Cambs fight hard at County Cup Final

Cambridgeshire’s U14 County Cup team fought and battled until the very end in an exciting and testing weekend in the U14 County Cup Finals held at Nottingham. The Cambs team had Derrick Chen available for the round robin group stages on the Saturday and the Sunday but were without Yujiro Onuma for the whole weekend. The other members of the team were all those who helped the team qualify - Zach Cox, Darius Fatemi-Ghomi, Leon Kewney and Rohan Iyengar. 

Up against the 3rd seeds Hampshire & Isle of Wight in the opening match on a rain interrupted day, it was two rubbers each after the singles. Chen and Kewney winning their respective singles. Fatemi-Ghomi and Kewney pulled of a great win in the match tiebreak before Chen and Cox won convincingly to get a 4-2 overall win. 

Playing a Hertfordshire team next, we were 1-3 down after the singles. However, it could have been different if Kewney had capitalised on his chances in his singles. Chen won his singles and his doubles in a 2-4 loss. 

Cambs had to play the number 1 seeds Middlesex in the last round robin stage and in the knowledge that Cambs had to match or beat Hertfordshire’s result to play for a bronze medal on the Sunday. 

It was a very spirited display and Kewney got Cambs of to a great start winning in a match tiebreak 13-11 before Fatemi-Ghomi put in a hard fought opening set and Cox got beaten in straight sets. Chen won his 3rd singles out of three to tie the match at two rubbers all before the doubles. 

It was looking good at one point but Chen and Cox couldn’t see out the match and lost in a match tiebreak and Cambs eventually lost 2-4. 

On the last day, Cambs were playing for 5th place against Essex without Chen and they showed their character, battling back from 0-2 down to win 4-2 to clinch a very well deserved 5th place finish.