18U Boys County Cup - 2nd Place
- 1st Lancashire
- 2nd Warwickshire
- 3rd Middlesex
- 4th Essex
Captain- Simon Ferguson
Vice Captain- Cameron Malik
- Ferran Redza
- Sukhraj Malhi
- William Moxon
- Denis Ivanov
- Raheem Shahzada
- Harrison Hart-Buck
- Will Barnes
- Luca Vladau
To view the full results please click here
Captains Report
Day 1 vs Lancashire
The boys headed into the weekend in good spirits, in what looks like a very open group, all the teams player rankings looked similar, so we are optimistic and raring to go. There were nerves on both sides initially, however Denis settled into his stride early on and won our 1 st rubber at no4, however Raheem and Will Barnes lost at no5 & 6 after facing tough opponents. Suki couldn’t quite find his usual big hitting rhythm to start with and went down at no3, but Billy and Ferran levelled the tie with two big rubbers, Billy coming through a tough 3 setter. With the tie at 3-3 it was going down to the doubles, Harrison and Will got us underway at 3 rd pair and Denis and Luca at 2 nd pair, the momentum of the matches kept swinging one way then the other, Harrison and Will narrowly missed out, losing 11-9 in the 3 rd set tie-break and Denis and Luca coming up just short in their match. Ferran and Billy took on a very strong 1 st pair and pushed them all the way, with the quality of play extremely high, the boys unfortunate to lose narrowly.
A 6-3 loss could have been slightly different if not for a couple of missed opportunities, but overall, the boys performed very well and there was a lot of encouragement for the weekend. William Moxon player of the day.
Day 2 vs Middlesex
Middlesex had beaten Essex on day 1, 6-3, so we knew we were in for a tough day. Harrison and Raheem kicked us off but came up against some tough competition and were unable to get us a win. Denis carried on his form from the previous day to win comfortably, along with Billy and Ferran. The match and result of the weekend though belonged to Suki who played a brilliant match, prevailing 6- 3 in the 3 rd set. Not only did it help put us 4-2 up after singles, but the physicality of the match was such that the Middlesex player could hardly move during his doubles match. With some changes to our doubles line up, Will and Luca pushed their 3 rd pair very close, but unfortunately lost a tight match. In what became the win that clinched the tie overall. Denis and Ferran won well to complete the victory. A 6-3 win over a tough team that threw everything they could at us! It was a great win, Suki Malhi player of the day.
Day 3 vs Essex
Essex had lost 8-1 to Lancashire on day 2 which meant Lancashire were in the driving seat for promotion and Essex were on the verge of relegation. We still had a chance at promotion, we needed to win as many matches as possible and hope Middlesex might be able to beat Lancashire, whilst Essex needed to beat us to stay up. It was all to play for.
Harrison and Raheem kicked us off again, Raheem’s confidence was up after his doubles success the day before and got us off the mark with a win, unfortunately Harrison couldn’t do the same, against a strong opponent. Denis had to deal with more on court antics from our opponents but kept his focus well and won well. Suki, Billy and Ferran were all superb in their singles to put the tie to bed by the end of the singles rubbers 5-1. Very briefly promotion was looking possible, as Middlesex had put themselves 3-1 up against Lancashire, however Lancashire proved too strong and were leading 4-3 in rubbers to put themselves out of reach. We completed our doubles matches and ended up
beating Essex 6-3 overall. Another impressive 6-3 win secured 2 nd place overall and the end to a positive weekend. Ferran Redza player of the day.
As captains, we were really proud of the boys, they dealt with a lot of adversity and responded in the best way possible, by winning on the court! There was great camaraderie and team spirit amongst the group, and everyone played their part. It was a pleasure to be their captain, and we retain the majority of our team for next year where hopefully we can go one better and get promoted to Division 1.
All 8 boys represented themselves, their families, coaches, and Warwickshire LTA brilliantly, so thank you boys! For Suki, Luca and Will this was their last Junior County Cup, we wish them well and hope to see them in the Men’s team one day too!
Simon & Cameron