Team: Sofia Cancel, Jessica Roach, Anna Hellewell, Olivia Napier, Lily Cheung
Captain: Tom Edis
Assistant: Josh Greenway
Group D: Sussex, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Oxfordshire
Venue: North Oxford LTC
Bucks took on Oxfordshire, Sussex and Berkshire in southern region group D for this year’s 10u county cup qualifiers, held in North Oxford.For Lily it was her county cup debut, and for Olivia her first county 10u event, and they took the opportunity with both hands as Bucks flew out of the blocks on the Saturday.
First opponents were Oxfordshire, and Olivia made short work of Julia Pisanello 4-0 4-0, which was quickly followed by a gutsy and resilient display from Anna - overcoming Siyu Hu in 2 tough tie break sets 4-3 4-3. Jess then put in an inspired performance to see off Mollie Coulson - a player that’s caused her plenty of trouble in the past - 4-0 4-0 to put Bucks firmly in the driving seat. Sofia then took on Rui Uehara who was very canny and showed great experience against Bucks’ 9u playing at #1. Sofia fought hard but Rui took the rubber 4-1 4-1. Still, 3-1 going into the doubles was a super start.
Sussex were up next in the singles, and Lily stepped in to play her first county singles match. In an even an entertaining contest she did brilliantly to keep her head against Eva Bradley, despite the Sussex girl coming back strongly in the second set. Lily held her nerve to take the match tie break to eventually pull through 4-2 2-4 10-4.Olivia once again impressed, this time against Mia Larkin to win convincingly 4-1 4-1. Jess then kept the momentum going with yet another straight sets win - 4-2 4-1 vs Persephone Wilson to put Bucks firmly in the driving seat. Once more Sofia took on the responsibility of being #1 with her usual tenacity and fight, giving the outstanding Jing Sheen Hii-Tan a real run for her money in the afternoon heat. Unfortunately she couldn’t quite capitalise after taking the Sussex #1 to a first set tie break, and ran out of steam in the second set: a 4-3 4-1 reverse, but once more a strong position for Bucks before the doubles rubbers later in the day.
Sofia and Anna tried hard to get to grips with the solid play of Rui and Mollie of Oxfordshire before losing 4-1 4-2, but the tie overall was secured superbly by Jess and Olivia, who defeated Siyu and Julia 4-2 4-2. So a 4 rubbers to 2 victory, with just Sussex left to play in the doubles on day 1. This time it was Jess that partnered Anna and the pair showed great chemistry and understanding, displaying the full repertoire of the ‘Bucks doubles rules’. They impressively dispatched Jing and Persephone 4-0 4-3 to remove all doubt about the overall result going into Olivia and Lily’s doubles versus Maya Charsley and Mia - the last match of day 1. In a tense and exhausting battle, Bucks managed a fantastic victory despite the Sussex pair refusing to give in 4-0 3-4 10-8! 5-1 to Bucks!
The Sunday (eventually) was very warm and sunny, and Bucks were determined to come out firing versus Berkshire, who like Bucks had defeated both Oxfordshire and Sussex on day 1. It showed. Maya Kumar was too strong for Lily (4-1 4-0) and Olivia tired towards the end of a bruising encounter with Daisy Tsoi, despite having chances, eventually going down 4-3 4-0.Jess then took on the extremely consistent Georgia Cowan and fought so hard, narrowly missing out on 2 tight sets 4-2 4-2. This left Sofia to battle it out with perhaps the strongest player of the weekend - Berkshire #1 Hope Langlands. Incredibly, with 7 games going to ‘sudden death’ deuce Sofia fell just short too many times, and the 4-1 4-0 reverse didn’t do her magnificent performance justice.4 rubbers to 0 down, the remaining 2 doubles rubbers were academic, but they were at least an opportunity to restore some confidence and end the weekend with some deserved respectability.
Bucks gave it everything and the matches didn’t disappoint - Anna and Jess raced into a 1 set lead, and with a break in the second things were looking good. They just couldn’t put Maya and Daisy away though, and an excruciating match tie break went the way of Berkshire - final score 1-4 4-1 10-6.Sofia and Olivia got even closer! After (yet!) another tie break Hope and Georgia raised their game in the second set to take the match into one final match tie break of the weekend. Frustratingly of all Bucks had 4 match points in a tremendous effort to at last get 1 win vs the eventual winners of the group. Sadly it wasn’t to be, and Berkshire dug deep to take the match, and eventual clean sweep of rubbers - 3-4 4-1 11-9.Therefore Bucks took second place in the group overall - a very creditable achievement with the team having a county debutant (Lily) as well as 2 9u players in Sofia and Olivia who more than held their own against girls a year older for the whole weekend.
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