Hampshire & IOW 18U Boys were in Group 4A which was held at the Sunderland Tennis Centre.
The team for this year was: Miles McDowall, Taylor Vane, Sam Bird, Cem Ortel, George Barfoot, George Houghton, Austin Gwilliam, William Coward
Team Captains were: Mike Booth and James Chaudry
Day 1 v West of Scotland
Our first match was always going to be the toughest of the weekend against a good West of Scotland team, even though rating for rating we were stronger, they were stronger than their ratings suggested.
We were without Taylor at number 2 due to a stomach bug so everybody moved up a position apart from Miles, who was at number one anyway and Austin come in at number 6.
We started slowly with losses at 5 and 6, had a good win at 4 from George Barfoot but took losses at 2 and 3 also before Miles won at number 1 meaning we were 2-4 down after the singles. A good performance from Austin and Will at 3rd doubles got us back to 3-4 but a loss at number 2 doubles meant we went down 3-5 before Miles and Sam won at 1 to get it back to 4-5.
Day 2 v Herefordshire and Worcestershire
George Houghton came out of the singles due to a tight hamstring and Will went in at number 6.
We got off to a great start winning all singles in straight sets. Taylor feeling better came into the 2nd doubles pair with George Barfoot and the other pairs stayed the same as the previous day.
We played well and won all 3 doubles to give us a very pleasing 9-0 win.
Day 3 v East of Scotland
On the last day we had to play East of Scotland who had lost both of their matches so we were confident we could get a win, but would have to rely on Hereford and Worcester beating the West of Scotland which on form seemed unlikely, we knew we had to get a win by the best possible score and this is what we set out to do.
We got off to a good start with wins at 6, 5 and 4, lost at 3 but then won at 1 and 2 so a good 5-1 win and as the group positions were sorted, the doubles were void.
Overall a good weekend, a little unlucky to play the best team first when Taylor was ill and George Houghton pulled up with a tight hamstring. If we had played them last it might have been a different story.
Mike Booth
County Captain