Our first match was against Cambridgeshire who were pretty similar standard throughout their 1-4 lineup.We started slowly going 2-0 down after struggling in the windy conditions however Ben Davies pulled us back to 2-1 down after coming back from a set down to win love in the third.We went level when Peter Alam demolished their number 1 player with ease showing a great range of drop shots and angles.We lost a very tight doubles 12-10 in the third at number 1 pair which could have gone either way as we had a couple of match points but got a little bit tight.Rob Cowley and Ben Davies put us level at 3-3 with a straightforward 3&2 victory showing their superior volleying skills at the net.We won the deciding tiebreak 10-4 as the team of Ben and Peter were too strong and powerful for the opposition.
Our second match was against Oxfordshire and we started well with Rob Cowley going 3-1 up in the singles until he injured his back and went 6-3 down.It looked to be all over as it looked like he'd have to pull out in order to see if he could recover to play doubles later.A quick medical timeout later and he turned the match around winning the last 2 sets 2&3 sending us 1-0 up in matches.Josh Banks lost a heated match when tensions were getting frayed as both players couldn't agree on the correct score.The opposition started to get behind their player and we got edged out in a couple of key long games to go 1-1.Ben Davies gave us the lead with some powerful aggressive baseline tennis to go 2-1 up.Peter Alam went into his match as the favourite but the wind played havoc with the length of his shots so he made a few more mistakes than usual and his opponent took full advantage playing surely his best match of the weekend.The score stood at 2-2 before we took 1st doubles with Pete and doubles specialist Alex showing that the oppositions tactics of attacking the net player would not work as our volleys were too strong for them.Ben and Rob came back from 6-1 5-3 down to clinch the match 10-4 in the third set giving us a 4-2 victory.
Our third match was against Kent who had also won all their group matches so it was a big match to decide who would win and go through top of the group to play the winners of the other group in the final on Sunday.We went 1-0 down after the first singles but then Josh had a chance at 5-3 up and 40-15 up in the third set but his opponent just edged the win in a 3rd set tiebreak.We were then 2-0 down in matches.Luckily our number 1 & 2 (Peter and Ben) outplayed and out powered their respective opponents for the loss of only 4 games between them thus levelling the matches at 2-2.Peter and Alex lost a close tiebreak third set in the doubles but everything was ok as Ben and Rob demolished their doubles opponents 1&2 setting up another deciding tiebreak to go through to the finals.The tiebreak we played Peter and Alam together which turned out to be a good decision as they won convincingly 10-3 in under 5 minutes of play sending the team through to the final.
The final match was against a very strong Surrey team who had many high ranked National players in their team.We knew before the match started that it would be a very tough match to win but if anyone could do it Lancashire could.However, Surrey had other ideas as they started well and only got better and better as the size and strength of their players proved too much on the day for Lancashire as we went down 4-0 after the singles.Josh and Alex did manage to take a win in the final doubles 12-10 in the third set tiebreak to show all the other teams that Lancashire never gives up!
All in all, it was a great week with a great team of players who gave their best in every match winning or losing and you can't do anymore than that, so it was a great result to come 2nd in the Country and the players did Lancashire proud.