Wow – what a weekends tennis! I have only just caught my breath after refereeing a fantastic days tennis on Saturday, culminating in one of the closest finishes in the events 20 year history. Throughout the Winter, 480 players have taken part in 720 matches, and it came down to the last match on the last day, to see who would win the title. This is what County tennis is all about, and the kids playing were a real credit to all the Counties. Refereeing was easy down to the good sportsmanship shown throughout, and I was called onto court only once all day. I would like to thank Hildon for sponsoring the event with prizes for the winners and bottles for water for the players.
Going into the 14U age group on the last day, the order of the teams was as follows – Herts in 1st place on 23 points, Cambs in 2nd palce on 20½ points, Yorks in 3rd place on 19 points, and Essex in 4th place on 17½.
As the day progressed, it became apparent that it was going to end up very close, as the Yorkshire girls and boys won some decisive rubbers to pick up vital points in the chase to be champions. In the end, it came down to the head-to-head match between the Boys playing at number four, Vishnu Pannikar from Yorkshire v Max McIlvenna from from Hertfordshire. The older Vishnu came through it 5-3, 4-0. This meant that the days scoring ended thus – Boys Yorks 4 points, Cambs 3 points, Essex 2 points, Herts 1 point. Girls Yorks 4 points, Herts 3 points, Essex 2 points and Cambs 1 point.
When computed onto the League Table, this resulted in Essex finishing in 4th place on 21½ points, Cambs in 3rd on 24½ points, and Herts and Yorkshire level on 27 points. We then have a countback of the age groups won by the two Counties, and Herts won 2, while Yorkshire won 5, so the title was retained by Yorkshire. A big congratulations to them for winning and to the rest of you for making the event such a good one. Congratulations must also go out to Leics and Cheshire for winning Divisions 2A and 2B respectively.
I appreciate how much work goes into organising all the teams, and am very grateful for all the effort you put into getting the teams organised to play. I hope you will all be looking to take part again next winter, but would obviously be grateful if you would give me as much notice as possible if for any reason you don’t think your County will do.
The proposed Leagues for next year are as follows, while the final tables for this year are attached:-
Division 1 – Yorks, Leics, Cheshire, Herts
Division 2A – Cambs, Here & Worcs, Beds, Notts
Division 2B – Essex, Oxford, Norfolk, Northants
I hope you have a great Summer, and will be in touch in a couple of months re dates for next winter!
Craig Haworth
Corby Tennis Centre