The county padel team set off to Rocket for the third 050 UK County Padel Championships.

We arrived with many new players making their first appearances in both men and women’s events.

On paper the men’s Bela group looked challenging against the bigger Padel playing counties of East of Scotland and Lancashire so we naturally targeted a win against Wiltshire.

First off was Lancashire with Nick Robinson & Stu Farrar. A slow set saw us claw back to 5-7 but the tactic of focusing on their right side player worked a dream to go 6-2 up and our momentum carried on into a championship tie break with us ahead until the magic number of 10 for us 6 to them. So we were off to a great start and another tie break win to end previous years efforts.

At the same time was Arthur Turner and making his debut Gary Chorley v their 2nd pair. Gary reports, “It was a tight affair and after getting an early break in the first set, we were pegged back but then regained control to close out the set 7-5. We maintained the pressure at the beginning of the 2nd set and were clinical in winning it 6-1. 

The headlines looked good.

Somerset 2 Lancashire 0.

With happy faces all round and feeling more confident we kept the same pairs going into the Wiltshire match.

Trying to forget we were on TV Nick & Stuart had a steady start at 2-2 but then they pulled away to a 6-2 set backed up with a 6-3 set  with the tactic of “we dont need to force this to win”.

Arthur & Gary faced a strong aggressive 2nd pair v Wiltshire. “We played OK but couldn't quite gain the upper hand” getting to 4-6,3-6. One highlight was a reflex back hand volley at the back of the court by Arthur from a point blank smash.

So the team were in a strong position being undefeated against top seeds East of Scotland. 

Some player rotation saw Arthur pairing up with Nick in pair 1. “ We started very slowly and lost the first set in double quick time 6–2. We swapped sides for the second set and won that 6-2. Next came the dreaded championship tiebreak that we lost 10 - 6. This was an annoying loss as we tried to force things when we didn’t need to and this was probably a match we should’ve won.”

Next up was Simon Clegg and Chris Johnson both making their county debuts against Colin Mcgill, a Scottish capped Tennis & Padel player & Adrian Richmond . This was always going to be a tough one and after being broken twice to go 2-6 they hung on as best they could. 

“Rocket Padel and its high roof line was a  joy for the lobbers which worked well to help get us to the net to attack. Sadly we could not get to the net as much as we’d have liked. We finished strongly and the latter stages of the match didn’t reflect the straight sets defeat. It was a competitive match played in the right spirit.”

A quick calculation of the points saw Somerset qualify for the KO stages for the first time in any age group. 

With some tired legs rest was the order of the day before Sundays quarter final v the much larger Padel playing county of Middlesex.

First up was Arthur & Nick v Stu Farrar’s usual 060 partner Jack Colborne & Thomas Hvamb. “We again started slowly going down three nil in the first set before we fought back to 5 all before ceding the set. In the second set we played well winning some great points and putting the opposition on the back foot. It was there for the taking and despite having set points, we lost the 2nd set tiebreak 13-11. Lessons were learned and it was a great Padel experience overall.”

In the 2nd pair Simon and Chris were up against two UK top 100 players. They decided to attack throughout. “We hit some big smashes, played some creative shots and put them under pressure in nearly every game. We took a lot of games to deuce and the scoreline did not really reflect how competitive the match was. Overall, it was a great experience representing Somerset and we both really enjoyed it.” 

With the Women over at Surge on Saturday Captain Jo Le Neve Foster and Alice Yarde’s made their debut county match V Cornwall.

Keeping serve till 5 games each a break of serve gave Cornwall the set 7-5. The 2 nd set went with serve till 2-2 and although lots of games went to deuce Cornwall went on to secure the set 6-2.

Next on was county player Kelly Cunningham and making her debut Cori Roberts. Kelly reports  “Our first match was a convincing win over Cornwall. We held the net well aided by Cori keeping the balls deep to set up the winner points at the net.” 6-3,6-2. The result was no doubt aided by Cory’s warm up routine which she is happy to share

Top seeded South Wales had two experienced high ranked UK players so with Alice & Jo getting to several deuces the match ran away from them.

Keeping the same 2nd pair  V South Wales they also got off to a great start at 6-3. “They started to find their way into the second set but we kept our game solid in defence and our net game enabled us to finish it off 7-6 after a 7-4 tie break.

Alice & Jo met more experienced UK ranked 050 players v Derbyshire but getting into their stride they competed well in a 0-2 defeat.

In the 2nd pair the key here was to reach the back glass to allow Kelly & Cori to be more aggressive with their stronger overheads. The tactic was working but a first set to 6-7 could have gone either way with a 5-7 tie break.

Keeping the same tactic to get to 4-4 they lost serve and the set 6-4 and so a match of “what might have been” but valuable experience gained.

So into the play offs the women returned early on Sunday morning to face Hampshire who failed to appear without notifying Uk Padel. They made use of the courts whilst waiting for Cornwall in the play off finals. Both pairs fought hard to the end just losing out in two championship tie breaks to 10 after 1 all in sets. Overall the women were pleased with thier results.

Over the weekend both teams put in a performance they can be proud. It was a performance “Bela” himself would have been proud of.

We have achieved the objective we set out last year and broke new ground as a county. Next year dare we go as far as targeting all three teams with reaching the KO stages. Why not rise to the challenge.

Finally a big thank you from the selectors and Captains to all of the players who played and attended the trials and practice matches. Thankyou to those who came to support and a special mention to our sponsors Padel Ready who provided our county tops which drew a lot of compliments.

Stuart Farrar, Captain