Aegon U12 Girls County Cup Finals – Bolton
Captain – Steve Barnett
Players – Alicia Williams, Kirsten Campbell-Ferguson, Imogen Sinclair and Imogen Looker
Day 1 – Saturday 13th July
The finals weekend started with our first group stage match against Buckinghamshire. Alicia Williams was first up and had an extremely tough match losing 4-0, 4-1 to the number 8 in the County. Kirsten Campbell-Ferguson also struggled losing 4-2, 4-1 although the standard of tennis was immense. Our number 3 player Imogen Sinclair battled through her match winning 0-4, 4-0 (11-9) in the championship tiebreak. After our first bout of singles matches we were 2-1 down with just the doubles left to play. Kirsten and Alicia had a tough matchup and lost 5-3, 4-0 in the doubles meaning we lost 3-1 against Buckinghamshire.
Our second fixture of the day was against close rivals Warwickshire and despite a great effort from Alicia she lost 4-2, 4-2 in her singles match. Kirsten’s opponent played extremely well and despite all efforts lost 4-0, 4-1. Imogen Sinclair kept her winning streak and won 4-1, 4-2 comfortably. Again after all the singles against Warwickshire we were 2-1 down so needed a good result in the doubles to fight for the win. Imogen Sinclair and Kirsten proved a successful combination and won 5-3, 5-4 to take us into a 10-point deciding shootout. Kirsten and Imogen again showed extreme determination to beat their opponents 10-5 and to give us our first win of the competition.
After a tough first day we finished on court at 9:30pm, one of the last teams at the arena, the girls enjoyed some pizza and some well needed rest before another important day’s tennis.
Day 2 – Sunday 14th July
Practice for day two started at 8am and the girls seemed eager to get started against our next opponents Hertfordshire, our final match of the group stages.
Alicia played some great tennis to kick us off but unfortunately lost 4-1, 5-3 against her opponent. Kirsten showed some great ability in taking apart her opponent 4-1, 4-1 in a very convincing win to take us to 1 match each. Imogen Sinclair had an underrated opponent and struggled to come out on top losing 4-0, 4-1. Again our singles result left us 2-1 down, so after their great success the day before, Imogen and Kirsten played in the doubles once more and had an epic match winning 5-3, 4-5 (10-3) in the championship tiebreak. The doubles’ combination again showed a huge desire to win and won their second shootout 10-7.
A second win in the group and a loss by our rivals Warwickshire meant that we finished second in the group; a great achievement for the girls to take us into the 3rd and 4th Playoffs.
Alicia stormed into the match with an impressive performance to beat her opponent 5-4, 4-0 to take us into the lead. Kirsten again had a tough match and lost 4-1, 4-1. Imogen came back from 2 match points against her opponent to win 1-4, 5-4 (10-7) putting us into a position of just needing the doubles to win. Alicia and Kirsten battled through but just lost 4-1, 5-4 meaning yet again we needed to win the shootout. I was in no doubt who I wanted to play and Kirsten and Imogen did what was required to win 10-6 in the shootout and giving us the win overall.
After two great days of tennis with many tense moments at crucial stages of the competition our H&W U12 girls team finished in 3rd place and won the Bronze Medal.
A great result to be third best out of the whole country!!!
Congratulations to all the girls who represented the county and a special thank you to Imogen Looker who, although she did not play any matches over the weekend, deserved her medal for all the support she gave the rest of the team both on and off court. WELL DONE!!!
I would also like to thank all the parents for all their support over the weekend and especially to Sarah Williams for her role in helping as a female chaperone.
Steve Barnett
