18U County Cup Preview

Junior Team Coach Pete Brown gives a preview into this year's 18U County Cup.

The Annual 18U County Cup runs from 19-21st February this year. Each team (boys & girls) consist sof eight players traveling for three days of competition, against three other counties in the divison. Each day, we play 6 singles and 3 doubles to see which county is strongest. The top county from each division gains promotion  and the team in last place gets  relegated.
 
This year the girl's are playing in Boston, Lincolnshire and Holly Mowling (Shropshire's new Ladies Team Captain) is Captain for the weekend. They are playing in Division 4B, against Lincolnshire, Leicestershire and Oxfordshire.
 
The traveling team are:  Jo Bowen, Hannah Clarke, Harriet Jones, Mia Loney, Melissa Martin, Lauren McMinn, Steph Potts and Sarah Willacy. We also have Harriet & Olivia Jones, Emily Sutcliffe and Chloe Hughes on standby as non-traveling reserves.

The girl's team has been hit by injury as Hannah Bills-Brown has had a reoccurence of a knee injury she picked up last year, so Harriet Jnoes will be her replacement. Lauren McMinn has a back injury but is hoping to be fit to play.
 
The boy's are heading to Cardiff under my supervision. They are playing in Division 6A against Avon, Gloucestershire and Isle Of Man. The team are currently injury-free and we are pleased to have David McKenzie-James back in the country to play for Shropshire, after spending time training in Spain.
 
The travelling team are: Greg Bradburn, Christian Cieslik, Kyle Fellows, David McKenzie-James, Joe Smithyman, Michael Thomas, Jack Tomlinson and Sam Wheeler. We also have Arjun Singh, Bradley Hunter and Ed Gibbs on standby as non-travelling reserves.
 
On the opening day of the weekend, the boys are playing Gloucestershire, which, on paper, looks quite an evenly matched affair. Avon look potentially the team to beat in that division, assuming they send their strongest team.
 
Meanwhile the girls play Lincolnshire on the opening day. On paper we look the stronger team, but with tennis, it all depends on the day. The other two teams have players in the top 50 in the country, so should be challenging matches.

Good luck to both teams!