Day 1.
With a slightly odd format it meant we didn’t play until 4pm on the first day and only doubles when we did play. This type of format is great when you have a strong team and not so nice when you have a weak team. It does allow you the chance to win the whole national event instead of just gaining one groups promotion. However that means that you can get some very strong counties in the first stages. The first match was against Kent and we lost the 2 doubles we played to them on the first evening!
We were staying at the nearby Premier Inn so got there, had dinner and all watched Britain’s Got talent!!
Day 2
We finished the rest of the fixture with Kent but failed to make any real impact and lost the fixture 6-0. Next we played Leicestershire who were a similar standard to us on paper and would be a good match. Charlotte played at no 4 and won a well contested match in two sets! 1-0. Lucy at No 3 very much got her monies worth. At one set all on County Cup a long third set is played. The set swung backwards and forwards until it reached 6 games all. Now a normal tiebreak to 7 would be played to decide the set and the match. Lucy I think in order to thrill the crowd went 6-1 down in the tiebreak but somehow managed to win the next 7 points to win it 8-6! More grey hair for the team captain and the spectators!! 2-0. Rosie at 2 played a very Rosie like match with very few errors and ground out a good solid win in 2 sets! 3-0! Vicky at 1 played an exceptional 12 year old and put in a good effort but the Leics no1 was too strong! 3-1
Now to the doubles and as I know only too well from watching many County Cup doubles absolutely anything could happen and for a time at one point early in both first sets I feared the worst. However Charlotte and Rosie came through what on paper looked like a stress free 6-3 6-1. Vicky and Lucy had a great battle and only just came off second best in the deciding set tiebreak! 4-2!!!
Day 3 saw us playing the second placed team from the other mini group of 3. This was Bedfordshire who had only just lost to a strong Surry team! Again we were a little out of our depth and rated well below all our opponents. Vicky, Lucy and Charlotte all went down fighting but with nothing much to show for it on the score line. Rosie however gave the Beds no 2 a really good run for her money and actually had set points in the second set tiebreak but couldn’t quite extend the match! 4-0.
As is often the case on the last day of these events if the match result has already been decided the winning team concede the doubles in order to hit the road home earlier. This is what Beds decided to do so the result was 4-2.
Lincs finished 4th out of the group of 6 which was probably a fair position for us over the weekend. Most of our team will still be available next year so hopefully we will fare better still next year.
A big thanks to all the players for their efforts and also to the parents for their support. We had an enjoyable time. Thank you to Izzy and Pippa despite not getting on the match court they were both very good team members and provided very welcome support!
Dave Williams
PS Thanks to Charlotte we now know that Kylie Minogue and Madonna are not sisters! Sorry Charlotte had to put it in!!