U18 Girls AEGON County Cup Champs

The Sussex 18&under girls county cup team of; Lizzy Thoms, Abbi Melrose, Natasha Forbes, Jane Lavender, Kyria Dunford, Pardis Kianoush, Anna Woosley, Elspeth Griffiths and captains Matt Edwards and Kate Smith, travelled to Bath on 18th February to defend the title of Division 1 National Champions. With six of the girls having played in last years winning team, on paper Sussex looked to have the experience to retain the title, however with almost half the team not having competed for over six months this looked unlikely.
Day1’s opponents were Cambridgeshire who looked to be the toughest of our three opponents over the weekend and with our number 2, Abbie Melrose missing from the team, after reaching the semi-finals of an ITF in Denmark, it needed some top tennis from our girls to get the win.
It was a nervous start from debutant Annie Woosley and Pardis Kianoush, however with two close first set wins the girls gave Sussex a strong start with  6-3, 6-1 and 7-6, 6-1 wins. Kyria Dunford, 6-0, 7-5 and Jane Lavender, 6-3, 6-2, soon gave Sussex a four rubbers to love lead and needing just one more win to take the opening days match. The top two singles matches went to Cambridgeshire and when Woosley and Griffiths, the Sussex debutants lost their doubles in a tense third set championship tie-break 10-8, it came to the experienced pairing of Lavender and Dunford to  give Sussex the vital rubber needed. And they didn’t disappoint with a solid 7-5, 6-1 win.
Day2 saw Sussex take on last years runners-up, but we quickly them on the back foot with strong wins by Kianoush and Dunford. Lavender again put in a strong performance with a straight sets win to give Sussex a 3-0 lead before Natsha Forbes fought hard but was unable to take the win at number 3. Melrose then gave Sussex a 4-1 lead with a straight sets win  leaving just one rubber to get to take the day and give Sussex the unlikely chance of retaining the title. And the vital rubber came in the most dramatic match of the weekend with Lizzy Thoms winning the number 1 singles 3-6, 6-4, 7-6(4) after a three and half hour marathon which saw her fighting bad cramp through the whole of the third set. Forbes and Melrose put the icing on the cake with a win in the number 3 doubles.
Day3 and it was only Yorkshire, who and matched Sussex’s first two day wins, that stood between Sussex and back-to-back wins. However, it was Yorkshire that looked like gaining the early advantage winning the first set in both the 5 & 6 singles. Kiaoush and Dunford soon levelled their matches and after three hours gave Sussex a vital 2 rubbers to 0 lead with 1-6,7-6(5), 6-4 and 3-6, 6-2, 7-6(5) wins respectively. Lavender quickly gave Sussex 3-0 leads with her third straight sets singles win of the weekend. Melrose gave Sussex another win at number 2 following a loss by Forbes at 2 and Thoms was unable to match her heroics of the second day going down in straights sets. So like 2009 the title was to be decided in the doubles with Sussex only needing one of three rubbers. The experienced pairing of Lavender and Dunford went on first and looked like they were going to dominate the match after taking the first set 6-4 and getting an early break in the second. However the Yorkshire pair fought back to take the second and setting up a championship tie-break. In the other doubles the pairing of Kianoush and Thoms also took the first set in their match, however Lavender and Dunford soon put the win out of Yorkshires reach with a solid 10-4 win. Sussex had retained their title of Aegon Division 1 County Cup Champions!!!