Men's Summer County Cup Report
This year’s Summer County Cup took place on the lovely coastal tennis club of Frinton on Sea. A club which boasts 16 grass courts and a swimming pool!!
Having been relegated last year to Division 7, the team had one focus, to earn promotion at the first attempt.
Division 7 is slightly different from other groups, where you play the first 3 days in a box of 4 teams and then progress through to a top group of 4 carrying the result forward with you if you’re successful.
Team
- Aiden Casey
- Sam Christie
- Louis Manson
- Arthur Manson
- Bobby Hornby
- Allan Cooper
- Ignas Grusnius
- Joe Cartledge
- Oliver Broadhurst
- Jon Maskens (c)
Day One vs South of Scotland: 5- 4 Win
The team started well and managed to get to lunch with a 4 – 2 lead. Confident we had done enough the senior players Joe and Jon stepped out and let the younger team members fight it out. This was a lot closer than first thought, and all the final 3 matches went to a 10-point MTB which was very tense. We did prevail with a hard fought 5 – 4 victory over a very tough team.
- Aiden & Sam 1
- Joe & Ignas 2 (Bobby in for Joe)
- Jon & Louis 1 (Allan in for Jon)
Day Two vs Isle of Man: 9 – 0 win
We had mixed the team up a bit and rested some players knowing we might get some easier matches. The team performed with great concentration but didn’t have it all their own way. The team manged to keep the very pumped-up IOM team from winning any matches, which is a rare achievement to win 9 – 0 in county week.
- Jon & Aiden 3 (Sam in for Jon)
- Arthur & Joe 3 (Louis in for Joe)
- Bobby & Ignas 3
Day Three vs Cornwall: 6 - 3 win
Knowing that a win today would put us into the top group for the last two days, the team where highly motivated and started very quickly.
They had one good pair which we suspected would win all their matches, but the plan was to win the remaining 6 matches and that’s just what we did!
- Ignas & Bobby 2
- Louis & Jon 2 (Arthur in for Jon)
- Aiden & Sam 2
Day Four vs Bedfordshire: 9 – 0 win
A massive day towards promotion back up to division 6 next year. We all started very quickly and seemed to override the strong Bedfordshire pairs very quickly who looked shell shocked by the standard of the tennis they were facing. We raced to a 6 – 0 lead at lunch. With other results not quiet going our way, we still needed as many rubbers as we could. The team stuck to the task and won the last 3 matches.
- Louis & Jon 3
- Aiden & Sam 3
- Bobby & Ignas 3 (Arthur in for Bobby)
Day Five vs Sussex
With our 4 from 4 wins and Sussex having lost to South of Scotland the previous day, it was all up for grabs, and mathematically we could still miss out on promotion.
Sussex started well knowing a win would give them promotion. South of Scotland who were playing Bedfordshire also started strongly.
At lunch we were 4 – 2 down but the other results had helped us work out the mathematical solutions. We needed 2 wins in the last round, so a loss of 5 – 4 would see us as group champions.
With the youth of Aiden & Bobby rising to the challenge, we were in touching distance.
Jon & Louis paired up for the final match on and comfortably beat their number 1 pair 6-2, 6-2 to seal promotion as division winners!
- Aiden & Bobby 2
- Louis & Jon 2
- Arthur & Ignas 0
Overall, this was a very enjoyable week and the team played well across all the matches.
I would like to thank the team for all their efforts. Special mention to Oliver Broadhurst who didn’t play all week, but was the eyes on the side and tactically helping out with team decisions and feedback, a great team player.
The support from Paul and Nicola Casey, as well as our Chair Andrew Broadhurst was very uc appreciated. It’s a long way to come and watch some tennis so thank you. We would not be able to do any of this without the financial and organisational support of Tennis Oxfordshire.
Jon Maskens (c)
