Congratulations to the Aegon 9U County Cup team who won Group I.
This year’s event was held at David Lloyd Southampton and Captained again by Sam Cummings. After winning last year we were all looking forward to another successful year! There were five counties again including Hampshire & IOW, Wiltshire, South Wales, Gloucestershire and Berkshire.
The Team was: Daniel Prickett, Aaron Dawson, Louis Bowden, Martyna Ciubatiuk, Kirsty da Silva, Emma Appleby
We started against Berkshire, who came into the group replacing Avon from last year. Against a strong Berkshire team we were trailing 4-2 after all the singles matches and we needed to win all the doubles matches. Where we came so close but ended losing 5-4 overall.
Next was against Wiltshire who we have had some really good matches against in the past few years and came through 7-2 after some strong performances from the boys and some good doubles play! This result gave the team a lot of confidence going forward.
We had Gloucestershire next who also had a strong team so I knew the doubles pairings was important. The girls battled really well in the singles which gave us a 4-2 lead but came through 7-2 winners after some amazing doubles play.
The key message to the team was to stay focused on every match whether we were winning overall as it could make a difference later on! We next played South Wales who, on paper, were the favourites and had already beaten Berkshire earlier in the day! All the players were Orange 1* but that didn't intimidate the Hampshire & IOW team. The singles finished 3-3 after some gutsy performances from the team but we won all the doubles, including a long 3 set match in the girls doubles!
There was a long wait for the results to be announced and the Hampshire and IOW team came through as winners by 2 rubbers. Every member of the team made a fantastic contribution and showed real class and professionalism. Well done everyone! You’ve done your County proud!
Sam Cummings, Team Captain