East Region Inter County Red Report
The county mini red girls’ and boys’ teams were in action on Sunday 25th June at Hills Road Sports and Tennis Centre playing against the counties of Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Northants, Norfolk, Oxfordshire and Suffolk. The ten counties were divided into 2 groups of five and each county played each other in the group and the winner and runner up progressed through to the semifinals. Each team had 6 players in it and each player played against their opposite number. Scoring was a tie break to 10 points with sudden death at 9 points all. The girls played in the morning and the boys in the afternoon.
The girls’ team of Daisy Rodgers, Allegra Young, Yingnan Ho, Lavanya Gupta, Sarah Wu and Amira Sulyman represented the County with great pride. They were in a group with Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire and Northants. First up were Berkshire. The girls started with numbers 5 and 6 and then progressed to 4, 3, 2 and 1. Amira got the team off to a good start with a 10/2 win. All the girls then played very well with Sarah, Lavanya and Yingnan winning comfortably but the top two Allegra and Daisy really had to work hard and both narrowly won 10/9 to give the team a great 6 matches to 0 win.
Next up were Bucks who had a very good team. Amira and Sarah lost the first 2 matches but Lavanya and Yingnan came back strongly to win their matches. Allegra lost 7/10 meaning Daisy had to win at number 1 to draw the match. Daisy played superbly and won 10/5. The match was drawn but Cambs won 51 points to 49 points – a real tussle.
Oxfordshire in the third match proved easier and everyone won comfortably except Daisy at number one who again showed her fighting spirits as she won 10/9 to give Cambs 6 matches to 0 win.
The final match in the group was against Northants and the team played very well with lots of consistency and good concentration levels and won these 6 matches to 0 as well.
This meant the girls were into the semi finals where they played Essex. This was always going to be a tough match and we really needed the bottom end to come up with a win. Unfortunately, Amira lost 6/10 and Sarah lost 9/10. Lavanya and Yingnan played very well and won their matches 10/6, 10/6 leaving lots of points needed by the top two. Allegra played against Flora, who is a good player and lost 4/10. Daisy then needed to win her match and then by the biggest margin possible. She played extremely well to win 10/8 leaving the match poised at 3 matches each. Unfortunately on count back Essex had 50 points and Cambs 49.
The girls then had to bounce back in the third and fourth play off where they faced Bucks again! The girls played the same people with Amira and Sarah losing at 6 and 5. Lavanya and Yingnan won at 4 and 3 again. Allegra lost 9/10 again leaving Daisy to win at number one which she duly did 10/4 to give Cambs a 3 all draw and win on points by 52 to 45 – slightly better than the first time round.
Overall, a great team effort and Cambs came third and got the bronze medals. A special mention to Daisy, Yingnan and Lavanya who won all their matches during the day and battled so hard to get as many points for the team as possible.
After a tiring morning the boys then arrived for their event. The boys’ team of Eric Celcuk, Neil Saha, Kevin Liu, Rayco Gonzales Moreno, Winston Heinonen, Avaughn William and Leon Garner had the counties of Bedfordshire, Essex, Berkshire and Northants in their group. The matches at the bottom end were being shared.
Cambs started against Bedfordshire and had a comfortable 6 matches to 0 victory with the most points dropped in any match being 5. Next up were Essex who were a very strong team with two good players at one and two. Leon at number 6 got the team off to a good start winning 10/7 and this was followed by Winston winning 10/7. We then needed the team to win one of the middle order matches but despite some great tennis Rayco just lost 10/8 and then Kevin lost 10/9. Neil at number two had a good start but was unable to quite get over the line and lost 7/10. Eric at number one lost easily to Oliver Driscoll leaving Essex the winners 4/2.
Cambridgeshire then got back on track with a very good win over Berkshire 6 matches to 0 with all the team winning quite comfortably.
The team then needed to win their final match against Northants to progress through from the group. Avaughn and Leon won easily at the bottom. Rayco lost narrowly to Alfie Felstead 10/9 but the top three of Kevin, Neil and Eric won comfortably to give Cambs a 5/1 win.
Essex in the meantime had lost to Berkshire so Cambs managed to come top of the group on rubbers won.
In the semi finals the team played Bucks and all were really up of this match as a win meant they were in the final! Avaughn and Winston got the team off to a good start winning 10/5, and 10/4. Rayco had a close 10/9 win and then Kevin won 10/6 as did Neil leaving Eric at number one to win his match 10/7 and put the boys into the final.
They didn’t have to face Essex again as they were beaten in a very close match by Hertfordshire in the other semifinal! The Herts match proved to be a really close match. Avaughn got the team off to a good start winning 10/2; Winston then had a great battle and won 10/9; Rayco then rallied really well and won 10/9 – just one match to go! Kevin played very consistently giving very little away and won 10/4 – we had an unassailable 4/2 lead established! Neil narrowly lost 9/10 and the Eric lost 7/10 giving Cambs an overall 4/2 match win.
What a day and what an achievement from the boys – gold medallists!
Captains Paul and Sue who work with the players all year round in the County Training groups were really proud of the teams and the effort all the children put in and how well they played for the County. They would also like to thank all the coaches who work with these children day in and day out. Well done team Cambs – onwards and upwards!
Sue Rich
