Congratulations to the 10U Girls County Cup team who won Group F. The team was: Eliza Wheeler, Hannah Smith, Rina Hayamizu, Isla Hignett, Anna Vinnell. The Team Captain was Karim Aouichaoui
The weekend was an extremely enjoyable and successful and each member of the team gave their absolute best in every match and fully deserved being group F winners.
The group was held at Pavilion and Avenue LTC in Hove, Sussex, with very helpful staff which helped in the smooth running of the weekend.
The teams that we overcame were Sussex, Dorset, Kent and Surrey.
On Saturday we played Sussex and Kent in which we won both ties 3-1 to set up an exciting Sunday of tennis.
On Sunday we beat Dorset 4-0 where we only dropped 4 games in the whole tie which then set up a final against Surrey.
After the singles against Surrey the Hampshire girls were 2-1 down which meant we had to win the doubles and a shootout doubles if we were to make the National Finals. Surrey got off to a one set lead and seemed destined to win the tie but our Hampshire & IOW team showed huge determination and spirit to fight back and level the match at one set all. In the match tie-break Surrey lead 9-6 but our girls dug really deep, saved three match points and won the tie-break 12-10 to take the match to a shootout.
With the momentum now with Hampshire & IOW we set off on the front foot in the shootout and held our composure to take the shootout 10-7 to qualify for the National Final in Bolton over the weekend of 14th and 15th June 2014.
Each team players and parents showed great support got fully behind their other team members and showed exactly what team tennis is about.
The majority of players and parents stayed around for the award ceremony which was excellent to see.
Each of our five girls gave their absolute best and had a very enjoyable weekend and they fully deserve to be in the national finals.
I am an extremely proud captain and I couldn’t have asked any more from my team and couldn’t have asked to captain a nicer group of girls.
Karim Aouichaoui, Team Captain