Hampshire & IOW 18U Boys team were in Group 4b which was played at David Lloyd Southampton over the weekend of 26th-28th February 2016.
The squad this year was: George Barfoot, Liam Hignett, George Houghton, Jake Norris, Jin Zizheng, Austin Gwilliam, Ryan Hutchinson and William Coward
Team Captains: Mike Booth and Karim Aouichaoui
Day 1 vs Berkshire
Our first match was against Berkshire and on paper it looked like we should be comfortable and so it proved as we raced to 6-0 lead after the singles all with straight set wins. We won the doubles at 2 and 3 but lost at 1 so ran out comfortable winners at 8-1.
Day 2 vs Northamptonshire
On the middle day we were up against Northants who had lost on the first day. We kept the singles the same order but Ryan paired up with Will as 3rd doubles.
We started strongly with wins from Austin, Jin, Jake, George Houghton and Liam but George Barfoot was beaten at 1 by a very strong opponent. We won the doubles very comfortably at 2 and 3 and a good win for George B and Liam at 1.
Day 3 – Oxfordshire
On the final day we had to overcome the team from Oxfordshire to secure promotion. Jake had picked up a niggle so came out of the team and Will Coward filled in at 6 with Austin moving up to 5. We continued our good form by winning all the singles with relative ease and also winning the doubles at 2 at 3 to give us a 8-0 lead, the last doubles was not played.
Overall it was a very comfortable weekend on the court, everybody performed well and as a team we only dropped 2 rubbers all weekend. We had a great team spirit and we all had a very enjoyable weekend.
Mike Booth, Team Captain