Venue – Newport Tennis Centre, Wales
Team Captain – Richard Surtees
Assistant Team Captain – Becky Scrivins
Players – Abby Amos, Corinne Blythe, Jennifer Gadsby, Lizzie Allwood, Beth Gadsby, Ana Webber & Christina Pozerskis
After the close matches we had last year and unfortunately losing 5-4 in all 3 matches target was promotion back into Division 4.
This year’s squad included two new members, Beth Gadsby and Lizzie Allwood. Beth has been competing a lot over the past few months and has really improved her level of play. Beth also brought the team great doubles experience, having played with the Leicestershire LTC Ladies 2nd team in Division 1.
Lizzie, who is only 14, has been playing at the Loughborough High Performance Centre before moving to Repton School where she is now mixing her tennis and education. Lizzie is an extremely strong competitor and has also shown great determination.
Our third new addition to the team was assistant captain Becky Scrivins, Leicestershire Ladies Captain. With some of the players already playing in her team it made sense to invite Becky to help me with her experience in county cup events. We had our team meeting on Thursday evening and agreed that it was possible to gain promotion!
Our first match was against East of Scotland, probably our strongest opponents of the weekend. Newcomers Beth and Lizzie were first on, and despite seeming a little nervous, both played great tennis. Lizzie was unlucky to lose, having had a close 6-2 6-3 match. Beth put up a great fight, and from losing the first set 7-6, she managed to turn it around to win 6-7 6-3 7-6 with the match lasting over 2 ½ hours.
Christina and Jen both faced very strong opposition. Christina played a great first set, and narrowly lost 6-4. Her opponent grew in confidence and went on to win the match. Jen, having watched her sister Beth play for the whole of the 2 ½ hour match, decided to go on and do the same! Jen lost the first set 6-3, but you just sensed that she still had a chance to win it. In County Cup this year the coaches were allowed to go on court at any change of ends, and not just the set breaks. After set 1, both Jen and I felt that this match wasn’t out of her reach, and by being patient and not trying to force it, she would have a chance to turn it around. This is exactly what Jen did in the second set and won it 6-3. With her opponent becoming less composed, Jen managed to keep forcing errors from her, and after another 2 ½ hour match Jen won 7-5 in the third set.
Corrine and Abby then followed. Unfortunately, when Corrine was warming up, she felt a pain in her elbow. This prevented her from serving to her full potential and was a huge advantage for her opponent. Corrine still put up a fight but lost the first set 6-3. At the set break, both Corrine and I thought she was playing really well, and decided that if she carried on with more balls at the high tempo, she would come out on top. The second set was arguably the best set of tennis all weekend. Each point lasted between 20-30 high tempo shots, and with Corrine now making more balls she was the one in control, and went on to win the set 6-2. Despite this, her opponent was able to pick herself up and win the third set to give Scotland a 3-2 lead.
Abby played a very talented girl with a huge serve, and found herself a break down with her opponent serving for the match, when the opponent hit some wild double faults. Abby responded with some solid tennis, getting the score back on serve, and then went on to win in a tie break. We agreed that Abby should return serve up the middle of the court and this worked with Abby going on to win 7-6 6-1. With the match now tied at 3 all we knew that two doubles were needed to win the match and get us off to the perfect start.
With Lizzie and Christina losing and Abby and Corrine winning, it was all to be decided on Beth and Jen Gadsby. With the match tied at 1 set all, a 10 point tie break was played. The Gadsbys played a great tie break and found themselves at 9-7 up, but the Scottish pair were not letting go without a fight. With all four girls getting very nervous, it was a shame that one pair had to lose, and unfortunately Jen and Beth lost 15-13. A very close 5-4 loss was hard to take for the girls when they knew how close they had been.
Playing Cornwall on Day 2 was another very competitive tie. Ana Webber stepped into the singles due to Corrine’s injury, winning in three sets. Corrine felt she could only play doubles as she wasn’t having to serve as often, but then went on to master the under arm serve! With Abby, Lizzie, Ana and Beth all winning singles we were 4-2 up with doubles to play.
Ana and Christina narrowly lost 6-4 7-5 despite some very strong doubles play. The Gadsby sisters put the previous day behind them to win 6-3 6-4, and Abby and Corrine won their match 6-4 6-2. Leicestershire beat Cornwall 6-3.
On the final day we knew we needed to win, and were hoping that East of Scotland would slip up and we might have a chance of promotion.
Leicestershire girls played very well and went into a 6-0 lead after singles. Knowing we had won our match, we needed to wait for Scotland to win 5 matches to confirm they had won the group. Abby and Corrine went on to play doubles and won comfortably, and Ana and Christina were winning 6-4 3-1 when Scotland reached 5 wins and they were announced as Champions.
Having come so close the girls were disappointed, but it was great for them to finish on a high with everyone wining on the last day. We had some great singles performances by the girls with Abby winning 3/3, Jen 2/3, Lizzie 2/3, Ana 2/2 and Beth 3/3.
For me the most satisfying part was seeing how the girls performed at doubles, as last year we recognised this as a weakness and have spent many hours working on it since. To see the difference this year was very rewarding.
I still believe it a huge honour to play for you county at any sport, and would like to thank all of the girls for taking the time to represent the county, and also all parents who made it possible for the children to play. I would also like to thank Becky Scrivins for her help and input over the weekend and to Leicestershire County Office who do all of the organising that people don’t normally know about.
With the boys winning and the girls so close it was a very successful weekend for the U18’s of Leicestershire Tennis. Next year will be our year!
By Richard Surtees – 18 & Under Girls Team Captain