18U County Cup Team Reports
18U Boys Report
Northants played Staffordshire first day losing a tight match 6-3 with wins coming from Kacper and Ilian and also a doubles win from Ilian and Joe.
Kacper's singles win was against Harry Spear, ranked No.40 in the UK.
Day 2, Northants lost to a very strong Avon team 8-1, boasting 4 players in the top 100 in the UK. The only victory coming from Monty and Ilian.
On the final day, Northants could avoid relegation if Avon beat Staffordshire 9-0, which they succeeded in doing and Northants defeated Derbyshire. Unfortunately, Northants lost a close fought match 5-4 with singles wins coming from Kacper, Marcel and Ilian and a doubles win from Monty & Marcel.
Northants look forward to next year, to try and gain promotion back to division 4.
Mark Taylor
18U Boys Captain
18U Girls Report
Aim for the event was to stay in div 4.
After day 1 with a convincing win over Somerset and seeing the other teams, we did feel that we were on a par if not stronger than some.
Day 2- Playing losers of day 1 Wiltshire, we secured another convincing win with strong performance form the team.
Day3 - the big one. East Scotland v Northants a straight shoot out for promotion. A last minute shuffle of the team due to a player injury to the undefeated Scarlet was a shame for her.
2-0 down in the singles gave a bit of an uphill battle. Bush sister won both singles and we stayed in touch going 2-4 down into the 3 remaining doubles.
Ella and Scarlet started the potential fight back winning at 3rd pair and sisters Tegan & Leah paired up to win their doubles to take the tie to 4-4, leaving them both undefeated for the 3 days.
It all went to the last match of the event. Sadly for all we lost in a close final doubles match to lose the tie 5-4.
The goal of staying up was achieved and we live to fight another year and go for that promotion to Div 3 next year.
A massive thanks to Imogen (chaperone/vice captain/cheer leader) and to Charlotte and Ella for their years of contributions representing u18 county girls, as we wouldn’t be in our highest division for the last 10years without them.
James Haley
18U Girls Captain
