Last weekend the county U12 Girls team travelled to The North Oxford Lawn Tennis Club to compete in this year’s county cup. We were in a group containing, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire and favourites Warwickshire.
Our weekend started with a fixture verses Northamptonshire. We started brightly with Prianka Dhokia fighting back from a set down to win at number 2 and Grace Smith just being edged out in a 3rd set match tiebreak after convincingly winning the 2nd set. Sadly as the weather declined so did our fortunes as Abigail Wilkin lost out to the Northants number 1 in a hard hitting singles and we couldn’t produce the doubles win we needed to force a match shoot out. The fixture finished in a 3-1 loss.
Next up were the pre competition favourites Warwickshire boasting a side of three top 20 players in the country! The girls fought unbelievably hard against strong opponents but were eventually powered off the court. Warwickshire went on to complete a 4-0 win over us.
On the Sunday Kirsty Finlay came in to replace Abigail Wilkin for the matches against Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire. The day coincided with the Great British Tennis Weekend at the club, so there was a carnival atmosphere as the players stepped on to court against Nottinghamshire. Nottinghamshire raced into a 2-0 lead with wins against Grace and Kirsty at 3 and 1. Prianka Dhokia once again showed her potential with a hard fought loss against her opponent at 2. In the doubles Leah Denning and Grace played arguably the best set of the entire weekend as they took it hardly dropping a point against their highly fancied opponents. Sadly the bubble burst with the Notts pair coming back to level the match and take it into a deciding match tie break. Leah and Grace played brilliantly but sadly couldn’t cross the winning line, eventually losing 10-8 in a highly entertaining match.
The final match over the weekend was against Lincolnshire and provided our best opportunity for a win. The three singles matches got under way with the sounds of a cardio tennis session playing in the distance. Kirsty Finlay at 1 fought very hard in an even match against her Lincolnshire opponent but sadly lost in two close sets. Prianka Dhokia again produced a fantastic display to beat the Lincolnshire number 2 in straight sets. This left the match at 1-1 with Leah’s singles to go. After she lost the 1st set, Leah produced a fantastic performance to come back and win 10-5 in the match tie break. This meant that we needed to win the doubles to record an outright win and not need a match shoot out. Kirsty and Prianka lost the 1st set but once again produced a much improved 2nd set that they took on a tie break to set up a match tie break to decide the tie. With a brilliant atmosphere as all the other teams and parents watched the last match of the day we stormed into a 4-0 lead. Lincolnshire then produced the point of the day just to get onto the scoreboard at 4-1. This didn’t affect Kirsty and Prianka as they produced some fantastic doubles under pressure to close out a 10-4 win and a 3-1 win overall.
This meant that we finished 4th overall. I would really like to thank the players that never gave up even when facing very strong opponents and their parents for their support, ideas and input throughout the weekend. It was a pleasure to captain a side that represented the county so well.
Adam Charlton
U12 Girls County Captain
Team: Abigail Wilkin, Kirsty Finlay, Prianka Dhokia, Grace Smith, Leah Denning