Boys 10&U County Cup Report

Qualification Group Stage 

Qualification Team (l to r):

Zak L, Henry R, James W, Louis H and Tom O

Coach: Sam Salt

Venue: Lymm Tennis Club

Date: 26^th / 27^th May

Overall Position 1^st

Match Results: 

Yorkshire vs West of Scot – 8-0 Win

Yorkshire vs Cheshire – 6-2 Win

Yorkshire vs Durham & C – 8-0 Win

Yorkshire vs North of Scot – 6-2 Win

To see which teams qualify for National Finals, there are 8 qualification groups which take part around the country to see the winning team progress through to National Finals two weeks later. Yorkshire began the group well with an 8-0 win over West of Scotland before playing a very strong Cheshire side that arguably had the edge on paper. Cheshire began the tie well going a set up in the 1’s match before Zak L showed his mental strength to fight back and take the 3^rd set breaker 10-6 against good opposition - a crucial win. Louis H and Tom O also had demanding match ups against tough opponents and played superbly to come through in straight sets and give Yorkshire an unassailable 3-0 lead in the key match. Henry R and Tom O both finished the weekend unbeaten 2/2 and 4/4 –a great achievement. Yorkshire then sealed 8-0 and 6-2 wins against Durham and Cleveland and North of Scotland to qualify for National Finals. Overall, great weekend with fantastic team spirit- a pleasure to captain these boys. Roll on National Finals…

National Finals

National Finals Team (l to r):

Zak L, Tom O, Louis H, James W

Coach: Sam Salt

Venue: Sunderland Tennis Centre

Date: 8^th, 9^th, 10^th June

Group Position - 1^st

^{Final Position Nationally- 2nd}

Match Results:

Yorkshire vs Northumberland – 8-0 Win

Yorkshire vs Somerset – 8-0 Win

Yorkshire vs Surrey – 4-4 Win (10-7 shootout win)

National Final Championship Match - Yorkshire vs Kent – 0-8 Loss

With the qualification group still in recent memory, the Yorkshire 10&U team arrived in Sunderland full of confidence and excitement over what lay ahead. The Friday saw us play against Northumberland who had a couple of strong players so it was pleasing to come through that fixture 8-0 with Louis H fighting hard from a set down to beat their number 1 player 10-3 in the 3^rd set match tiebreak. This was a really important win to get the team up and running as his match was first on- this set the tone for the days play and the boys did not disappoint, not dropping a set for the rest of the day.

The following morning, we arrived at the centre to hit at 8am before play began at 9.30am. First up, we had Somerset who looked the weaker of the counties on paper and we came through with aplomb, not dropping a set with all 4 boys playing a match in the fixture and playing solid, assured tennis to seal our second 8-0 win in a row at National Finals. The performance of the Somerset match was once again Louis H who demolished a regular Grade 2 competitor 4-1 4-0 with some seriously positive, attacking tennis showing what a handful he can be. We were still more than aware that we still had Surrey to play and they would be a much sterner test and looked a dangerous prospect. Surrey started the match vs Yorkshire strongly taking both the 1 and 2 singles in straight sets although both boys lost a number of games on sudden death deuces- if we had played the bigger points more intelligently we may have come out of these on top. So 2-0 down, we needed something a bit special from somewhere… step up James W. James walked on to court with the mental assuredness I’ve come to expect from him and delivered such a strong, secure performance to take out Surrey’s number 3 4-2 4-2. James’s shout of “Come on, let's go Yorkshire!” will long live in the memory of the Yorkshire parents on the balcony; the pump was well and truly out.

Yorkshire were now 2-1 down with a ray of light at the end of the tunnel going into the doubles to try and force a match shootout if we could get it to 2-2. However, the ray of light seemed distant when James W / Zak L found themselves 4-2 2-1 down in the doubles just an hour later. The boys rallied once again and pulled back to take the second set 5-3 to force a match shootout which we went on to take 10-8 to level the tie at 2-2! Some seriously clutch doubles from Yorkshire’s answer to Roy Keane and Patrick Vieira- when the pressures on you need someone to put their hand up and take responsibility and that’s what the boys did point after point- their bravery was what separated them with the opposition at the big moments.

Now it was time for the match shootout at 2-2, the balcony was hysterical and so was some of the Surrey team who were gutted to be in this position having been so close to victory and now finding themselves in a dog fight. Yorkshire went for Zak and James (never change a winning team) and Surrey brought a sub in. Surrey’s tactics worked initially and were coasting at 5-1 up in the breaker- things looked bleak for us at this point, especially bleak when a poor lob went up at 5-1 down, the Surrey boy smashed the ball as hard as he physically could at Zak and Zak volleyed it back from nowhere to complete the ultimate hustle to bring it back to 5-2- this was the turning point! We rallied and from being 5-1 down found ourselves 9-7 up serving, literally competing every point on a ball by ball basis so intensely. James W served and Zak came across and knocked the winning volley off- cue the celebrations, the boys were elated – what a comeback!!

Having won our group we had qualified for the National 1^st vs 2^nd Final on the Sunday morning 9.30am. This was tricky as the Surrey match had gone on to 8pm the following night and we were facing a really strong first seed in the Kent team who hadn’t dropped a rubber in reaching the final, finishing the previous day hours earlier. The 4 boys rallied well and saw ourselves lose 2 3^rd set tiebreak’s to lose 4-0 although we had our chances, on another day we could have found a draw from those 4 fixtures and gone into the shootout hopeful on more heroics! Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be in the final and we pushed a good Kent team close in 2 matches- it should have been tighter and we would have loved to push them to the wire.

All in all, a really great few days tennis and finishing 2^nd nationally isn’t to be sniffed at given the quality of some of the opposition we faced - I am really proud of the boys and how we stayed together as a team through the wins and the losses. The support for each other was second to none and we fought hard for every point of every match- you can’t say fairer than that. Well done all.