The girls County Cup was played at Grantham Tennis Club, in a group of 5 Counties – Leicestershire, Cambridgeshire, Buckinghamshire, Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire.
Day 1 Notts played Bucks first, which was the strongest team on paper fielding 5 green 1 players. Ava-May and Lorena both had very tough matches against more experienced girls, they both lost in straight sets. Isabella playing at number 1 had a great match. She lost the first set 4-5, won the second 5-4 and went on to win the match tie-break 10-3. This I felt was the match of the day! We were outplayed in the doubles losing 1-4 2-4. Buckinghamshire took the win 3-1.
The second round was against Cambridgeshire another County able to have a team of all green 1 players. Bethan and Lorena played this round. Both played well were able to stay in the rallies, with some games going to deuce, but with a sudden death point being played they both lost 1-4, 2-4. Isabella played a great first set, but went down in the set tiebreak, with the final match score of 4-5, 2-4. Sophie Johnson was just too strong, hitting a very heavy ball. The doubles was again tough for our girls, with a loss of 1-4, 2-4. Cambridge had the win 4-0.
Day 2 was very windy, this played a huge part in all the matches for these 10u girls, they were coping with a strong down-court wind on one court, with a cross wind on the other three courts.
Bethan played the first match against Lincolnshire. She won the first set 4-2 coping with the down-court wind better than her opponent. The second set was very close, going to a set tiebreak which Bethan lost.
This took them into a match tiebreak which was close with solid controlled tennis played. Sadly Bethan lost 7-10. This was a great match for her as it was her first 3 set match on the full court, definitely the match of the day. Notts went into the doubles 2-1 up, with Isabella and Lorena playing. They won the first set 4-2, second set much closer, going down 4-5. The match tiebreak slipped away with too many errors they lost 7-10
As the match score was now 2-2, they had to play a match tiebreak shootout. Isabella and Bethan played this. It was so close it could have gone to either team, sadly it went to Lincolnshire 12-10. This result gave them the win 3-2.
The final round was against Leicestershire. We were faced with another strong team, Lorena and Ava-May both lost in straight sets, both finding the wind very difficult. Isabella again played a great match coping with the down-court wind better than her opponent, she won 4-1, 4-1. We went into the doubles 1-2 down. Leicestershire did have more experience on the doubles court, we lost 0-4, 2-4. Leicestershire won 3-1.
The girls enjoyed the weekend despite being in such a strong group. They will all have learnt something form is experience, hopefully going back to hit more balls and enjoy their tennis.
Well done. My thanks to the parents for their support over the weekend and to Maria Cotton for her help at her first County Cup.
Jane Stokes
Captain