Wiltshire teams compete at 18U County Cup

The Wiltshire 18U teams competed at the County Cup event in February. 

The Boys were in Group 5B at Tipton and were captained by Neil Watts and Stephen Yeardley. 

The girls were in Group 5B at Billesley and were captained by Lee Mahony and Catherine Graham.

GIRLS REPORT

Team: Rachana Patel, Lauren Prince, Lucy Roze, Katy Hancock, Georgina Pool, Alice More, Sophia Haine and Emily Bearne

Day 1 - Wiltshire v Hereford and Worcestershire
Although slightly under-strengthed (missing Sophia Haine for the first day), we made a good start to the campaign beating Hereford and Worcestershire 5-4. Excellent performances from Lucy Roze, Lauren Prince and Alice More and Katy Hancock in the doubles.  The team were in good spirits and all players put in a great effort.

Day 2 - Wiltshire v Northamptonshire 
A win on the second day would have given us a real chance at promotion, but unfortunately we went down 5-4.  However, an outstanding performance from Sophia Haine who won both of her matches. We went bowling that evening and the girls seemed up for the fight on day 3!

Day 3 - Wiltshire v Suffolk
We needed to win to stay up but also a 6-3 win and we could still be in for promotion! We went 2-0 down but a great team fight back and excellent performances from Lucy Roze, Lauren Prince, Katy Hancock and Sophia Haine (unbeaten all weekend). We won all three doubles with an outstanding performance from Alice More and Sophia Haine and fittingly Lucy Roze and Lauren Prince winning the last of the doubles in their last 18U County Cup which saw us win promotion to Division 4

All in all an outstanding Wiltshire performance, particularly from Lucy, Lauren and Rachana in their last 18U County Cup.
Report by Lee Mahony

 
BOYS REPORT

Team: Rory Smith, Harry Chaplin, Craig Loxton, Sam Hutt, Ben Langley, Mikey Puttick, Francis Smith and Archie Walker

Day 1 - Wiltshire v Channel Islands
This must rank up as one of the longest day in the history of County Cups!  With the Channel Islands flights delayed twice due to bad weather, we didn’t start the match until 5pm. Despite this the boys performed really well to squeeze to a 5-4 win. A debut 18U win for Craig Loxton and a tough 3 set win for Ben Langley were the highlights of the day.

Day 2 - Wiltshire v Shropshire
With Sam Hutt due to return from Quatar,  the boys were enthusiastic going in to the match against Shropshire. Unfortunately the long Friday we had began to take its toll and despite a hard fought victory from Mikey Puttick, we went in to the doubles 5-1 down. We were strong throughout the week in doubles and this was highlighted when the boys rallied to win 2 matches to make the final score 6-3.

Day 3 - Wiltshire v Suffolk
Needing to win 7-2 on the last day against Suffolk the boys were always going to be up against it and unfortunately went down to a 6-3 loss. Despite only arriving in the country the day before, Sam Hutt produced an excellent display to defeat the Suffolk number one for the loss of only 5 games.

The boys attitude was first class during a tough weekend. Having to wait so late to play against the Channel Islands on day one was the teams undoing as we never really regained the energy after a long day and late night. A special mention to Archie Walker whom despite only playing 1 match during the weekend was excellent company and a great support for the boys throughout the weekend.
Report by Neil Watts