Girls 14U County Cup 2012, played at Billesley , Birmingham
Team- Amber Williams, Etianna Whitaker, Holly Mellors, Ellis Cleland, Amy Harrold-Vaux, Stephanie Cover.
This event was a group of eight Counties playing a compass draw.
Notts drew East of Scotland in the first round, playing four singles and two doubles. Ellis and Holly were first to play. Ellis played well, but her opponent attacked her backhand continuously, and with some unforced errors she lost 3-6,2-6. Holly had a nervous first set, with the addition of her asthma being aggravated by a cold wind and temperature of three degrees, she lost it 6-2, she the recovered and played some lovely tennis to win the next set 6-0, but then the tension got to her again losing the third set 6-0. Etianna and Amber both played well, with matches that could have gone either way, Etianna lost her first set on a tie break, with the second disappearing 1-6. Amber is a fighter, she plays attacking tennis, but then cannot sustain the pace. She also lost 5-7, 3-6. Amber and Etianna in the doubles had a tight match, which again the just could not finish off, going down 4-6, 6-7. Notts got the only win when Holly and Amy played 7-6, 6-2. In this format we went backwards in the draw, with East of Scotland going forwards.
Lincolnshire also lost so they were our next opponents. Holly had a blister on her hand so did not play the singles. Amy went in at number four. She played a solid match, winning the first set 6-4, and then really finished convincingly with a 6-1 second set. Ellis was in for a tough match against Dana Kenneally – Forrester who is a very consistent solid hitter from the baseline. Ellis could not sustain the weight of ball and went down 1-6, 0-6. Etianna again played well, but is only eleven years old and the experience of Jessica Jackson was too much for her, losing 2-6,0-6. Amber played the best tennis of the weekend in the first set, she retrieved balls well and attacked as always. She kept the momentum for two sets, but again just could not keep it up and lost 6-4, 4-6, 2-6 in a match she knows was the best she has ever played. We were 1-3 down after the singles, so still a chance to win, but the doubles slipped away rather quickly. Amber and Holly lost 0-6, 2-6, Amy and Stephanie 3-6, 0-6. The result meant we were going backwards again to meet Cumbria.
In this final round Amy again played a solid match, it was tight, but she kept her concentration, winning 6-4, 6-3. Holly played a long match, she lost the first set 6-2 with a lot of errors, again she seemed to be affected by her asthma, she came back to win the second 6-4. A match tie break was played for the final set which was very close. Holly was up initially but then went 9-6 down, she pulled it back to 9-9, but lost 9-11. The doubles slipped away, giving us a 1-5 loss.
This was a tough weekend for the girls, who for most this was their first County Cup. It was also a young team, who I hope will have gained experience from the event Freya, Livvy, Georgia, and Alice were unavailable for this weekend.The winning County from this group go on to play in the National Finals.There was good team spirit throughout the weekend, my thanks go to Lisa Harrold-Vaux for her help and support over the three days.
Jane Stokes (captain)