8U Group A
On Sunday 27th March our youngest county cup team travelled to Northamptonshire to take on Northants and Buckinghamshire in a trial event of the 8u county cup. It was an exciting day for our young bears getting an experience of a competitive team tournament representing their county for the first time.
Our team consisted of two boys teams and one girls team which was the same for all three counties, the teams were:
Boys A Team:
Arjun Hari
Ishaan Genu
Izenosa Paschal-Osagie
Kingsley Johnson
Boys B Team:
Harry Rudolph
Edward Keating
Kavis Arunkumar
Aryan Asthana
Girls A Team:
Frankie Simcox
Aanya Chahaun
Freya Syazeddy
Ana Clara Wagner
The boys were up first with all teams competing against each other in a group of 6 where the boys played one singles match against their opposing number and a doubles match after.
Our A team played Buckinghamshire B team first in a match where we managed to complete a clean sweep in all 6 matches to score a 6-0 win, a great win for Izenosa at number 3 beating his opposing number 3 10-0! A great start for the boys in their first ever county cup rubber. It was then the turn of the boys B team against Northamptonshire B team, much like the A team the boys managed to score a very convincing 6-0 win with confident singles wins followed by a good 7-0 doubles win for Harry & Edward, with Kavis & Aryan managing a clutch 7-6 win in their number 2 pair doubles match. Topping off a brilliant 1st round for the boys.
The 2nd round saw the A’s take on Northamptonshire B’s which resulted in another 6-0 win for the Bears, Izenosa with another 10-0 win at number 3, Arjun & Kingsley picking up 10-2 wins at number 1 & 4 respectively, then Ishaan following up with a 10-5 win at number 2. Two comprehensive doubles win settled the tie. Our B’s took on Buckinghamshire A’s in a tough match up with the Buckinghamshire number 1 looking a very good player. It was a 4-2 win for the boys, Harry battled hard at number 1 but fell to defeat and Warwickshire were 3-1 up after the singles, Edward, Kavis
and Aryan all scoring wins against their counterparts. After two good doubles matches Warwickshire B finished the tie with a win to keep their 100% record.
The 3rd round was next with our A’s playing Northamptonshire A’s, this match resulted in another 6-0 win for the boys, convincing singles wins followed by some great doubles, Arjun & Ishaan deciding to use the both back tactic in their match and Kingsley & Izenosa using some really effective volleying skills, Kingsley was all over the net hitting a couple of finishing volleys. Great to see the boys playing doubles at an early age. The B’s were up against a Buckinghamshire B team who were looking to do their A’s a favour and push the boys out of 2nd place. After a tough 10-12 loss for Harry at number 1, the boys were 3-1 up with Aryan winning a tight 10-8 match at number 4, this was followed up by a good 7-3 win in the number 2 doubles for Kavis & Aryan, Harry & Edward completed the 5-1 win with a 7-6 sudden death point win at number 1 pair, a great result for the boys.
The 4th round was the one we were dreading where our A’s and B’s had to play each other, after developing a really strong bond through their county training sessions and competitions the boys were tested against each other. In a match with a lot of energy, a lot of laughs and some great fight we saw brilliant sportsmanship, matched by brilliant quality in what was arguably the tie of the day. Our A’s managed to secure a 6-0 win with some close fought matches including a 7-6 doubles win at number 1 pair for Arjun & Ishaan vs Harry & Edward. This left the boys needing a win each in their last matches to secure 1st and 2nd place.
The final round of matches saw our B’s take on Northamptonshire A’s, this tie had three close singles matches which Harry, Edward and Aryan all came out on top in winning 10-7 in all three ties, sandwiched between these was a convincing 10-1 win for Kavis. Two doubles wins gave Warwickshire a 6-0 win and a good chance of securing 2nd place if the A’s managed to get past Buckinghamshire A’s. And that is just what they did! A great match at number 1 saw Theo from Bucks and Arjun from Warwickshire go head to head, Arjun coming out on top in a quality filled match 10-4, the team followed this up with a tight 10-8 win for Ishaan at number 2, and two strong wins for Izenosa at 3 and Kingsley at 4 10-4 and 10-2 respectively. The doubles went our way too which meant a 6-0 for Warwickshire and 1st place for the boys A team and 2nd place for the boys B team! A brilliant achievement from the lads with such a high level played by all of them, they were a credit to themselves, their parents and the county and a team I thoroughly enjoyed captaining!
Onto the girls, in a slightly different format the girls played Northamptonshire and Buckinghamshire in two singles matches and one doubles match.
First we took on Northamptonshire, a good test to see where our girls were at after their training sessions with us and at their respective clubs. The girls were in good spirits and have become a tight knit group always smiling and laughing together and this has brought a brilliant team atmosphere between them. This was evident in their first match with the girls all supporting each other!
Up first were Frankie and Aanya playing number 1 and 2, both scored good wins over their opposing number with Frankie beating the number 1 with some very consistent tennis moving the ball around the court. Aanya managed to beat the number 2 highlighted by some very powerful serving, with Aanya cracking 4 aces in her 1st match. They then played the opposite number with Frankie beating the number 2 player 10-1 and Aanya beating the number 1 player 10-7, this left Warwickshire 4-0 up after the first four singles matches. Next up were Freya and Ana Clara, the girls showed our strength in depth by clocking up 4 very convincing wins and only dropping 9 points in total in the four matches, some excellent footwork and battling from both Freya and Ana Clara showing their dominance. 8-0 to Warwickshire going into the two doubles matches. Some brilliant teamwork saw
Frankie & Aanya win comfortably 7-0 against their counterparts, Freya & Ana Clara showed excellent determination to win their doubles match 7-6 against the 3 & 4 players to score us a 10-0 win in our opening tie.
After Buckinghamshire had also won their tie 10-0 we went into a shootout match with the winners being crowned as champions of this inaugural event. The first round of singles matches began with Frankie battling hard against the number 1 from Bucks, a tough match went the way of Bucks but we were so proud of Frankie’s attitude to keep fighting until the last point, a hugely important quality to have for our players. Next Aanya went on against the number 2 player and in a similar story to Frankie’s match she gave it everything unfortunately missing a few key balls showing brave attacking tennis, but coming out on the wrong side of the result, 0-2 to Bucks. Freya went on next against the number 3 and with great support from her teammates showed an extra bit of quality to secure the first win of the tie for Warwickshire 10-6, a brilliant performance from Freya. Ana Clara was last to go on against the number 4 player, with the rest of the team watching intently Ana Clara didn’t disappoint showing some smart tennis to move her opponent around and finish the points with some short angled shots. Ana Clara got the win 10-7 to level up the tie 2-2 after the first round of singles. 2nd round of singles and Aanya was on first against the number 1, again showing brilliant battling qualities with long rallies Anaya kept on fighting to the end, but unfortunately her brave style of tennis didn’t pay off however there were some glimpses of impressive tennis in all 4 of her singles matches. Frankie went on next vs the number 2 player, in a hard fought match that could have gone either way Frankie played a consistent level of good tennis managing to overcome her opponent 10-8. The result epitomised Frankie’s singles performance this weekend with a lot of quality and a lot of patience trying to break players down with control and consistency. 3-3 in the tie. Ana Clara was next on against the number 3, a great match watched closely by the team Ana Clara again showed some clever play trying to move her opponent around the court using every inch of the court, it wasn’t to be in this match coming out on the wrong end of a 6-10 result, Ana Clara should be really proud of the level she played in all her singles matches and we were delighted to see her find such a level. 3-4 to Bucks. Freya was on next for the final singles of the day against the number 4, in true Freya fashion she took the pressure of the last singles match in her stride, a really confident display full of consistency and quality gave Freya a 10-4 win and meant the tie finished poised at 4-4 after the singles matches had been played. On to the doubles, Freya & Ana Clara showed brilliant teamwork to overcome the 2nd pair 7-4, Frankie & Aanya were battling away against the number 1 pair in a real even close fought match, the girls were playing some great stuff and found themselves 6-4 up, unfortunately the girls from Bucks were able to get the next 3 points leaving the tie levelled up at 5-5, a fitting way to end a great day. We’re so proud of the way the girls conducted themselves and thrived as a team, a real credit to everyone involved and themselves.
Overall a great day for Warwickshire finishing 1st and 2nd in the boys category and joint 1st in the girls. A brilliant result and one were really proud of. A big thank you from myself and Jack for being a pleasure to work with on the day, and representing the county in such a fine fashion.