Yorkshire Team (L to R): Tommy Vale, James Wilson, Louis Hull, Zak Lloyd.
Overall Position 1st
Match Results:
Yorkshire vs Buckinghamshire – 4-0 Win
Yorkshire vs Essex – 3-1 Win
Yorkshire vs Hertfordshire – 2-2 Draw
Yorkshire U10 Boy’s team made a great start to their 12 counties campaign by dominating the opening matches against Buckinghamshire. Tommy and James were quick out of the blocks breaking their opponent’s serves early to gain the team some much needed momentum and they were complemented nicely by Zak and Louis in the second round of matches taking the fixture relatively comfortably 4-0.
The second round of matches saw us playing a strong Essex side. Tommy started things off for the team in positive fashion by showing his mental strength by dominating his opponent after going 2-0 down at the start of the match- a solid performance. Essex proved too strong at number 2, levelling at 1-1 leaving it down to Louis and Zak to decide the tie against decent opposition. Both players fought really well through tough spells to bring the tie home 3-1 for Yorkshire- a really gritty team performance.
The final match of the day saw us playing an equally unbeaten Hertfordshire side to decide the top two positions in the table. Tommy and James went on to play two very strong opponents and things looked like they would be very tight overall. Tommy raced to a fast start going 3-0 up but lost the first 8-6 in a tiebreak before losing the second- a great effort, the match was very close throughout and probably the match of the day overall in terms of tennis level- a great spectacle of u10 boys tennis. James then had to step up for the team and he produced his best match to date taking out a regular Grade 2 semi-finalist 4-0 5-4 in a stellar performance for the team. This was the Yorkshire performance of the day- a fantastic display of heart and desire. We were then 1-1 going into the final two matches with Louis and Zak. Both matches looked like they could go either way at one stage with Yorkshire losing both first sets but both boys acquitted themselves well to show their fighting qualities to win both crucial second sets and take it into the 3rd set match tie-break to decide the group winners. Zak got over the finish line first with a solid mental display in the breaker in touch circumstances whilst Louis fought hard against a strong opponent narrowly missing out right at the end. Overall, we drew 2-2 which was enough for us to win the title as Hertfordshire has drawn with Essex earlier in the day.
Well done to the team and thanks to the supportive Yorkshire parents. We played as a team, supported as a team and managed to win as a team!