When I was asked if I would like to be the Captain of the boy’s u18 county cup team I jumped at the chance relishing the opportunity to be involved in such an important event in the tennis calendar. Along with my assistant Nigel Matthews, we made the trip to Sheffield Graves Tennis and Leisure Centre which was to be the venue for our Division 2 matches. We were joined by Hampshire and I.O.W, Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire.
Nigel and I knew we faced a tough weekend ahead of us as due to injury and ITF tournaments we could only field a team of 6 players (Keelan Oakley, Joe Mills, Valentin Clements, Jarryd Bant, Ben Blackwell and Sam Kilhams), for 6 singles and 3 doubles rubbers per match over the 3 day event, although we had every confidence that if we could avoid injury we would stand a great chance of being promoted to division 1.
Day 1:
Our first match was against Hampshire and I.O.W, who on paper were the weakest team. Sam Kilhams got us off to a great start by winning his singles rubber and that set the tone for the rest of the match as Jarryd and Valentin dropped only 2 and 5 games respectively in their singles rubbers. Next up was our no.2 player; Joe Mills who had only arrived back from Denmark that morning and didn’t arrive at our hotel until 2am! He won in convincing fashion and it was up to Keelan to give us a 5-1 lead going into the doubles. He had never beaten his Hampshire opponent in 6 meetings, but after a hard fought first set which Keelan won, he went on to win the second and the match in convincing fashion.  Next up was the doubles matches and our number 3 pairing of Ben and Sam got us off to a great start with an 11-9 match tiebreak win after the score’s were level at 1 set all. Ben pulled out some wonderful doubles play after a tough singles rubber loss. Valentine and Joe also won their no.2 doubles pairing and displayed a very professional calm manner in their victory. We had to pull Keelan out of his no.1 doubles with Jarryd after concerns over his hamstring which meant that Sussex won the match 7 – 2. The team went back to the hotel in buoyant mood and ready for Yorkshire on day 2.
Day 2:
After discussing Keelan’s injury concern, Nigel and I re-jigged the doubles pairings in what we thought would be a match that went down to the wire and we were to be proved right!
Yorkshire proved to be very tough opponents with both Sam and Ben losing tough singles rubbers. However the ship was steadied with singles wins from Jarryd, Valentin and Joe with only 14 games dropped between them. Next up was Keelan who was playing Gavin Davison who was a very tough opponent and excelled in making his opponent hit one extra ball. Keelan started in excellent fashion and won the first set 6-4 in faultless fashion proving that his mix of serve-volley, aggressive baseline play and ‘soft hands’ was all too much for his opponent. However, with the balls getting slower after a set’s use and Keelan’s hamstring starting to give him problems, Gavin took Keelan to a tiebreak second set which he won 7-3. Unfortunately Keelan’s range of movement was severely reduced especially on his serve and he lost the third set 6-2, so Sussex went into the doubles tied at 3 rubbers all! Jarryd and Sam playing at 3 destroyed their Yorkshire opponents 6-2 6-0. Due to his injury niggles we had paired Keelan and Ben together at no.2 and after the first set which they lost 6-3 and Keelan’s injury getting worse we thought that match was only going one way. Meanwhile Joe and Valentin at pair 1 had stormed into a first set 4-1 lead and Sussex looked poised to win the match, but when Yorkshire levelled at 4-4 Joe and Valentin looked tight and the match could now go either way. Joe and Valentin had their chances in the first set tie-break but lost it 10-8 and went on to lose the second set 6-3. We thought we had lost the tie, but looking back at the other court Keelan and Ben had turned the match around and had closed out the second set 6-1. Sussex was only a match tie-break away from victory. Keelan had changed his service action to compensate for his injury and Ben had found his doubles form from the previous day. Half way through the match tie-break both Keelan and Ben looked strong and favourites for the win, but this is sport after all and with the Yorkshire pair finding some excellent passing shots they closed out the tie-break 10-8.
Yorkshire had won the match 5-4 and Sussex had it all to do on day 3 against a Nottinghamshire team who were undefeated.
Day 3:
We had worked out that a 6-3 win would clinch Sussex promotion to division 1 and we started in great fashion after Sam roared home to a 6-3 6-1 singles victory. Ben couldn’t quite match his team mate, but put up an excellent fight and showed that over the three days his singles play had improved with each match and being the youngest in the team at 15 he had learnt an awful lot from the experience. At 1 rubber all, it was up to Jarryd and Valentin to put us in the driving seat, but our worst fears with only having a 6 strong team were realised as Jarryd pulled out with a forearm injury after the warm up in his match. This meant that he couldn’t play his doubles either and Sussex found itself 3-1 down. After Keelan had compensated and changed his serve against Yorkshire it meant that his back had now seized up and I resorted to a desperate attempt to get him match-fit and called in a physio to help, but the injury was too much and Keelan pulled out of his singles and doubles. Valentin and Joe had won their singles in solid fashion but it still meant Sussex were 5-3 down with only one doubles rubber to play. Joe and Ben brushed aside their doubles opponents 6-1 6-2 to restore some pride to the score line but Sussex had been beaten by Nottinghamshire 5-4 and in the process had won themselves promotion to division 1 next year. With Yorkshire beating Hampshire it meant that Sussex finished 3rd in division 2.
The boys and Nigel and I were gutted and it proved to be a long drive home, but I thoroughly enjoyed my first year as Captain and was very proud to have captained a team that battled and fought to the end and gave each other the support they needed. Our professionalism both on and off court was second to none and I wish all the boys who move on to Men’s tennis the best of luck and would also like to thank Nigel for his excellent role in assisting the team. A special thanks goes to Anthony and Julia Mills who drove Joe straight from the airport to Sheffield so Joe could play and also to Keelan’s parents who came up to support the team.
I look forward to next year’s competition and captaining a new team of Sussex’s best under 18’s.
Ashley Evans