14U Boys County Cup Report
The annual U14 County Cup competition took place at Halton Tennis Centre on Saturday 2nd May and Sunday 3rd May. Northants were represented by Elliott, Wiktor, Arjun and Oscar. The counties we competed against were Buckinghamshire and Norfolk on the Saturday and Suffolk and Essex on the Sunday.
We faced a strong Buckinghamshire team in our first match, the team seemed rather overawed by the challenge ahead of them and in all the singles matches we were 4-0 down after the first set, the second sets were much more competitive with Wiktor taking their number two to a deciding match tiebreaker losing 10-5. The doubles matches started to show this teams potential and were hard fought close matches, but it still ended in a 6-0 defeat.
After a short break, we then played a Norfolk team who again had much higher ranked players. Oscar at four, who had come into the team at the very last moment after Kajetan had fractured his arm at school two days before the event, had a great match, eventually losing 10-8 in the final set tiebreaker. Arjun at three had a 4-2, 4-3 win, a fine performance. Wiktor kept up his habit of playing marathon matches, after losing the first set he won the second 7-5 in the tiebreak and won the match tiebreaker 10-8. Elliott playing at number one had a tough match against a highly ranked opponent losing 4-2, 4-2. 2-2 going into the doubles. Wiktor and Arjun played very well to win 4-0, 4-2. Elliott and Oscar had a high-quality match at one losing 4-2,4-3. The match needed to be decided by a tie break shootout. Elliott and Arjun joined up to win it decisively 10-3. A great team effort.
The second day started with a match v Suffolk. With a little more good fortune this would have been much closer than the final result, a 5-1 defeat. Elliott played very well but lost a final set tiebreaker, Wiktor maintained his record of going to a championship tiebreaker in every match unfortunately losing this one 10-7, Arjun had a very close match losing both sets 7-5 in the tiebreaker. Wiktor and Arjun did pick up a doubles win 10-3 in the deciding tiebreaker. An unbeaten Essex team were our opponents in the final match, their singles players all gained decisive victories but Arjun and Wiktor won the only set they had lost all weekend before losing the deciding tiebreaker 10-5, a 6-0 defeat but a gallant effort by all our team against quality opposition.
I must make a special mention about Oscar who only knew he was playing on the day before and performed with distinction in all of his matches and Wiktor who aged 11 had many tough battles and illustrated what a prospect he is for this team in the next few years. This was an excellent weekend of very competitive tennis with numerous close matches often against much higher ranked opposition at very welcoming and hospitable venue. The team was a pleasure to be involved with and I hope they see this as a stepping stone to greater things in the future.
Neil Shorrock
