10U Girls County Cup 2010

Saturday 29th May

We started our 2010 U10 girls’ county cup at Sundridge Park Tennis Park in Bromley, Kent.  This was a major result for me as I live ten minutes down the road!  The club itself was lovely, the weather unfortunately was not.  We had a very prompt start as heavy rain was forecast.

To begin with we played Dorset.  All the singles were played first and Gemma Southwick and Tara Hefer our 2+3 kicked off for Surrey.  Gemma won her match and coped brilliantly with the wind, Tara unfortunately lost but fought hard.  Jodie Lawrence Taylor (who won the U10 Nationals in Half Term) went on to play her match and won stupendously 4-0, 4-0.

We then went onto the next round of singles where we played IOW and Hampshire.  Gemma played No.2 and won her match comfortably.  Daisy Phillips played No.3 and also won her match which left Jodie to play against her fellow GB team mate Thandi, which was a real tussle as the rain began to fall. The wind even swirled at one point blowing chairs everywhere!  I was sitting on court with an umbrella getting soaked!  Nick Jacques, our U10 county coach, and I were ridiculously under prepared for the monsoon that hit us in Bromley.  I was forced to ring my mum to ask her to bring up some coats to Sundridge for Nick and I. We looked so silly in my mum and dads coats but at least we were warm and dry!  Jodie beat Thandi which was fantastic news as I was able to play Emily Chetwood and Tara in the doubles match against IOW and Hampshire because it was a dead rubber.  They played really well and won.  Jodie and Gemma also won their doubles against Dorset which meant we qualified for the semi finals on Sunday.

Sunday 30th May

The rain had subsided but the wind had not!  In fact the wind was worse than Saturday.  Our semis were against Kent who were excellent opposition.  Daisy Phillips lost her match against Estella Durnford but ran and fought brilliantly.  Gemma had an extremely tough match against Tamiya (a really tall girl).  Gemma moved Tamiya and played a very smart and consistent game, and was rewarded with a win.  So we were 1-1 in the singles with Jodie to play Nell Miller who she hadn’t played since orange ball.  The wind was once again very strong which made serving very hard, the ball was blowing everywhere.  Jodie reliable as ever, won her match so we were 2-1 up and had to win the doubles.  Jodie and Gemma played Nell and Tamiya.  The tennis was fabulous, all the girls played so well, but Surrey won which put us into the final against Dorset.

Dorset again – Tara played No. 3 and worked very hard but was beaten by a very canny player. Gemma played Natalie, a very elegant left hander, but Gemma out powered her and won. Jodie won her match quite easily, so we had to win the doubles to go to Bolton.  We won the first set quite easily 4-0 then lost the second 1-4. The wind and heavy schedule of the weekend was catching up with the girls.  Jodie and Gemma really upped the pace and won the tiebreak 10-7, but hats off to Dorset who were lovely girls and battled hard, and their manager Lizzie Toop was very magnanimous in defeat.

So we are off to Bolton again on the 19th – 20th June.  Bring it on!!!

Sue Tullett
U10 Surrey Girls County Cup Manager