Team: Joshua Harris, Jacob Felipes, Joshua Mackender, Marc Blake, Ruby Cooling, Poppy Gibbons, Sophie Munks, Jessica Frick
Manager: Karl Sutton
This year’s event was held at Kings Park Tennis Club in Northampton and with a planned arrival time of 9am Saturday morning most of the team took it upon themselves to stay over Friday night having a group meal the night before. This group of players and parents have had a good team spirit all the way through the training sessions and continued on match day.
Our first match of the day was against Leicestershire with Josh Mackender and Jacob kicking us off with their singles. Josh battled hard with some long rallies and close points but ended up losing out 3-7 0-7. Jacob set the tone for the day with a close 3 sets this time coming out on top 7-4 4-7 7-4. Josh Harris then continued the theme of close matches losing the first set 2-7 he won the second 9-7 before losing out 8-10 in the third.
2-1 down after the boys singles the girls took to court. Poppy started off her day with a strong performance and a 7-4 7-4 win drawing the tie at two all. Sophie and Ruby both battled hard through three set matches both winning the first sets 8-6 and losing the seconds 5-7. Sophie then lost her third set 4-7 before Ruby went down 3-7.
Trailing 2-4 going into the doubles the team knew we needed some big performances. The doubles kicked off with the boys, our team being Josh and Josh. After using the first set to find their feet which they lost 3-7 they fought back to win the next two sets 8-6 7-3 to bring us one step closer. Next match up was the mixed doubles with Jacob and Poppy which they lost 3-7 0-7. Knowing the tie was lost but the result of the day could come down to count back Ruby and Sophie took to the court for the girl’s doubles. They put in a great performance to win 7-5 7-1.
Leicestershire won 5-4
The overall feeling after this tie was that some of the players had felt overwhelmed in their first experience of playing for their county. After a team talk to help the players remember they were just playing another tennis match, mainly against players they had played before we were ready to take on Nottinghamshire!
Keeping the same order of play Jacob and Josh M. started the tie off unfortunately both going down in straight sets. Jacob 3-7 7-9 and Josh 4-7 2-7. Josh Harris then took to court for one of the matches of the day. With an epic performance, he came away with a win 15-13 8-6. Finding ourselves 1-2 down after the boys singles Sophie and Poppy took to the court. Poppy made light work of her match winning 7-4 7-0 while Sophie battled through another 3-setter winning 7-4 5-7 7-2. The last singles on court was Ruby who lost 4-7 6-8 to draw the tie at 3 all going into the doubles.
Josh and Josh fought hard but had a tough match in the boys doubles losing 5-7 7-9 while Ruby and Sophie showed great team work to win 7-4 8-6. 4-4 with the mixed doubles to play. Jacob and Poppy fought back after losing the first set 1-7 to win the second 7-4 but the last set went the way of Nottinghamshire to finish 1-7 7-4 3-7
Another close tie, another 4-5 loss
The last tie of the day was against Northamptonshire who had beaten the other two counties.
After the boys singles we found ourselves in a familiar position of being 1-2 down. Jacob having lost 2-7 1-7, Josh M. losing 3-7 3-7 and Josh Harris battling though another tight 3-setter to win 1-7 7-4 10-8. The girls then had a clean sweep, Sophie winning 7-1 7-5, Poppy 8-6 7-3 and Ruby 7-4 7-3.
For the last round of doubles I made some changes and put our reserves into play who had been patient waiting for their opportunity all day. First off Josh Harris and Marc Blake played the boys doubles losing out 7-9 4-7 then Jacob and Ruby took to the court to play the mixed doubles, having seen Jacob and Ruby lose the first set 4-7 Sophie and Jess took to the court for the girls doubles. The girls also lost their first set 6-8 but by this time Jacob and Ruby had battled back and won the second set 7-4. Sophie and Jess raced though their second set winning 7-1 punishing the opponents net players and finished just after Jacob and Ruby had won their third set 7-2. The third set in the girls doubles saw a change of tactics from the Northampton girls with them going to both back, this created a close set in which our girls lost out 6-8.
Beating Northamptonshire 5-4 resulted in us coming 3rd.
This group of players has been a pleasure to work with, their attitude during training sessions has been brilliant and their desire to battle hard in matches while playing fair has left me very proud of the team. I hope they all continue to enjoy their tennis and battle for positions in future county cup teams. I would also like to thank all the parents involved. With this being the first year I have been an AGM their backing, support and feedback has really helped me settle into the role.
Karl Sutton – 9U AGM