Summer County Cup at Ilkley was a great success for Northants Men, who won
Division 4 in terrific style, captained by Corby coach Mark Taylor. He was
surrounded by players who have been part of the Corby programme over a
number of years, by some who were born and bred in Corby, and some who came
in to take part in squad training with Mark and Craig. 

Heading the team at 1st pair were Joe Tyler and Jack Haworth, who finished
the week on a brilliant 14/15 wins, losing just one match 4-6 in the third
set. More than ably backed up by Kyle Rae and Charlie Swallow who took
13/15, and then our 3rd pair were made up of Jordan Parker, James Smith &
Peter Whight who contributed some excellent wins to help the team cause.
Tyler, Haworth and Smithy (aka Viking! pictured) were all coached
individually by Craig Haworth for a number of years, while also doing
squads. Rae and Parker had individual lessons with Mark Taylor while doing
squads, and Swallow and Whight were regular squad players as well. 

Corby Manager Craig said "It was a really special day for Mark and I to
watch this team perform so well. We have both had a lot of input into their
tennis development, so to watch them all playing together and bonding so
well as a team was great to witness. Half the team have played here since
they were about 8 years old, and they have grown into a team of terrific
young men. They played to a really high level and won all 5 days. It is a
tough week physically, but our players showed how fit they are, so we did
not really have any major injuries that forced them not to play. Charlie has
been a particularly consistent performer for us in the past 3 years, and he
now has Kyle, Jack and Joe who have all benefitted from their time at USA
Universities, also coming in with 13-15 wins for the past 2 years. It was
also really nice to see the level of support for the team. With by far the
largest group of supporters to cheer them on, the Northants players beat
Leicestershire 8-1, Lancashire 7-2, West of Scotland 6-3, Somerset 6-3, and
were promoted along with Berkshire, who they beat 6-3. I have been able to
wear a number of hats this week, as a very proud Dad, coach and County
representative - bring on Group 3 next year!"

Captain Taylor added "this is a special team to be involved with. Moving up
the divisions makes it more likely that we can tempt the likes of Alex Ward
and Shakeel Manji to come back and play for us, and then we would be a force
to be taken seriously in any division. I am already looking forward to next
year."

The Northants Ladies were relegated from Division 6, despite some close
matches. Three teams had one win each at the bottom of the table, but
Northants ended up bottom of the group.