12 Counties 10U Boys Report

Coming this early in the winter season, this u10 event was for u9 aged players, meaning all the team were inexperienced at playing on the full court. Following just one county training session on the green ball, the players went in unsure of how they'd do, but clearly excited to be playing for the county.

An absolute baptism of fire awaited playing Essex first up, they were strong throughout the team and our boys were outclassed, but even in defeat there were positives to be taken in how they'd handled the challenge emotionally. I felt confident they would fight for everything they could get together.

Second match up we had Leicestershire with much more evenly balanced matches. Wiktor got a good win at 1 and Rupert showed great spirit when coming up just short at 2. Esa went on at 3 and made pretty short work of his opponent, with all eyes then turning to Otto at 4 to see how the match would ultimately turn out. Otto epitomised the heart shown by all the boys when working his way back from a set down to win his match and bring a Northants victory 3-1.

On to Norfolk, where Rupert came up trumps in a tight encounter at 2, backing up another success for Wiktor, putting us in great shape for another win and second place in the group. Esa, playing much more freely duly racked up his second win of the day, leaving an exhausted and emotional Otto to fight through, with the support of all his team mates, another marathon contest.

This brought the match to a close - 4-0 in our favour, and an incredibly well earnt 2nd place in the group to kick off our 12 counties campaign for the winter in style.

Justin Chacksfield, Captain