A team of 6 of Somerset’s finest travelled to Street on Saturday 18th June for the traditional summer county cup warm up match against Millfield Boys. The match, originally scheduled for the grass, was forced indoors due to the inclement weather.
The squad, featuring 4 of last years summer county week team (pictured left) started brightly winning the opening round of doubles matches 2-1 where all rubbers were against their opposite numbers. Third pair of Richard Stock (Taunton) and Bruce Hall (Crewkerne) wrapped up a straight sets victory 6-4 6-2 and experienced campaigners James Deem (Wellington) and Matt Bernard (Taunton) started their day positively with a 6-3 6-4 win. Craig Phillips (Brean) and Matt Bettles (Trull) had a tougher assignment at first pair losing in straight sets after the Millfield pair came out of the blocks with some excellent play
The second round also went 2-1 to Somerset with Deem/Bernard and Bettles/Phillips winning matches comfortably in straight sets. Stock and Hall put a strong performance up against Millfield first pair but came out on the wrong side after some high class tennis from both teams.
Somerset finished the match with a clean sweep of the final round, with Deem and Bernard producing their performance of the day to beat the first pair 6-4 6-1. Meanwhile Bettles/Phillips finished their day positively with a win against substituted pair Phil Thomas and Jamie Carwithen and Stock / Hall recorded a stylish straight sets victory to finish their day 2 from 3.
TDM Deem said “This was a good win for the team today, and a good way to shake off some rust before the summer county cup”. He further commented that its “always good to get some wins under the belt for the county”.
Captain Bernard said “I was pleased with the performance of the boys today, it is always tough to go indoors at Millfield, when we feel the grass is to our advantage”. He added that this was “excellent preparation” for the county week team and hoped that this would be the “springboard” to regain promotion to group 4.
Match Squad: Matt Bernard (Capt), Matt Bettles, Craig Phillips, James Deem, Bruce Hall and Richard Stock.