U14 Boys County Cup at Sutton.
Results: Notts v Surrey 0-6, Notts v Dorset 1-5, Notts v Staffordshire 0-6
Team: L-R Tass Towers (Capt), Isaac Morris, Puneet Sunner, Jacob Dunk, Gabriel Johnson, Kieran O'Driscoll-Pabla
Report: What a fantastic weekend. Lovely weather, great team, nice venue...just one thing missing.
Day 1. Versus Surrey. Somehow Surrey didn't make it to the finals last year. I've no idea how not. Notts boys hit the courts looking and feeling good but were unable to squeeze anything out of Surrey. The tennis was a very high quality but games eluded us until the doubles.
The U14 age group is the most diverse physically and boys whose voices are yet to break can find themselves facing 6ft growlers with hairy legs. Not quite this extreme this weekend but 60% of this very young Notts team are new to the team and acquitted themselves admirably and never dropped their heads. 0-6
Inspiration needed so we decided to find some good quality courts to hit on in prep for Dorset. We found the best. The National Tennis Centre recognized a spirited group of fighters and allowed us to grace their hallowed halls.
After a good hit it was off for tea but not before a quick visit to another site of importance for our sports world elite in SW19.
Day 2. Versus Dorset. Inspired, the team hit the ground running on Sunday. We equalled our previous day's game tally in the first 10mins of being on court! Dorset were the team that stopped Surrey going to the finals last year. We couldn't sustain the dominance in match one despite epic effort but Kieran drove on to win his match 2-3 in 1hr 45mins (45mins longer than yesterday's matches). The optimism was almost tangible. Gabriel was able to hold back his opponent for 90mins and looked to take it into a third but it was not to be in the next two singles matches (Puneet's result seemed to be against the balance of play). Two wins at doubles would force a draw. Gabriel and Kieran reversed momentum and steamrollered the second set for a tie-break and Isaac and Puneet drew admiration with their net play but both matches went to a very strong Dorset team. 1-5
Tonight's inspiration was to be from the incredible success of an underdog team who took on and defeated the established hierarchy, but where to watch the Leicester v Man U match? We were welcomed into Sutton County Cricket Club's hospitable match day club house. Many thanks to them. Leicester drew. We didn't ask about the Sutton Cricket team. Perhaps they drew too.
Day 3. Versus Staffordshire. Our game count was showing a steep rise on the weekend’s match-chart so 'statistically' we could be confident of securing third place. (Last year we won 3rd in a dramatic and well supported shoot out). Statistically, we doubled our game count on day 3. Match time was up to 130 mins in some matches. 3 matches went to 3 sets and another had a 1st set tie break. It's easy to see that the team were competing hard and staying in the games.
Jacob took motivation from his team’s creative verbal support and turned his match around in the second set and narrowly missed converting the 3rd. Gabriel had reverse fortunes in his first two sets but was also not able to take the third despite very strong play. Both doubles pairs played admirably continuing the meteoric improvement demonstrated over the weekend. Isaac and Puneet lost the fight for the 1st but took the second 6-1. A dramatic tie-break went 6-10 to Staffs. As it transpired, both doubles were dead rubbers but even the Gabriel and Kieran took the 1st set to a tie tie-break and narrowly missed the second to 4.
Ultimately Notts came 4th but the experience, team-building and learning opportunity was invaluable. They rose to the challenge admirably and represented Notts Tennis proudly and flawlessly. This is a team to watch out for and our target is to join the Girls U14s in the finals next year.
Tass (Captain) .