Team: Tylan Minnaar, Ben Powell, Finlay Dagnall
We started the county event by playing against Cornwall. Fin Dagnall played the first match and after a slow start, losing 4-0 in the first, he pulled through and won in the match tie break. This was a brilliant start for the team. Ben Powell won his match but unfortunately Tylan Minnaar lost his singles, after a playing really well in a tough battle.
The boys all played fantastically well against Wiltshire, each of them winning their singles. This gave the team a real boost and they were all pumped ready to play doubles. The team knew they had to beat Cornwall in doubles to win, but this was always going to be a challenge as they are known as good doubles players. Fin and Ben played the doubles and although they worked incredibly hard, they were defeated by the Cornwall team’s strength at the net. Unfortunately we lost the doubles so it was down to a tie break shoot out to decide on the winner. The pressure was on for the boys and I had a change around and put Tylan and Ben in to play. After changing their tactics, we came through to win the tie break 10-5. This was a brilliant win as they were one of the strongest doubles players at the event, so a fantastic achievement for our team. As we were already 3-0 after the Singles, we used the doubles match against Wiltshire as some good practice. Ben and Fin lost the match but it was good practice to sharpen up their doubles game.
The second day didn’t start as positively as Ben and Tylan both lost their matches against Devon. Fin played extremely well and won his match. We knew we had to win the doubles now but the team needed a confidence boost after losing some very close battles. The boys picked themselves up and Tylan and Fin started very well with some great doubles, in particular volleys, from both of them. Unfortunately they couldn’t maintain this level and they lost a set 4-2. Now we had a big battle on our hands. After changing tactics again, we started positively in the second set and went 2-0 up but the other team stepped up and took the second set too.
We lost our chance of being up against Avon in the final, but the boys experienced a lot of lessons. We now had to play for third or fourth place. Ben and Fin won their matches. Tylan played incredibly well against Cornwall’s number 1, taking the first set but unfortunately he was defeated and lost in three sets. Ben and Fin went on to play doubles but come up against some strong opposition losing in straight sets.
Well done to the team for working hard. All the boys were passionate and hopefully they’ve learnt lessons on how to deal with their emotions when on court. Captain’s player of the tournament was Finlay Dagnall as he played three exceptional matches and showed a positive attitude all weekend. Well done boys!
Nick Edwards (Team Captain)