12 Counties 12U Girls Report

The annual U12 12 Counties competition took place at Corby Indoor Tennis Centre on Saturday 15 November.

Northants were represented by Aida, Kamilah, Lissiana and Ellie playing for the county on Yellow ball for the first time.

The opposition were Notts and Essex with Bedfordshire withdrawing and conceding their match. This was always going to be a tough proposition against two of the stronger tennis counties.

The first match was against Notts, Aida played well in her first match for the county losing in against a very strong number one, Kamilah was a little nervous in the first set but played a strong second set losing 4-2 at two, Lissiana was playing at three and demonstrated outstanding resilience and determination after losing the first set 4-2, winning the second set 5-4 in a 7-5 tiebreaker  and then winning the championship tiebreak 10-2, Ellie came in at four and again turned her match round after losing the first set 5-3, she won the second set 4-1 and the deciding championship tiebreaker 10-3 to give us a 2-2 draw.

The Essex team was very strong with four players ranked highly in their age group but the performance of our team showed great promise, as they competed well and never let their heads drop. Aida was our outstanding performer in this match competing strongly against their number one and winning three games,  it was hard to work out who had the highest national ranking.

Saturday was a very positive experience for the girls and myself as their great team spirit and willingness to work hard to the ends of their matches bodes well for the future. I hope they learn from the experience and realise that hard work in practice will lead to them developing into a winning team in County cup next year.

Neil Shorrock