Team:
Boys – Donovan Cellupica-Towers, Marcus Walters, Jonathan Burke, Toby Leonard
Girls – Frances Benson, Georgia Lawson, Amber Smith, Amelia Bowling
The first round was against Warwickshire, our boys team was strong, but they still had a tough time. Donovan had a good win over Mason Recci 4-2, 4-2, Marcus had the match of the day against Luke Oakley loosing 5-4(10-8), 4-5(10-12) , (9-7) in the match tie break. Jonathan and Toby both had straight sets wins, playing very positive tennis.
The girls were in for a tough time, as Livvy Tomkins was not available, Ellie Horton had flu, and both the reserves were injured. Amelia Bowling stepped in to give us a fourth player. Frances played well but lost to Emily Smith 3-5,1-4, Georgia had a great match against Ashwina Foster winning 5-3,4-2, Amber and Amelia both lost being outplayed by girls having had more match experience. Georgia’s win gave Notts the 5-4 win we were hoping for.
The next round was against Yorkshire, they had a very strong team all round. The girls all lost their matches in two sets quite easily. The boys also stronger, Donovan lost 1-4,0-4, but Marcus again had a tough match winning 5-4(8-6) 5-3, Jonathan put up a good fight but went down 4-5,1-4, as did Toby loosing 4-2,3-5, (2-10) in the match tie-break.
Our final round was against Leicestershire, Frances lost 3-5,2-4 in a well fought match against Abigail Amos, Georgia and Amber had good solid wins in straight sets, but Amelia did loose hers. Donovan, Marcus and Jonathan all had easy wins, Toby unfortunately had to retire with his on going knee problem. Thankfully we ended with a good win over Leics.
Overall the team came third which was good, if a full team had been available I feel we would have been a good opposition for Yorkshire. Thanks go to all the players and their parents for the support throughout the day.
Jane Stokes