9 Under Mixed Corby Event - Saturday 5th January
Team - Noel Watters, Josh Turner, Stuart Shannon, Asena Pavlova
The team first came up against Hertfordshire, a very tough first game to come up against. They produced a clinical display against us, taking all 4 matches. Stuart put up a strong fight to lose 7-5 in the 3rd set. In our second match, playing a strong Nottingham team, we improved greatly. Noel and Josh went down in 2 tight matches, but we had 2 strong wins with neither Stuart nor Asena, letting any points go by. This meant we had a 2-2 draw and courtesy of us having 3 more points overall we won that tie.
Going into our last match we knew a win would see us qualify. Our first match saw Noel lose 8-6 in the 3rd set after battling reallyhard to get back into the match. Josh turned in a strong performance and showed a much higher level of consistency but fell in another tight 3rd set 7-4. Asena made a quick job of their number 4 barely losing a point. So it came down to our last match. It seemed our luck on the day as we lost a tight 3rd set 7-4 resulting in a very tight 3-1 loss.
We moved into position for a 5th-8th place. The whole team seemed to pick up when we played Leicestershire and some high level building and finishing meant we beat them 3-1, with a great 3 set win for Josh. In our final match we again had to play Nottinghamshire whom we drew with 2-2 last time. Noel came out and put in a great performance comfortably beating a player he lost to earlier by being as solid as a rock and kept his composure. Asena managed to win a really tight match where both players seemed to be really tiring in the 3rd set, and she took it 8-6. In the performance of the day Stuart managed to get a double bagel 7-0 7-0 win, with a great performance.
Overall we finished in 5th place, a very creditable position. Watching the day it was just odd points between 7 of the teams with Hertfordshire not losing a match in the 5 rubbers! With continued hard work and focus in training next time we should be able to push into the top 3 teams.
A big thank you to the parents for ferrying the kids to Corby. And also to James Griffiths who came to support his players, which made it more of a team event.
Team Captain - Luke Pettit