Under 18 Boys County Cup 2010

Cumbria's Under 18 Boys competed in Group 6B of the County Cup, which took place at Prestwick over the weekend of 19th - 21st February 2010. 

Jon Griffin was the Team Captain and the team consisted of Alex Hands, Max Shaw, Jonathan Hyman, Paul Thomas, Jonathan Blain, James Kirkpatrick, Alex Meek and Jamie Dootson.

Group 6B – Venue Prestwick
Final Positions
1. Northamptonshire
2. South of Scotland
3. North Wales
4. Cumbria

I will start this report by stating that the Cumbrian boys were a pleasure to work with over the weekend and were a credit to the County both on and off court.

DAY 1 – Northamptonshire  - LOST 8 – 1
This always looked as though it would be our hardest match, with all their players being higher rated, and so it proved. Max put up an excellent performance at 2 narrowly losing a close 3 setter whilst everybody else was really finding their feet (see conclusion). Paul and Jonny Blain won at number 3 doubles to avoid a first day whitewash.

DAY 2 – East of Scotland – LOST  7 – 2
Before the match started we thought it would be close; they were very strong at 1 & 2 but very weak at 5 & 6 so the middle order looked the key, unfortunately it didn’t quite work to plan!
Alex Hands, Max and Jonny Hyman all played the best tennis I have seen them play against a 5.1 , 5.2 and 7.1;  they all had 2 hour matches, Max and Jonny losing in 3 sets, Alex in a marathon 2 setter, as captain I could not have asked for more. At the bottom end Paul never really got to grips with his opponent but Jonny Blain won at 5 showing good character to win in 3 sets, although he did make hard work of it. At number 6 Alex Meek lost his match.

In the doubles Hands/Shaw pulled out a fantastic performance beating a 5.1/5.2 in 3 sets but our other 2 doubles partnerships lost their matches.

DAY 3 – North Wales – LOST 5 – 4
Our motto of the day - ‘We're not losing to the Welsh’ didn’t come true. Similar to Scotland, Wales were very strong at 1, 2 & 3 but equally weak at 4, 5 &6 so our team was selected expecting to win the bottom 3 rubbers hoping Max could pull a surprise at 2 and then take a couple of the doubles.
Jonny Blain against an 8.2 again showed character.  Paul lost at 5, just not finding his game but Jonny Hyman won at 4 with a hard fought victory. JK playing at 3 against a player we had nicknamed all week `the beast’ tamed him for a while but pulled off a respectable score , losing 6-2 6-2. Max then served up his 3rd 3 setter of the weekend and won this time again playing fantastic tennis whilst Alex Hands lost to the best player in the event at 1.
So 3 – 3 game on ………Hyman/Meek won at 3 with Alex working hard for the team and playing well  4 – 3 Cumbria, JK/Blain lost a close 3 setter at 2 then Max/Hands lost 6 – 4 6 – 4 in a bruising encounter at 1.

CONCLUSION
We had a young team this year with all players eligible again in 2011 so overall a fair performance. I thought our top end Max/Hands/Hyman performed excellently but our bottom end lost to some average opponents and this is where we need to improve in the next 12 months.
Our players were not as match tight as our opponents and a lack of a county training programme means I feel as captain I was doing running repairs as the tournament was progressing and especially on day 1 we didn’t hit the ground running.
During the next 12 months we need 1 or 2 of the lower order to `step up’ and then we could be looking at promotion rather than the wooden spoon.
I will send a separate report to the county with my suggestions on how to improve the training programme for this team and the players.
Overall we all had a very enjoyable (although slightly disappointing result wise) weekend, the team all got on very well and we are all determined to improve and do better next year.

JON GRIFFIN
CAPTAIN