Avon’s 12U Girls and Boys teams have won their qualifying round and are off to the County Cup Finals. Congratulations teams and coaches. See below for Captains Report.
Captains Report, Boys Team:
Myself & fellow team Captain Matt set off with our boys team; Ollie, Tobi, Dan, Will P and Will B, early Friday afternoon for the 1st ever September County Cup.
Thankfully, the weather in Devon was fab, and only matched by Avon’s Tennis. The whole weekend was played in good spirit, and all the boys from each County behaved impeccably.
After devouring copious amounts of sweets, several full English brekkie’s, not to mention a ton of pancakes, our boys were ready for our first test, Cornwall.
With motivation high (and plenty of food in the stomach to burn) the boys got off to a flyer; winning 5-1. This was followed up by a 6-0 win vs Wiltshire (harder than the score line suggests, as 3/4 singles went to a match tie break!)
In the other box, Devon saved several match points vs Somerset and eventually won a pulsating match breaker for the right to play us in Sunday’s final.
Our boys were pumped. Dropping only 1 rubber & winning 5-1 overall. Our tactical understanding and net play, a key difference over the weekend in the doubles.
We know we will have even bigger tests to come in the National finals in Nottingham next week, but we go as a team full of confidence and ready to take on those challenges!
Great Players Report from Will:
Missing some of Friday school (a winner before we started), we drove down to Bideford in the ‘fun bus’ with coaches Matt and Ollie and then had a hit in the evening before going out for dinner to an Italian. 5 of us had a margarita pizza – great fuel for the next day! Then we came back and chilled for a bit before going to bed (early – honestly).
In the morning, a big cooked breakfast set us up for the day, before heading to the courts to warm up. Our first matches were against Cornwall and we knew it would be a challenge. We were 3-1 up after our singles and then had two long 3-set matches in the doubles, winning both match tiebreaks to end it 5-1. Great start!
We headed back to our rooms and relaxed for a while before going out to dinner again. This time we all had burgers (veggie for me) or steaks, and then went back to the Premier Inn and to bed. Big day on Sunday! Tennis, eat, sleep, repeat!
Next up we played Wiltshire. We won all of our singles, although 3 of them went to match tiebreaks, so it was a lot closer than it sounds. After that we played our doubles, both of which we won in straight sets, although Jack and mine was 4-2, 4-3 so pretty close, ending it 6-0 and putting us through to the final.
In the final we were up against Devon, who had just won a very tight shootout against Somerset to make it through. We won 3 of our singles in straight sets and one match was a close loss in a tie break, so it was 3-1 going into the doubles. We won both of them comfortably, making us champions. Amazing! It was great to get our medals and pose for pictures with the Avon flag.
Overall, it was a really fun experience and I can’t wait to head off to the finals in 2 weeks where Jack and I promise not to lock ourselves out of our hotel room twice!