The boys under 10’s county cup saw some players making their county cup debut for Oxfordshire. Playing a home tie at Oxford Sports LTC our team over the weekend consisted of Will Taylor, James Head, Alexander Raven, William Sayer and Tarek Khan.
Day 1 saw us face a very strong Middlesex team and despite some good performances in our singles rubbers we lost this match. Our second match against the Channel Islands saw James Head win an epic singles match in a tie break (10-3). We won the doubles too resulting in a 6-2 victory.
On day two we knew we had an important match against a local county, Berkshire. The boys were really keen to play well and got off to a great start with our 3 singles players winner their matches. Will Taylor, James Head and Alex Raven all registered wins. Alex Raven and Tarek Khan lost a tight doubles match. The overall result being a 6-2 victory for Oxfordshire.
Our last match was against Essex, the eventual winners. We k
new this would be tough and the Essex boys proved too strong. Despite the loss all of our players can be pleased with their performance and attitudes.
"Thank you to the parents for their support throughout the weekend and very well done to all the boys who competed." Tom Francis (Team Captain).
Meanwhile the Oxfordshire Under 10 Girls county cup team travelled to Ealing, West Middlesex to compete. A team of Lara Frank, Jana Cooper Marcos, Lucia Langdale and Gemma Taylor were ready to do battle with Middlesex, Bucks, Berks and Essex.
The girls first of all came up against Middlesex. Lucia played first against there number three, who was an extremely good athlete, Lucia stuck to her own game plan and drove the ball aggressively from all areas of the court, however the effort was in vain and she lost in two sets. Lara and Jana also had the same sort of match ups, they both battled hard and gave their all, but again losing the singles.
It was Bucks in the next match, the girls were keen to get going and really prove they could bring a win this time around. Lara at 1, played a big match tie break against the Bucks number one, showing great determination and effort to come through and win in three sets. Jana had a slightly easier time and completed a two set victory. Gemma came in at three and yet again made it look extremely easy, winning in two very comfortable sets. The doubles completed the afternoons matches, Lara and Jana teamed up to beat the Bucks girls, and Lucia and Gemma played against Middlesex. Lara and Jana showed some great communication and awareness at the net to complete a 4 - 0 win over Bucks, whilst Lucia and Gemma battled well and showed so very good tennis also but was always tough against Middlesex, meaning we lost 0 - 4 to them. After day 1 it left us in third place, so still in the hunt!
Day two brought sunshine, a chance for the girls to put some sun cream on and go again! We firstly played Berkshire, the girls knew this was a tough match, and would need some extremely solid, yet aggressive tennis in order to win. Lucia was up first and just came up against someone too consistent, Jana had a tighter match up, but just found a girl going for the corners too much to handle, whilst Lara had to really counter attack against a number 1 who was very athletic whilst hit the ball very aggressively. We came out feeling a little dejected, having been 3 - 0 down in the singles but needed to pick up again for the last one against Essex.
This needed one final push, and on paper we were just as good as them. The Essex no 1 was just far too strong, so Lara went down in two sets after a tough start in the first set. Gemma came in at three to compete but was unable to repeat the same win as the day before against a girl who got everything back. Jana's match ended up being almost an hour and a half of grafting tennis which could have swung either way, it came down to a match tie break and Jana found herself on the end of a close call whilst 8 - 6 up which seemed to swing the momentum in favour of Essex and they duly won the tie break 14 - 12, but was a fantastic display of grit and determination from Jana.In the doubles Lucia and Gemma paired up against Essex and played unbelievable tennis, they were 6 - 2 up in the match tie break only to go on and lose it, whereas Lara and Jana teamed up for a solid display against Berks and won on the match tiebreaak!
Match results that day were 1 - 3 against Berks and 0 - 4 against Essex. We ended up 4th, but if a couple of those match tie breaks went our way it would have been a different story.
"My thanks go to Sophie Marriott for assisting me on Sunday, all the parents for bringing the children all the way and enduring some tense tennis, and also the county for their ongoing support. Always next year!"Andy Aitken (Team Captain).