Over the weekend of 13/14 June the 11u girls county team travelled to Chichester. It was a great opportunity for the girls to play different players and counties we haven’t played before.

The weekend start with very competitive singles matches against Dorset. Sofia won a tight 3 set match at number 3 singles, but unfortunately Riya and alsie couldn’t get their matches over the line both losing in close match tiebreaks and Sophia losing in 2 tiebreak sets. At 3-1 down it was all to play for in doubles. Riya and Sophia had a great win at 1 doubles but Sofia and alsie came up short meaning a 4-2 loss overall. 

Saturday afternoon the girls played Bucks. The girls fight and determination was great to bounce back from the disappointment of the morning. Sophia and Sofia got singles wins at 2&3 respectively meaning it was all to play for in doubles. With a slight change to doubles pairs. Riya/alsie and Sophia/sofia, both pairs got the win meaning a 4-2 win overall. 

On Sunday it was all to play for with a win meaning a chance to top the group. More tight matches that didn’t quite go our way with our only singles win coming from Sophia at 2 singles. Looking to make it 3-3 after doubles, we played the same doubles pairs as Saturday afternoon.  Sophia and Sofia won at 2 doubles, but unfortunately Riya and alsie lost a nail biting 11-9 match tiebreak meaning a 4-2 defeat overall. 

The girls fought hard all weekend and on a different day some of the tight matches go our way and the results go in our favour. A very positive weekend from all the girls.

Thank you to the parents and players for their efforts and support over the weekend on such a long trip.

Sam Hickman

The U11 boys county team had the benefit of a home tie at Easton Tennis Centre. A large group of 5 counties meant a busy schedule of matches in the heat of the weekend. The squad was Lucas, Micah, Matthew, David and Thomas.

On Saturday the boys began with singles against Bedfordshire, followed by singles with Berkshire. Against Beds, the boys all managed to secure straight set wins to ensure a winning start to the weekend. After a bright start against Berkshire, we finished round 1 of the singles 1-1 after a great 3 set win from Matthew. The tie began to slip away after both Micah and Lucas lost out in two very competitive matches at #1 and #2. Going into the doubles it was 4-0 vs Beds and 1-3 vs Berks. Thomas came in for his first match of the day to win his opening doubles with Micah against Beds, while David and Lucas teamed up to secure a 6-0 win. The same pairings then took to the court again to try and turn the Berkshire tie around. Unfortunately, it was not to be, but a close 3-4 2-4 match at #1 dubs from David and Lucas had initially given us hope in the early stages.

On Sunday the deciding ties would be against Sussex and Suffolk. With Suffolk noticeably dominant on day one against their opponents, we knew this would be a tough match when it came up.

The singles with Sussex saw some of the closest tennis of the weekend played out on the clay. It is hard to fault the boys with the effort they put in, but we ended the singles 1-3 down after Micah registered our only win. Matthew and Lucas both losing out in a third set tie break! In our singles with Suffolk there were glimpses of some great tennis, but as we'd seen from day one, Suffolk had the answers to most of the counties players in each match. 0-4 after the singles meant that our focus came back to salvaging something against Sussex.

In two very entertaining matches (if you weren't the coach having to nervously watch), Lucas and Micah won a 3rd set ties break 11-9 to take the tie to 2-3. Desperately unlucky were David and Matthew, who had gone marginally ahead in their match before falling 10-12 in their 3rd set breaker. 2-4 overall, and a few very tied lads who had honestly given everything they could to a very long weekend.

A huge thank you to the players and parents for their support over the event.

Chris Stocker