10U County Cup
1st and 2nd June - Stourbridge
Team: Harry Friend(Sat only), Josh Turner, David Turner, Noel Watters, Stuart Shannon(Sun only)
This was an excellent weekend of tennis for the H&W players. The weekend consisted of four ties against both South Wales and Staffordshire on the Saturday and North Wales and Shropshire on the Sunday. Each tie consisted of 3 singles and 1 doubles with each match win gaining 2 points for the team.
The first match for H&W was against Staffordshire. The format was best of three short sets with a championship tie break for the third. The no ad rule was in force from the start. We had a great start with David Turner beating Mat Jobson 4-1, 5-3, Josh Turner beat Oscar Trump 4-0, 5-3 and Harry Friend beat Leo Nkusi 4-1, 5-4. Harry Friend and Noel Watters also won the doubles 4-0, 4-2 beating Mat Jobson and Martin Kuziel to secure an 8-0 victory over Staffordshire.
The next tie proved to be the toughest of the weekend which was against South Wales. We were behind in the singles 4-2, Josh Turner and Noel Watters both lost their singles rubbers and Harry Friend won his. Harry and Josh teamed up in the doubles to try and bring the score level, they won the 1st set 5-3 and lost the 2nd set 4-0. After a close match tie break South Wales clinched the tie winning 10-8.
The second day H&W fought hard to win all singles matches against Shropshire and North Wales. Against North Wales Josh Turner beat Cai Llwyd Jones 4-2, 5-3, David Turner beat Teddy Roberts 4-2, 5-3 and Noel Watters beat Callum Williams 5-3, 4-0. To complete the winning streak Noel Watters and David Turner beat Teddy Roberts and Will Owens 4-0, 0-4, (10-8) in the doubles which made it 8-0 to H&W.
Against Shropshire the boys had to step up a gear which they did remarkably with four closely fought matches. Josh Turner beat William Abbatt 4-1, 2-4, (10-6), David Turner beat Jack Edwards 4-1, 5-4(14-12), Noel Watters beat Zac Carradine 4-2, 5-3. Josh Turner and Stuart Shannon just lost out to Shropshire's Jack Edwards and James Philips 2-4, 4-2, (10-5) with the tie finishing with a 6-2 win for the H&W boys.
It was great to see the team doing so well and the boys have a lot to be proud about. They showed great team spirit and a their desire to work hard for every point was evident throughout the weekend.
Tony Ravenscroft (Captain)
