After the frustration of an early finish on day 4, the teams of group 5 had a long day ahead of them to sort out the final places for this year. Somerset started their day needing to build on their good start against Durham and Cleveland, another phenomenal second round performance form the team, winning all the rubbers for a 5-1 lead. Continued strong performances from all the pairs from day 4 allowed the team to get 4 wins and be placed in a strong position for promotion.
Knowing the mathematical mysteries that can be thrown up by the final days of county week, captain Matthew Bernard set about ensuring his team were focused for trying to secure as many rubbers as possible. After another superb round from the team, again winning all the rubbers left the team on 4 wins and 29 rubbers. Wellington Player Manlow said “this was a great effort from the team” and “we have deserved all our wins so far this week”.
The drama of the conclusion of day 4 came on the adjacent courts with the Buckinghamshire and Cornwall match, Somerset promotion rivals at the start of the day on 3 and 2 wins. After several tight matches Cornwall squeezed the match 5-4 after winning a championship tiebreak third set match at the end by two points, with all the teams watching on with interest.
The Cornwall performance gave them, Cambridge and Buckinghamshire a chance to go up to group 4, with Somerset only needing 1 rubber form the match against Buckinghamshire to secure top spot. One of Somerset stars of the week Craig Phillips couldn’t play in the last match due to a hand injury, so James Deem chief supporter all week made his first appearance on court against Buckinghamshire. Somerset broke their record of winning the first round 2-1 by reversing this 1-2 where Gabb and Pankhurst were the only team to win a rubber. Deem and Bettles were comfortably beaten 4-2 4-2 by Simon Childs and Aidan Graveson, while Manlow/Felton fought out a tough three set battle against Toby Martin and Peter Thorne.
Somerset made it a clean sweep of the second round for the fifth tie in the row, winning all the matches in championship tiebreak. Bettles and Deem won theirs comfortable 10-2 in the championship tie-break after losing a nervy second set. Manlow and Felton showed their class to take out Bucks one pair Graveson and Childs, while Gabb and Pankhurst continued their good form beating Martin and Thorne. Somerset, 4-2 up needed one rubber for the fifth win which was duly completed by an excellent performance from Deem and Bettles taking out Thorne and Martin 4-2 4-1. Deem said “its great to come into the team an contribute to the win against a good Bucks side”.
Manlow and Felton duly completed their second rubber beating Hutt and Barnes while Pankhurst and Gabb beat Childs and Graveson in a close and entertaining match which Pankhurst sealed with an ace for Somerset to win 7-2 and gain a comprehensive promotion to group.
Meanwhile on the adjacent courts Cornwall and Cambridgeshire were in a tussle to see if they could surpass Bucks for second place promotion. Cambridgeshire emerged 5-4 victors to put them on 3 wins with Bucks and Cornwall. After the inputting of the results Cornwall nipped the other two teams for the second place by virtue of having two more rubbers on Bucks and Cambridgeshire.
Captain Bernard accepted the trophies with his team and thanked the officials, organisers, caterers and those involved with the event for providing the counties with an opportunity for such an excellent weeks tennis.
Long Live County Week………
Full results from Men’s group 5 can be found here
The squad consists of Matthew Bernard (Taunton), James Pankhurst (Yeovil), James Deem (Wellington), Chris Lister (Porlock), Matthew Bettles (Trull), Dan Manlow (Wellington), Alistair Felton (Barton St David), Craig Phillips (Brean) and Richard Gabb (Street).