County cup for the U18 girls this year was an abbreviated event as 1 team had dropped out leaving only 3 teams. This I guess was a disadvantage of being in the lowest group. A position we were set on correcting this year.
This years team was Lydia Walker, Vicky Beardsley, Emma Mastin, Anna-Maria Larsen, Pippa Bourne, Rosie Thomas and Lucy Hull.
We traveled down to Cambridge on the Friday night and had the pleasure of sitting in traffic for 45 minutes in Spalding.
Got to the premier inn eventually. Had food and bed for an early night.
Early start Saturday morning and Suffolk to play.
With this year being the first year the captains had to order their players in Ranking rather then rating order there was going to be a few odd match ups. The order was in U18 rankings so the u14/u16 that hadn't played any U18 events but were strong players with quite high ratings sometimes ended up playing below weaker rated players who had played U18 event and picked up a few ranking points. It didn't have a detrimental effect on us particularly.
Rosie found herself playing at No 6 and got us off to a nice start winning a quite comfortable nerve settling 6:3 6:2 (1-0)
Pippa followed that up with a 6:1 6:4 win and Lincs were off to a good start! (2-0)
Lucy played at No.4 and was the first victim of the ranking rating issue finding herself against a strong player. Unfortunately going down 2:6 3:6. (2-1)
Emma probably wouldn't have expected to playing as high as No3 and also found it tough against a strong player losing 1:6 3:6 (2-2)
Vicky played at No 2. Vicky came to county cup carrying a wrist injury on her left wrist meaning she couldn't hit her two handed backhand. Even so Vicky gave a great performance and pulled off a very good 6:3 7:5 win. Vicky's slice backhand standing up under pressure!! (3-2)
Lydia played at No 1 and generally every county has a strong No 1 but again because of the order change Lydia found herself with a very easy win 6:0 6:0 (4-2)
So at 4-2 up we were in a strong position. However that's where the match against Suffolk was to stop overnight.
We then started our match against the Channel Islands. We had anticipated that the Channel Islands wouldn't be as strong as Suffolk and it proved correct.
Rosie, Pippa and Anna Maria all were comfortable winners at 6,5 and 4.
Lucy at No 3 today again found herself playing against possibly Channel Islands best player. Going down 5:7 1:6 (3-1)
Vicky and her slice backhand had a very easy win at number 2. (4-1)
Lydia today was tested much more then the previous day. Everyone expected Lydia to win and there was a bit of pressure to wrap the match win up. Lydia came through very professionally 6:2 7:5 in the weekends best tennis match.(5-1)
It was nice to have already won the tie against the channel islands after the singles taking a bit of pressure off us for the doubles the next day.
We had finished our matches by about 2pm and took the opportunity to come back later and have some doubles practice.
Pizza express then bed!
Sunday and doubles v Suffolk. Lydia and Lucy at 1st pair Vicky and Pippa at No 2 pair and Anna Maria and Rosie at 3rd.
Doubles does make me nervous sometimes and today was no exception. Needing only 1 win out of 3 matches after 20 minutes we were 3-2 down in the first set of every match. With the more uncertain system of 3rd set tiebreak and sudden death deuce the nerves were there!
We continued to go down in the 2nd and 3rd pair matches but Lucy and Lydia turned things round in the 1st pair match and came through in 2 sets and sealing promotion!! Quite fitting for Lydia to end her long and successful service to Lincolnshire's U18 team by sealing the promotion!
The 3 doubles against the Channel Islands was a formality and the job was completed!
Lydia as captain made an acceptance speech at the presentation and we were homeward bound!
I would like to thank the girls for their efforts over the weekend and congratulate them! We must now try and focus on trying to move up further. Also thanks to Vicky for supporting the team with her one good arm. It certainly helped having a player or be it not fully fit high up the order.
Special thanks also to Lydia for her many years of loyal service!
Dave Williams, 18U Girls Team Manager, Lincolnshire