at 1-4 down against Stanford graduate Alice Barnes. It was a high level match with two very contrasting styles, but it was Barnes who took the first set on a tie break. Steph however, won the next two sets 6-1, 6-1 to put us at 4-2.
Carla and Faye at no.3 recovered from a 1-3 deficit to lead 5-3 and despite holding set points lost the first set in a tiebreak. It was like we could win all three but who was going to do it, no.2s were safe I was told. George and Abi were not playing well but took the first set 6-2 but found themselves down in the 2nd, I warned Aimee and Steph it was not safe as their doubles went on to a 3rd court and that they needed to play as if we needed all three. They were brilliant at the beginning storming to a 6-2 first set as Carla and Faye shook hands having lost. George and Abi played their match tie-break but the momentum wasn't ours and we lost it 10-6 and now it was down to the no.1s who trailed 2-5 in the 2nd at the time.
A match tie-break was to decide our fate with the most experienced doubles player on the other side of the net. We had a chance but the odds were definitely against us. From the balcony all we could do was cheer every point with the hope of another coming along. It didn't start that well we trailed 1-4, and 5-6. At 6-6 Steph withheld a pounding at the net which ended in a winning volley and then three points later we were 9-7. The rally was so long the opponents were at the net and Aimee scurrying for a drop volley hit the most amazing angled winner to make us champs!
So a dramatic end to a great weekend and the result definitely went the right way!! Thanks to all the players and the supporters who as usual made a great contribution to the result and that is one area where I believe we will never fall short!
Helen Crook
Ladies Captain