It was a pleasure and an honour to be asked by Surrey Tennis to step into the Captains shoes once again and the team came a very creditable 2nd overall in Group 1 of the County Cup. Whilst some things never change at County Week.....the passion and commitment of the players and supporters, Devonshire park and the Grand hotel....some things have changed and for the 2nd year in succession , team captains were allowed to bring in substitutes at either the end of the 1st or 2nd rubbers. All teams including Surrey were challenged by the fact that many of our top players chose to play in pro circuit and Challenger events during this week of the calendar and this has led to difficulties jugging teams around at the last minute. In terms of Surrey....Ross Hutchins (world team tennis), Darren Walsh ( Finland challenger), Adam Skalsky (Dublin ), Adam Thornton Brown ( Dublin) and Jack Carpenter ( Slovakia) were all either unavailable or in the case of Adam and Darren available when they had been knocked out of the events they were playing in. We nominated 10 players and in total 9 represented the county during the week. Darren could have played the final 2 rubbers on the Friday but we decided not to fly him back from Finland for the final day. Adam did join the team on Tuesday after being knocked out of Dublin and we also had Tom Burn available from Tuesday onwards.
Team.....Chris Eaton, Mark Whitehouse, Joe Salisbury, Tim Patient, James Lloyd, Stefan Sterland Markovich, David Fox, Adam Thornton Brown, Tom Burn, Darren Walsh. David Fox and Adam Thornton Brown were newcomers to the summer county week team and made their county week debuts during the week.
We started the week against a strong Kent team and the first 2 hours of play defined the week in many ways. As we were weaker this day in terms of player availability , I decided to pair 2 of my strongest players together (Chris Eaton and Joe Salisbury)in the hope that they would pick up 3 rubbers and we could also pick up 2 rubbers form the remaining 6 matches being played. Unfortunately the team were slow to get going and we found ourselves 3 0 down after the first round. We started the second round of matches much better and managed to claw our way back to 3 2. In the remaining rubber of the round, James Lloyd and Mark Whitehouse had several set point and numerous break points at various stages of the match but narrowly went down 75 in the final set to make the score 4 2 to Kent with 3 rubbers to play. Once again the team fought hard and had their opportunities but we ended up losing 3 6 to a well-balanced and competitive Kent team.
I reminded the team that in 2013 when we won the title , we had lost our first match to South Wales ! On the second day we played South Wales and were strengthened by the arrival of Tom Burn who was well drilled after spending the summer as Bouchard's hitting partner during Wimbledon. We had a strong and well balanced line up with Eaton/Whitehouse, Salisbury/Burn and Patient/Markovich. Unlike the first day we got off to a much better start and won the tight matches this time . Salisbury/Burn winning a 75 in the third to the strong Welsh first pair of Chris Lewis and Jordan Helyer. 3 0 up after the first round and we continued the roll in the second round taking a 6 0 lead into the final round. David Fox came in as substitute to make his debut and got off to a winning start with the final result being 8 1 to Surrey. This proved to be a great result in terms of rubber count as we knew that if Kent did slip up we would move ahead of them with such a big win. So many of the matches during the week ended up 54 so an 81 win against south Wales got the team back on track.
On Wednesday we kept our winning team together against a strong Lancashire team. The on court temperature was hot and the players had to call on all their resources in some brutal matches. At the end of the first round we emerged 2 1 up but all matches went to the wire. A 76 win in the third was offset by a 76 loss in the third with Eaton/Whitehouse swinging the balance in Surreys favour with a 64 win in the third ! The match continued in a similar vein in the second round but this time Lancashire edged the rubbers 21 to make the match score 33. Adam Thornton Brown came into the team as a substitute and the team won the 2 rubbers we needed to edge the match 54 after nearly 7 hours play in blistering conditions. We managed to keep the pressure up on Kent who after going 31 down to Herts managed to pull through 54 ! At this stage in the event 1 team had 3 wins (Kent) , 1 team had 2 wins (Surrey) and 4 teams had 1 win each making it an exciting few days of tennis ahead. As ever at County Week we could still either win the event or be relegated at the end of day 3 .
On Thursday we played a Hampshire team including Josh Goodall and we freshened things up again bringing James Lloyd back into the team to partner Tim Patient. The partnership pulled off a crucial win in the vital 3v 3 pair match up. We finished the first round 21 up but the second round swung the other way 33 with everything to play for. David fox once again came in as substitute but our pairings of Burn/Salisbury and Eaton/Whitehouse played some of their best tennis of the week to ensure a 54 win for the team. Another brutally hot day and some aching bodies . Kent again went 3 1 down in their match against Lancashire giving us renewed hope of retaining our title. They again managed to pull off a 54 win winning the final rubber despite being set points down in both of the final sets. We still wanted to keep the pressure on Kent just in case of a slip up but at the same time we decided to change the team around on the final Friday for the traditional tough match against a weaker than normal Herts team.
David Fox and Adam Thornton Brown came into the team for the rested Tom burn and Stefan Sterland Markovich. We again managed to secure a 30 lead thanks to two 64 in the third victories. We sealed the match 5 1 but as Kent were already bearing South Wales 5 0 we conceded the final 3 rubbers whilst at the same time cementing our place as runners up.
The team represented Surrey extremely well and showed great commitment, sportsmanship and fought their hearts out until the final ball was hit on the Friday. On reflection we were probably 1 player short on the Monday as I am sure that if Tom burn had been available we would have beaten Kent and gone on to retain the title. All credit to Kent for grinding out some amazing wins under pressure but as I said earlier in my report , the first 2 hours of play proved critical in the end. David Fox ( 2/4 wins) and Adam Thornton Brown ( 2/3 wins) will have emerged stronger from their first county week experiences and sharpened their doubles skills at the same time. Chris Eaton, Joe Salisbury , Mark Whitehouse and Tom Burn were 4 of the best players at Eastbourne and hopefully will remain as the core of the team for future years. Tim Patient and Stefan Sterland Markovich and /or James Lloyd played some great tennis and were the best 3rd pair in group 1 . Hopefully Darren Walsh will come back into the team and will be available for next year as without doubt we would have won the title if he had played. There are also some strong juniors emerging through the ranks with the likes of Andrew Watson and Alex Juhn getting good results on the men’s circuit. They will no doubt come into contention for selection next year. On a final note and for future reference , one of Lancashire's strongest players Harry Meehan has expressed an interest to play for Surrey in the future as he is moving to live in the county shortly. Not the first Lancastrian to switch allegiance ! He will be another good addition to a strong pool of players available to represent the County but someone will need to pick up the conversation with him. .
The team is well placed to win the title again next year . They are a fantastic bunch of guys and were a pleasure to work with during the week. I am more than happy to have a handover chat with the new captain and would also like to thank Danny Sapsford for his help and support whilst handing over the captaincy. He was always available and totally supportive both before and during the week itself.
Good luck for 2015 and I wish the team and the County all the best for the future.
Roger
Roger Draper
Team Captain