Bucks win 9&U Inter-County Event

On Saturday 2nd January 2010 an U9 Orange team consisting of Daniel Dean, Jack Chapman, Finlay Barrett and Indu Ragunuther travelled to Corby, Northants for an inter county competition. There were 12 teams from 10 different counties taking part.

All teams were split into round robin groups of four with the winners of each group moving into another round robin group of 3 to decide on the winning county. Bucks were drawn to face Norfolk Raiders, Bedfordshire Vikings and Shropshire.

The whole team were really pumped up for the first match against Norfolk. This led to some very tight tennis being played and some close matches, with Bucks being very relieved to come away with a 3-1 victory. Next was Shropshire where everyone started to relax and play better tennis with a fantastic 4 matches to 0 win, with Bucks only losing a total of 3 games during the 4 matches. Just Beds to go, who we knew had a strong team. Daniel and Jack were on court first as number 1 and 2 respectively. They both fought hard, but unfortunately lost. Next Indu at number 4 went on court and won 4-0, so we felt we could still get a draw if Finlay could win. We all cheered Finlay on and he rose to the challenge to win 4-0, which gave Bucks a 2 all draw with Beds. The players were delighted to find out that they had done enough to win the group. Indu was the player of the first round robin stage having won all 3 matches without losing one game!

In the final round robin we had to play Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire to decide on the winning county. The first matches for Bucks saw Fin and Indu play the Herts 3 and 4 respectively. It was a great start with both Bucks players winning 4-1. Next Daniel and Jack took to the court to take on Cambridgeshire’s top two players. Daniel played some great tennis and hit fantastic shots but the ball just kept coming back somehow and unfortunately he lost 4-1. Meanwhile Jack had gone 3-1 down in games and had fought back to 3-3 but lost the next two close games to lose 5-3. The whole team were disappointed but stayed positive and said if they all work hard to win their last matches they could still win overall. So Dan and Jack went on court to play Herts numbers 1 and 2. Dan played some of his best tennis of the day. He upset his opponent by making him move and by hitting all the spaces for winners coming through with a 4-0 victory. After Dan had finished Fin took to the court against Cambs and continued with the patient and consistent tennis that made him undefeated all day. He continued his winning ways with a 4-0 victory. Indu was next on the court to play Cambs just as Jack’s match reached 4-4, so a tie-break was to be played. Jack quickly went down 3-1 but fought back to serve for the match at 6-5 but lost a hard fought rally. At 6-6 they changed ends and Jack got ready to serve at sudden death. He missed a nervy first serve but he pulled himself together to get his second serve in and win the last point. Meanwhile Indu was moving really well and placing the ball in all the right places. She came through winning 4-1. So overall, Bucks beat Herts 4-0 and drew with Cambs 2-2. It was enough and Bucks were named as the overall champions!

I would like to thanks all the parents that came to watch and support. If there was an award for the loudest cheering it would go to Bucks and this definitely helped the players succeed. Also I would like to say how great the team spirit was amongst the players, as they were always there at the side of the court supporting each other and it was a fantastic team effort that won in the end.

Jo Head – Team Captain