The boys had a fair distance to travel up to Stourbridge tennis and squash club, but spirits were high on arrival as all the counties looked happy to be back out competing. We had discussed during the warm up what “enjoying” tennis looked like, not about being all smiling and skipping around the court, but being totally immersed in what you are doing.
The boys really took this on board with a fantastic Saturday beating Oxfordshire 4-2 and going 3-1 up against Staffordshire after the 4 singles matches. With a lot of third set tie breakers being played and Bucks normally coming out on top either 11-9 or 12-10 after being 7-9 down.
Coming back on Sunday we needed one doubles win to beat Staffordshire, but their top player (10 in the country) who had not played on the Saturday, came in for the doubles, this gave them a massive lift, and they played brilliant doubles with a great county cup atmosphere. With the scores level at 3-3 we went to a shoot-out, a quick chat with Ollie and Will, about forgetting what just happened and that energy will win this, the boys put in a massive performance against a very good Staff pair but came up just short 8-10! With all but one of the boys coming back next year to the team, this was a brilliant learning experience about the importance of doubles and bringing more of your personality to the doubles matches.
With the wind taken from their sails, they went on to play Warwickshire, the boys lost 5-1, but some massive battles in this match, with Ashton just losing in a third set tie break, Will winning in a third set breaker and Ben & Charlie just losing in a third set breaker in the dubs.
Overall, some massive positives to come from this, with all but one of the boys back next year and with some very good boys coming up from the 12s, I am very excited for next year with this group, and with some very clear objectives for the training.
Looking forward to getting back to it.
Seb Callcut
Boys under 14 county captain
