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For the first time in this regional format the Boys had the opportunity to compete on home soil or more precisely, clay.
The team consisted of three boys playing a year young, William Cheer, Hugo Hunt and Ryan Scaman, in addition to Max Jones returning from last years campaign and Joseph Mackey.
The first match was against the strongest team on paper and indeed on the court, Warwickshire. The match was in the balance at one rubber apiece, with the last singles on court locked in a seesaw battle at number one. From 1-6 down in the deciding tiebreak, William fought back to 6-6, but credit to his opponent who hung on to close out the match, leaving the team 1-2 going into doubles. Again the doubles was a close encounter, but Warwickshire’s age and experience came through to claim an overall 3-1 victory. Real credit to Lincolnshire, who gave Warwickshire their toughest match of the week; we wish them well at the National Finals.
The second match of the day was against a new team to the region, Staffordshire. Hugo and Ryan quickly put Lincolnshire ahead winning their singles matches, leaving just William on court. Again fighting another epic battle, coming back from 1-6 down in the deciding tiebreak, to hold a match point, but just falling short 10-12. This just made the doubles more entertaining and rewarding when Ryan and William won our first deciding tiebreak of the weekend 10-6, to record an overall 3-1 win for Lincolnshire
Day two saw the Boys go 1-2 down against both Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire, Ryan winning his singles against Leicestershire and Hugo against Nottinghamshire to keep both ties alive.
Against Nottinghamshire, Ryan and William came together to play some inspiring doubles, winning a highly entertaining match in a deciding tiebreak 10-7.. With the matches level at 2-2 the match would be decided by a shootout, one doubles match to 10 points. Ryan and William stayed on court to play the same opponents, but despite their best efforts just missed out 8-10.
The last match was the deciding doubles against Leicestershire. The rested legs of Hugo and Max played with renewed energy, stunning the top pair from Leicestershire 10-7 in the deciding set tiebreak. This leveled the match score at 2-2, again taking the team into a deciding shootout. Hugo and Max stayed on court to play the same pair, but lost out this time in a heartbreaking 9-11 tiebreak.
To emphasis how close and tense the matches were over the weekend, Lincolnshire played eight 10 point tiebreaks against the four teams.
With so many tiebreaks, the positions in the group could have been very different, but overall finishing 3rd was a fair result
Next year, keep an eye on the three boys returning older and wiser, it may be their year!
Jason Revill
Boys 12U Age Group Manager
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