Congratulations to the 12U Boys County Cup Team who were runners-up at the National Finals over the weekend of 11th-13th July 2014.
The team was: Ryan Golesworthy, Outek Dinapala, Cameron Clarke, Henry Bowden, Ouyoung Dinapala and were captained by Colin Jakeway.
After a great qualifying weekend in Bromley, we went to Bolton with high hopes playing in a tough box but avoiding the team no one wanted- Yorkshire, the favourites!
First match was Somerset who we defeated with some very solid tennis from all the boys winning all 3 singles and giving us the tie 3-0. Saturday was the big day and meant we had 2 tough matches against Hertfordshire and then Lincolnshire, both with nationally recognised players in. We dominated from start to finish both matches and didn’t give the opposition a look in, winning both matches 3-0, we especially had joy at beating Herts as they boasted a line up that on paper should beat us, but we fought harder and were braver on the big points and didn’t drop a set against them.
A fantastic result for us and after beating Lincolnshire convincingly, this meant we were in the final without dropping a singles rubber, something even Yorkshire hadn’t managed to do...
The final... and what a final, 6 hrs of fantastic tennis played in a fantastic atmosphere against a very strong, but sporting opposition. We played our hearts out and with 2 first 2 matches being decided on a 3rd set tie break, with both Ryan Golesworthy and Outek Dinapala losing them 5-10, we were on the wrong end of the scoreboard and 0-2 down with just Cameron Clarke left to play to try and keep us in the tie and take it into the doubles rubber. Cameron fought bravely and at times we thought we had the upperhand, but the Yorkshire no.3 always seemed to find a magical shot when it mattered most, especially his backhand up the line!!! Simply destructive... Cameron finally went down 3-5, 2-4 and the tie was lost. We had fought for 6 hours and had nothing to show for it except that we had played our hearts out, given everything and had the knowledge that we were beaten by the better team. Yorkshire held true to form and were worthy winners, but after a quick pick me up captains talk the boys were all smiles as they picked up their runners up medals, 2nd out of 44 counties isn’t that bad, it’s great and something they are now proud of!!!!
Colin Jakeway, Team Captain