The Leicestershire Under-14 boys did not have to travel very far as the venue for our division was Loughborough Town Tennis Club. On behalf of all the counties I should like to give a big thanks to Tony Middleditch and his Loughborough team of volunteers who did a tremendous job in looking after everybody over the three days.
There was a new format for the competition this year with the six counties being split into two groups of three. We played the other two teams in our group on the first two days and on the final day played the team who finished in the same position as us in their group. Day 1 was going to be tough against Sussex, top seed in our group, who defeated us 6-0 and subsequently went on to win the event. They now progress to the national finals. The highlights were Rahul Dhokia who played extremely well to push the Sussex No. 1 to three sets and then his partnership with Tom Nevill to again lose in three close sets.
Even after a heavy defeat the boys remained upbeat and prepared to play Cambridgeshire on Day 2. There were singles wins for Nevill, Kenny-Manning and Dhokia so we had a lead of 3-1 going into the doubles. Leicestershire needed one win to secure a place in the 3rd/4th play-off on the final day and both pairs obliged, giving captain Jack Simpson plenty of unwanted stress, having both been a set down before pulling out the goods in championship tie-breaks. A special mention goes to Luke Tatman and Dan Tarokh who secured the vital 4th rubber when things were getting very tight and edgy. These kind of matches are great learning experiences for young tennis players and will benefit the lads’ game in future. Leicestershire took the match 5-1 after a good day’s tennis and confidence was up.
On the final day the team faced Lincolnshire who had finished second to a very strong Hertfordshire side in the alternate group. The boys would need to play well and they duly delivered, brushing Lincs aside with relative ease going three up in the singles courtesy of wins by Nevill, Tarokh and Kenny-Manning. Leicestershire then put in two solid doubles performances to secure victory by the score of 5-1. This meant the boys finished third overall, behind two very strong counties, having put in a good effort on all three days. We are looking forward to next year since this is a young team and the majority of them can play again in 2014. The boys are only hoping we play not so close to home next year – it’s much more exciting travelling away!
Jack Simpson
Under-14 Boys County Captain