On Saturday 13th August the 9u Nottinghamshire team travelled to Grantham TC to compete in the 9u Aegon county cup against Leicestershire, Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire. The team was made up of 3 boys; Sam Evans, Jack Stamp, Hugo Dunn and 3 girls; Mia Wainwright, Naomi Szczur and Lilia Dunn. 3 boys singles, 3 girls singles, 1 boys doubles, 1 girls doubles and 1 mixed match playing best of 3 tie break sets were to be played against each county on the day.
First up was Lincolnshire. The boys went on first unfortunately losing all 3 singles but 2 of them went right to the wire losing 7-5 in the final set tie-break. The girls then went on and stamped their authority winning all 3 in a convincing fashion leaving the tie at 3 matches all. The doubles and the mixed went on next with all 3 pairs showing a very dominant display winning all 3 to give the team their first rubber on the board 6-3.
Next up was a confident Leicestershire team who had just won their first match 6-3 also. The boys went on first. Hugo Dunn gave a great performance to beat their no 3 in a very tight match giving him his first singles win unfortunately we lost the other 2 in very close matches leaving the tie at 1-2. The girls were up next and again showed their class winning all 3 singles in a dominant display giving Nottinghamshire a 4-2 lead. Mia Wainwright and Lilia Dunn managed to get the doubles win which took Nottinghamshire over the line to an overall 5-4 win.
The last match of the day was against Northamptonshire who had yet to record their first win. Sam Evans showed great guts and determination to beat there no1 and get his first singles win on the board with Hugo and Jack losing out leaving the tie at 1-2. Mia and Lilia again recorded 2 singles wins in straight sets but unfortunately this time round Naomi lost 7-5 in the final set tie break leaving the tie at 3-3. This time round Nottinghamshire could only get the 1 doubles win which came from Mia and Lilia which meant the team had lost overall 5-4.
After a lot of number crunching the referee declared Nottinghamshire’s team the overall champions with our head to head result against Lincolnshire the deciding factor as we were level on points at this stage.
The whole team played with great spirit and determination and deserved to be crowned champions at the end of the day. A special mention must go to Mia Wainwright and Lilia Dunn who went undefeated on the day!
Team Captain
Jamie Drummond