Last Weekend the 18U County Cup Teams competed, with the Girls winning the silver medal in Group 1 and boys narrowly missing out on promotion.
The Girls were competing in Bath University against promoted Hampshire and Isle of Wright, and Kent as well as Last Year's winner's Surrey. On Day 1 Middx Girls had a convincing win against Hamps and IOW. Leading 4-2 after the singles, Middx sealed the victory after a Match Tie-break in the first doubles then won and lost the last two doubles.
Day 2 was always going to be tough against Kent (who beat Surrey on day 1). Middx kept themselves in the tie and it was 3-3 heading into the doubles. This included an epic match between Danielle Daley and Sasha Hill, which Danielle won for Middlesex 6-2 3-6 7-5. Monet Baptiste and Veronika Hughes made it 4-3, however Kent took the remaining two doubles to take a 5-4 victory.
With everything to play for on Day 3, the girls put in an incredible performance to beat Surrey 6-3. Unfortunately for Middlesex, Kent put on another convincing display to win 3/3 to top Group 1. Nevertheless the Middlesex team consisting of Megan Forster, Danielle Daley, Martina Paladini Jennings, Aleksandra Topalovic, Monet Baptiste, Camilla Gretschel, Veronika Hughes and Scarlett Hutchinson put on an excellent performance for a silver medal. Thank you to coaches Ronnie Maxwella and Louise Hutchinson.
The boys were aiming for a promotion from Group 2 in Edgbaston playing Lancanshire, Warwickshire and Dorset. Despite some hard fought matches on Day 1, the boys suffered a 6-3 loss against a strong Lancanshire team. Over the weekend the teams put in strong performances to beat Warwickshire 7-2 and Dorset 8-1. Well done to the team consisting of Andrew Rozanov, Oscar Weightman, Josef Southcombe, Kyle Stocker, Luke Quaynor, Aarron Lee, Tom Skinner and Esah Hayat, as well as coaches Otto Buchholdt and Shola Roper.
Head of Performance, Andrew Lewandowski says "There was an incredible team spirit and camaraderie on show through the entire week-end both on and off the court which added to the whole event and we were extremely close to winning the title in group one girls and securing promotion in group two on the boys.
High performance competition is all about fine margins, and on this occasion it didn't work out. However we have got off to to a very good start on the LTA County Cups Champions leader board which will stand us in good stead in all of the team competitions including mens and ladies events to be played later this year."