Team Emelia Box, Sarah-Kate O’Grady, Nina Luiggi, Ellie Horton, Lynsey Cover, Rachel Wood, Frances Benson.
Match Results Notts v Avon 6-3
South Wales v Notts 0-9
Notts v Cheshire 4-5
Report
On the first day we played Avon, with six courts available, players in 4th, 5th , and 6th position went on to play at the same time. Rachel had a good first win 6-4, 6-1. Lynsey lost the first set 1-6, but came back to win the second on the tie-break, and played very well to win the third 6-4. Ellie also played very well to win 6-4, 6-0. Nina had a tough match which went to three sets, winning 6-3,5-7,6-3. Sarah-Kate was due to go on but her opponent, who had been nominated, was being collected from Liverpool Airport! We gave them twenty minutes, the Referee then extended the time, but eventually gave us the match, as she had not arrived. Emelia had a tough match which she did lose, but Nina and Frances won their doubles 6-1, 6-1. Ellie and Lynsey also lost as did Emelia and Sarah-Kate, but we already had the overall win of 6-3.
(Cheshire beat South Wales 7-2.)
On the second day we played South Wales, having seen the Cheshire result, the girls were very competitive, Rachel won 7-5,6-2. Lynsey again went to three sets, winning 6-2 in the third. Ellie had a convincing win of 6-3, 6-0. Nina Sarah-Kate and Emelia all won in two sets, playing very solid tennis. Nina and Frances again had a good win 6-4,6-3, as did Ellie and Lynsey 6-1,6-2, with our number 1 pair winning 6-2,6-0, this gave us a 9-0 win. The girls had no idea as to how important it was not to drop a match.
(Avon beat Cheshire 5-4)
On the third day I knew we had to win three matches to gain promotion. The morning did not go our way, with Rachel losing in a long match 5-7 in the third set, Lynsey had a close match but went down 4-6, 4-6, with Ellie having a tough time loosing 1-6,1-6. Nina played some hard hitting consistent tennis to win 6-2, 6-0. Sarah-Kate had a real battle against Pippa Carr, which unfortunately she lost in the third set. Meanwhile Emelia had been on court for nearly three hours, she managed to keep ahead in the third set, at 5-5 she played very well, hanging in to win 7-5. She had no idea the result rested in her win, as Nina and Frances had already won their doubles in the tie-break third set 10-4.
There had been great team spirit throughout the weekend and they deserved to take Notts into Division 2A.
My thanks go to Louise Luiggi for her help and support over the four days away.
Jane Stokes (Captain)