Friday 23rd February vs. Essex
With the strongest squad Yorkshire had fielded in a number of years the boys went into the weekend looking to secure promotion back to Group 1.
On paper it looked like the crucial tie would be against Kent on the final day so as a team we wanted to make sure we put a marker down early of being the strongest team in the group. We 3 courts in play, we had 3 debutants in Josh (4) Barney (5) and Jack (6) in action at the same time. Barney played a blinder and was on and off court in under an hour, and after a tight first set Jack ran away with the second 6-1 to put us 2-0 up. Josh took a little longer to settle in (possibly due to the fact he had holes in his shoes?!) but eventually came through in 3 sets. Joe (1) Finn (2) and Matt (3) were then on next with all 3 winning their first sets comfortably. Whether or not it was a slight loss in concentration thinking that the tie was already over or not I don't know but the energy levels got a little flat and all 3 boys needed up going to 3 sets. If Essex had managed to win all 3 and come from 3-0 down to 3-3 going into the doubles it would have been a huge momentum shift but thankfully all the boys raised their levels and although Matt ended up losing the other boys both won meaning the tie was over 5-1 to Yorkshire. This allowed me to give Josh a rest after his long singles and bring in Tom Smart to partner Jack in the 3rd pair doubles, with Joe and Barney at 2nd pair and Finn and Matt at 1st pair. Despite have a couple of set points in the opening set, Jack and Tom weren't able to convert their chances and went down in straight sets but both the other pairs produced a really professional performance in the dead rubbers to make sure we won 7-2 overall.
Saturday 24th February vs. Cheshire
Cheshire looked like the weakest team on paper but were in good spirits after coming back from 4-0 down against Kent to only narrowly lose 5-4 so again it was important we got off to a good start. With Ying Hou joining up with the team after
After a successful week in the ITF in Norway- where he made the semi finals of the doubles- it gave me options for this tie. I went with the same singles line up and again the opening trio of Josh, Barney and Jack were too strong for their opponents and we went 3-0 up in no time. We wanted to make sure we learnt from the little dip in energy of yesterday in the second round of matches and in a much improved display of focus and intensity Joe and Matt won both their matches comfortably and Matt came agonisingly close to making it a clean sweep but went down 7-6 in the third. We were 5-1 up again after the singles but having had a couple of years where winning lots of rubbers has been a struggle it was important we kept our foot on the gas, so it was great to see Josh and Ying, as well as Joe and Barney both win after losing the first set when it could have been easier to not fight back in a dead rubber match. Jack Joel came in to partner Finn so Matt could rest up for the promotion match against Kent, and the boys clicked straight away and won comfortably at top pair meaning we finished the day as 8-1 winners.
Sunday 25th February v Kent
The outcome of the group was a simple one today, whoever won between us and Kent would get promoted and whoever lost between Essex and Cheshire would get relegated, and after and 8-1 loss a couple of years ago to Kent (with Joe, Matt and Finn still remember) we wanted to get some revenge! After winning both days 5-1 in the singles we kept the same line up, and knew that if needed we had enough quality in our doubles pairings to win all 3. Barney again was the first off court with another fantastic display but unfortunately Jack wasn't able to join him with 3 singles wins out of 3 and went down in straight sets. The key match of the tie was going to be Josh at 4 and he split the opening 2 sets but found another gear in the 3rd set win comfortably to set us up nicely 2-1. After 2 heartbreakingly close loses at 3, Matt showed true Yorkshire grit and a never say die attitude to win comfortably at 3, and Finn played his best match of the weekend to win at put us
4-1 up with only one more win need for promotion. At a set and a break down it looked like that win may have to come in the doubles but Joe produced a fantastic turn around and ran the legs out of his opponent to win 6-0 in the 3rd and seal promotion for Yorkshire!
It was a great end to the weekend, and I'm particularly pleased for Joe and Josh in their last year to have gone undefeated throughout the weekend. Big shout out to Finn and Barney who also went undefeated but overall it was a real team effort, and every member played their part. With not that many of the squad being too old for next year, hopefully with another year of hard work and improvement, and with others coming in too we can have a real go at being competitive in Group 1 in 2019!
Players of the weekend: Joseph Newman Billington and Joshua Lazenby.