Ellen Jones captained South Wales Ladies at this year's county week - here's a report on the event. 

This year’s Ladies Summer County Cup group 5 was played at Cambridge University Lawn Tennis Club. Founded in 1881, the club is one of the oldest in the world and despite some poor weather the grass courts played extremely well all week.

Having been relegated last year, the team was keen to bounce back and make a strong bid for promotion back into group 4. A wet Monday morning meant all the matches were moved onto hard courts. The team did extremely well in very slippery conditions to beat Shropshire 6-3, notably Joely Lomas and Rebekah O’Loughlin winning all three rubbers in their first matches back in competitive tennis after returning from injury. Tuesday saw the team take on an experienced Devonshire team and for a second day running the team came back from being 2-1 down after the first round to win all three rubbers in the second round. Olivia Chivers and Lowri James win against the Devonshire pair in round two proved decisive and we managed to secure the 5-4 win in the last round.

The team were high spirits after strong start to the week and after a Tuesday evening punting expedition we were ready to take on West of Scotland. The playing conditions on Wednesday were difficult, with heavy drizzle making the grass courts difficult to move on, the team battled hard but we are pegged back by West of Scotland and lost 5-4. We played Staffordshire on the Thursday, so far Staffs had looked strong and had won convincingly every day. Knowing three other teams were still in the promotion race we set ourselves and achieved our target of three rubbers, placing us in second position in the group going into the last day.

On Friday we played North Wales, behind Staffordshire three teams were on the same number of wins and we knew the group would likely be won on rubbers. However, a shock win for West of Scotland against Devon threw my maths out the window and meant that a 5-4 win would secure second place. After two rounds we were 4-2 up and looking strong going into round three. Elis Cochlin in her first senior county week, led superbly by her partner Becca Strelzyn came through a tight match to clinch the win and take us into group 4 next year. Olivia Chivers and Joely Lomas also won their last rubber to finish the match 6-3.

An excellent all round performance from the team - including Linda Jones’s and Rebecca Llewellyn’s support, and Ben Coates who went above and beyond to help us with travelling logistics. Thank you all. Looking forward to a drier and sunnier week next year!