14U County Cup Boys Results- 2nd Place
Team: · Simon Ferguson (Captain) · Collen Mhlanga (Assistant Captain) · Billy Moxon · Matthew Gardner · Veer Tumber · Max Emil Kunze · Sebastian Wood · William Ellis (1st reserve) · Charles Fielding (2nd reserve)
Wins vs North Wales - 5-1
vs Staffordshire - 5-1
vs Oxfordshire- 4- 2
Draws Northamptonshire 3-3
To view the full results please click here
Captains Report
Squad: Billy Moxon, Matty Gardner, Max Kunze, Veer Tumbar, Seb Wood
Coaches: Simon Ferguson and Collen Mhlanga
Group: Warwickshire, Northamptonshire, North Wales, Oxfordshire, and Staffordshire.
The start of our County Cup journey this year was hampered by the late withdrawal of the Isle of Man, just 3 days before the event itself. With a change in format and scheduling to our group, we were affected the most by the change. We were on the back foot to start with and to make life a little more difficult we were playing the host county Northamptonshire firstly on Saturday morning, who along with ourselves were one of the favourites to qualify for the national finals. With some logistical changes and support from the parents we were able to get some of the boys to the venue before the coaching team and other players arrived.
Warwickshire vs Northamptonshire
Considering the challenges the boys faced, we found ourselves 2-1 up after the first 3 singles matches which was a brilliant effort. Billy who was given no time to warm up went on to play their no1 who took full advantage! Although Billy was getting stronger and stronger as the match went on, he was unable to pull off the comeback. 2-2. Into the doubles and the level of tennis was really high. Billy and Matty having too much for their no1 pair, but by the narrowest of margins and without a bit of luck Max and Veer lost 10-8 in the 3rd set tie break. So, it’s now 3-3... a match tiebreak shootout to decide the fixture. Billy and Veer were up and gave it their all but couldn’t quite do it.
Warwickshire vs North Wales
In between our singles and doubles matches vs Northamptonshire our singles matches vs North Wales got underway. The bears were too strong and raced to a 4-0 lead. With the option to switch things around in the doubles, the boys completed the tie with a 5-1 win.
Warwickshire vs Staffordshire
After a long day and a well-earned Nando’s the boys were up and ready to go... It was Matty Gardner’s birthday, so what better way to start the day than to have the whole of breakfast watch you as the waitress and the team sang happy birthday to you with a candle in a pain au chocolat!
Into the matches and Max and Seb got us off to another great start, putting us 2-0 up. Matty and Billy on next and against some strong competition, were able to put us in to a commanding 3-1 situation going into doubles. With Staffordshire resting their key players, we took full advantage and secured the win 5-1.
Warwickshire vs Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire were a bit of a dark horse and were still in with a shout of qualifying themselves at this stage of the competition. We knew we had to beat them and hope they could do us a favour against Northamptonshire. We did our job, Veer and Seb winning two close matches and Billy seeing off their no1 put us 3-1 up. Unfortunately, Oxfordshire couldn’t help us out against Northamptonshire who went on to win the group, but Max and Seb secured the doubles rubber needed to beat Oxfordshire overall which meant we finished a very close runner up.
A superb weekend overall even against the challenges we faced and had we have had a little more luck, we would have been more than deserving of a place in the finals. Thank you to all the parents for their help and support and I look forward to seeing the boys progress and develop their tennis and play many more county cups in the future!
Simon and Collen