Boys 18U Match Report, Captains: James Pugh and Tom Spinks
Friday 4th March vs Northumberland
Rankings-wise this was Avon’s hardest fixture of the weekend. The singles got off to a great start going 5-1 up. Avon went on to win all 3 doubles to finish the match 8-1
Saturday 5th March vs Cornwall
Avon boys were an impressive an imposing force against a comparatively younger Cornwall team. Avon went 6-0 up after singles without dropping a set only dropping 10 games in all matches. With all doubles won, Avon won 9-0 putting us in a very strong position to win the group
Sunday 6th March vs Durham and Clevedon
Another strong performance from Avon going 6-0 after singles to win the group with no sets dropped.
Overall the boys acted and performed very professionally. The support amongst the team was fantastic. On and off court, Avon boys displayed a close and friendly team spirit. Stand out performances were from Luke Hooper, only dropping 1 game in his singles Leo only dropping 5, although the others were close behind. We had a very strong team with 5 left-handers, which made for very effective doubles strategy.
Tom and I would like to thank the boys for exceptionally good behaviour representing the County.
Girls 18U Match Report. Captains: Elly Shearman and Ali Blackett
Off to Southampton for U18 County Cup girls Div 2 on Thursday night, with a young team and with the goal of staying in Division 2 this year. Our number 1 position player, Edie, had covid and we were hoping for her to have a negative test result so that she could join us at some point over the weekend.
The girls did brilliantly on day 1 against Hampshire & IOW. We lost at 6 after a great fight from Dhruthi, but got a win from Lola at 5 and Alice at 4. We were 2 – 1 up going in to the second round of singles! We then won at 3 and 2 with great performances from Jess and Izzy. Sophia putt up a fantastic fighting effort against a strong first player from Hampshire & IOW, unfortunately losing 6-4, 6-4.
Going in to doubles we were 4 – 2 up. We won at pair 3 with Dhruthi and Alice playing some really great doubles, working hard to tactically out play their opponents. Jess and Lola played an incredible doubles match but lost at 2nd pair with Izzy and Sophia victorious at 1st pair; they came off court saying they’d played their best doubles match ever with the ‘I’ formation and lots of net play! Overall a 6 – 3 win and an important one to try and stay in the group.
Day 2 was against Lancashire….we knew this would be a battle! We did gain Edie, who tested negative late on Friday night and got up at 5am to be with us before the start of play; amazing dedication from Edie. Unfortunately lost at 5 and 6 singles with Alice at 5 playing her first ever full 3 set match, doing brilliantly to make it a 3 setter. We lost at 4, Jess made a great come back and pushed her opponent after an easier first set. 3 – 0 down going in to round 2 of singles. Izzy played a great match and got us a win at 3 with Sophia having a tough match at 2 eventually losing after a good fight. The last singles match on was Edie at 1 who got a fantastic win against a style of play which was tough for her so a great display of concentration and discipline. So we went in to doubles 4 – 2 down. Our 3rd pair lost this one but again played good doubles, Jess and Edie had a tough one and lost at 2 and then Izzy & Sophia also lost at 1. It was a tough day but great competing from everyone with every player really digging in and fighting which was great to see!
Day 3 – the opposition were even tougher. Surrey, who had an entire squad of very good players had won very comfortably the previous 2 days having only dropped one rubber the entire weekend. Despite some well fought matches and determination from our girls, we were not able to pick up a rubber against the very strong Surrey team.
At the end of the weekend, we stayed in division 2, which was our goal and an incredible achievement from such a young team. We are excited for next year to build on this starting point with this new squad and aim for that division 1 position in the next few years!