Inter County Red Event Report

Boys Team:

• Hoalin 
• Harry 
• Montgomery 
• Benjamin 
• Evan 
• James

Girls Team:

• Emily 
• Elizabeth 
• Nancy 
• Isla 
• Rachel 

Coaches:
Josh Crossley, Hannah Russell-Crossley and Darcey Groves 

It was a beautiful day for tennis even though we were unfortunately indoors. 

The boys were up first and had Suffolk, Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Buckinghamshire in the group. 

It was a brilliant start from the boys with Benji having a dominant volleying display winning at No.6 and Evan/James picking up a couple of great wins. We drew 3-3 and this would go down as a draw. 

Bedfordshire were next up and the boys again showed some very clever tactical points. Changing direction well, coming to the net being aggressive when needed and we won 5-1 overall. 

Cambridgeshire were our toughest opposition and the boys did a superb job. We had a couple of close 8-10 loses but Evan picking up an awesome 10-8 win to get our only rubber of the fixture losing 1-5 overall. 

Our last county were Buckinghamshire where we knew a few of the boys already and it would be a close encounter. Benjamin and Harry got a couple of solid wins and Monty playing some superb tennis, being careful at the back of the court but couldn’t quite get make opponent miss. We ended up drawing again 3-3. Overall we finished 3rd in the box and we then went on to play for 4th->8th position. The boys played some super tennis in the 5th/8th battle. We ended up beating Essex on points and had Norfolk who again had some tough players. It was incredibly close throughout with James, Harry and Benji winning with Evan losing a close 9-10 match and Wilson battling hard at number 2. We managed to get a draw again but won on points from and ended up coming 5th! Well played to the boys for their super efforts on a very hot day! 

It was getting warmer as the day went on but the girls came full of energy. Unfortunately, we were short of 1 player so we were donated a player from another team which was very kind! 

Our girls start well against Bucks with Emily and Nancy being our only players picking up 2 wins for us losing 4-2 overall. The tennis was very good and the fight from the girls was great to see. 

We have Northants next who were very strong, they controlled the points well and our girls gave it their all. We lost 0-6 overall. 

Suffolk were next and they were also a very strong county. We had some close starts to the matches with Rachel going toe to toe against their number 5 but just couldn’t get it over line. We lost 0-6 overall. 

Hertfordshire who were another strong county, the girls stuck together, supporting each other in between matches and creating a lovely atmosphere in the group we played some super tennis but it wasn’t enough and we lost 0-6. 

Our final match after coming 5th in our group was against Berkshire. The girls left everything on court, Nancy and Rachel doing a brilliant drop narrowly losing. Isla lost an extremely close 9-10 match and both Elizabeth and Emily picked up our 2 wins at number 1/2. We lost 4-2 overall. It was a tough day for the girls but a great experience being altogether! Hopefully we can keep continue to develop and really compete next year. Well done girls.

Josh Crosley