Friday 18th May - Kent v Warwickshire
- Thomas Wright 1. Wright and Davis
- Bailey Robbins 2. Robbins and Van den Hoek
- Alex Juniper
- James Davis
We had the toughest first round draw against many people’s favourites Warwickshire. With a very strong number 1 and 2 players Warwickshire were going to be tough for anyone to beat on this weekend and they proved exactly that!
James got us off to the best of starts winning in straight sets, but the match was quickly levelled as Alex lost in straight sets in a tempered match. 1-1
Bailey and Tom had tough challenges ahead, despite a good effort from Bailey he lost out 6-4 6-4 to Luke Hammond and with Tom forced to serve underarm due to a stomach injury he also lost in straight sets. 1-3 Warwickshire
Needing to win both doubles to keep the tie alive, Alex came in for the injured Tom and put in a solid display along with James to beat the first pair in straight sets. Despite a fight back in the 2nd set from Bailey and Liam they were unable to force the tie into a shoot out. 2-4 Warwickshire
Saturday 19th May - Kent v Hertfordshire
- Bailey Robbins 1. Robbins and van den Hoek
- Alex Juniper 2. Davis and Bargeron
- James Davis
- Milo Bargeron
Unfortunately Tom had to go home due to his injury, but the team should have still been strong enough to battle on without him. Milo was given his opportunity to play a live singles match (his first in county cup), but didn’t quite grasp the opportunity as he would have liked. He was battling himself through the whole of the match and wasn’t able to find enough positive energy to come through. James however made short work of the first set against their number 3 winning 6-0 before his opponent retired. 1-1
Alex then had a marathon against a boy he would ordinarily beat, but again was battling with his own negativity and despite coming back and winning the 2nd set couldn’t repeat it in the 3rd. Bailey had a difficult challenge against their number 1 and was unable to replicate the same performance from the previous day. 1-3 Hertfordshire
Needing to win both doubles again to force the match into a shoot out, both pairs got off to a good start. Milo had come in for Alex to partner James and were playing their 5 and 6 so should have won comfortably, but somehow allowed their opponents back into the match and despite having 3 match points they lost 14-12 in the 3rd. Bailey and Liam had won the first set when they heard of James and Milo’s loss and were noticeably devastated, but picked themselves up and destroyed their opponents in the 2nd set. 2-4 Hertfordshire
Sunday 20th May - Kent v Durham and Cleveland
- Bailey Robbins 1. Robbins and van den Hoek
- Alex Juniper 2. Davis and Juniper
- James Davis
- Liam van den Hoek
The boys needed to finish off what had been a disappointing weekend, with a convincing win over Durham. That is exactly what they did, apart from a tight singles for Alex the boys destroyed their opposition and were on their way home by 1.30pm!! 6-0 Kent
The finals were always going to be tough and I’m sure the boys would have learnt a lot from the weekend about the need to dig deep and compete for every point in tough circumstances. Hopefully these lessons will stand them in good stead in their future matches and if they get the opportunity to be selected for the Kent Tennis 18&U squad in years to come.
I would like to thank the parents who supported the players over the event, my assistant – Mark Ruffle who supported me and the team as well as being the main man on Twitter to keep everyone else informed and for the support from the team in the Kent office. And last but not least the Kent Team – it was a tough weekend boys – let it strengthen your desire and focus your efforts – Come on Kent!