18U Boys County Cup Report

Captain: Scott Paxton & Allan Cooper

Team:

• Arthur
• Ignas
• Henry
• Nathan
• Osca
• Seth
• Archie
• Sam

Both Allan and Scott were very pleased with the overall performance of this year’s Under 18 Team at Grantham.

It is safe to say that the players should be very proud of how they conducted themselves throughout the County Cup as well as the training sessions preceding it.

We started day 1 off with a fixture vs Suffolk. On paper, these were the team to beat and due to the luck of the draw we had them first up. We picked our best team for the fixture based on who we were playing against and came second, with a 7-2 loss. However, we were first on the courts and last off, showcasing that three of the fixtures went the distance in 3 setters.

Day two was a fixture vs Northumberland. This was the one we really had to win. The standout match was Ignas winning a very tight three set epic battle against Sam Knowles.

Seth also had a solid win with a very professional performance. He stuck to a game plan and executed it well. Henry has a very tight match coming out on top in a match lasting over 2.5 hours, with the match coming to an end 5/7, 6/1, 6/4.

We felt the team came together really well and put in a fantastic effort both individually as well as collectively (winning ⅔ doubles) as we won this tie 7-2

Day 3 was against the home team, Lincolnshire. Going into this, Lincolnshire lost on both days so we knew we had an opportunity.

We were presented with the information that Harrison Mclnea was available for them on the final day. With Harrison being number 63 in the county, Arthur had a match on his hands. 

Arthur narrowly went down against Lincolnshire’s No.1 in the third set, champs tie-break 10- 7 showing us his incredible fighting spirit and was so unlucky at the end.

WON 5-2* (*did not need to finish as positions already decided at this point)

At times, we had to make some tough choices which may have led to one or two players feeling frustrated that they could have played; but we stand by those decisions as they seemed like the right calls to make at the time and we came quite close to securing a turn- around against Suffolk on the first day had it not been for an unlucky string of results.