 The Geraldine Booth Award which is presented to the boy and girl who have contributed most to the County at the County 2019 AGM. It was awarded to Harry Wendelken, who unfortunately was unable to attend the AGM, and Megan Carmichael. Harry is ranged no 1 in the U18 and in the Seniors for the County. He is ranked no 59 in the ITF with a career high of 34 in January. Megan is currently ranked no 1 in the U16 and U18 in the County.
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 Alex won the U12s Grade 5 tournament at David Lloyd this month - congratulations
The County British Tennis Awards were presented by Alan Hodges, during the 2019 AGM on Wednesday 20th March. The British Tennis Awards are mainly targeted towards volunteers and we received about 50 nominations this year, but most came from a few clubs. We would like more clubs to make nominations and we do make a nominations award to the Club - this is chosen from a draw of all nomination forms. The Executive Committee would like to pass on their thanks to all the volunteers in the Cambs clubs for all their hard work and commitment.  The Nominations Award of £250 was made to the Cambridge Academy (Rob Ellis).  Cambs Club of the Year 2018 - Cambridge Lawn Tennis Club (James Mills)  Cambs Volunteer of the Year 2018 - Lawrence Hopkins, Haslingfield Lawn Tennis Club  Cambs Coach of the Year 2018 - Toby Jackson, Cambourne Tennis Club, who was unfortunately unable to attend, the awards was presented to Anna Springham.  Cambs Young Volunteer of the Year 2018 - Megan Carmichael, Cambridge Lawn Tennis Club  Cambs Education Venue of the Year 2018 - Castle School  Cambs Official of the Year 2018 - Sue Rich, Cambridge Lawn Tennis Club  Cambs Community Venue of the Year 2018 - Wisbech Lawn Tennis Club  Cambs Disability Award 2018 - Steve Shaw, Cambridge Lawn Tennis Club  Cambs Competition of the Year 2018 - Cambridge Summer Open  Cambs Outstanding Achievement Award 2018 - Simon Grainger, Chatteris St Peter's Tennis Club, who was unable to attend - the award was handed to Karen Barwell on his behalf
 U8 Boys team - Kevin, Arthur, Joseph, George, Etienne and Martin  U8 Girls team - Navya, Aditi, May, Olivia, Lilyane and Jessica
The was a very enjoyable tournament and after a hard battle the Cambridgeshire girls came third and the boys came fourth, with Cambridgeshire coming third overall. Congratulations to all the players.  Cambridgeshire team – Jianzhou, Harry, Arnas and Bibiana
At the conclusion of Stage 1, we had Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire as the top 2 Counties in the Kyle Edmund group, and Hertfordshire and Essex as the top 2 counties in the Johanna Konta group. This meant that Hereford & Worcestershire played Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire played Buckinghamshire in the Play-off knockout draw. Notts and Yorks won those matches so played out for 5/6th place, which Yorkshire won. In the Semi Finals of the main event, Hertfordshire beat Northants and Cambs beat Essex both by a 3/1 score line. We then had Essex beat Northants in the 3/4th place play off, while a thrilling final took place between title holders Cambs and Herts. After the 4 matches, it was a dead heat, on 2/2 and 5/5 in sets won. This meant we had to play a doubles championship tie-break to decide. Herts got off to a good start and never looked back, coming out 10/4 winners. The strength of the event was shown with four counties consisting of only Orange 1* players. we played 82 matches, with every child getting 5 singles matches as a minimum, and over 50% of those went to 3 sets! Four players were undefeated all day – they were: Essex No1 Varun, Cambs No2 Arnas, Bucks No3 Maisie and Cambs No4 Bibiana.  The team of Megan, Kira, Chaaya, Neha, Lydia, Aisha, Natasha and Sama travelled to Shrewsbury for 18 County Cup in Group 3b on Thursday 28th February.
They were in a group with Staffordshire, Norfolk and Somerset. On the Friday they played Staffordshire and first up was Aisha at number 6 and she beat Daniela 6/4, 6/2 to get the team off to a good start. This was followed by Lydia beating Alice very convincingly 6/1, 6/1 to help Cambs to a 2/0 lead. Chaaya at three had a tough game against Eloise and lost 2/6, 2/6 and Neha on her County Cup debut was out played by Adeola and lost 2/6, 0/6. So after two rounds Cambs were tied with Staffs but then up stepped Kira in her first match for a year after knee surgery and she played amazingly to beat Kia 6/1, 6/2. Megan at number one then played Mae and again played a really solid and highly competitive match and won 7/5, 6/4 to give Cambs the advantage after the singles and a 4/2 lead. The third pair doubles of Lydia and Natasha then beat Isabelle and Amy 6/0, 6/2 to ensure Cambs the 5 rubbers needed to win this match. Although Megan and Sama at pair two doubles competed well they lost to Adeola and Eloise 4/6, 4/6 and the top pairing of Kira and Aisha lost to Kia and Mae 1/6, 6/7. The day ended with a 5/4 win to Cambs and set them up for a good weekend. The highlight was seeing Kira back on the match court and playing so well. On the Saturday Cambs took on Norfolk who were strengthened with their number one player Vianne. Kira was rested for the singles so Natasha came in at number 6 and got the team off to a really good start with a 6/2, 6/1 win over Amelia. This was followed with a 6/1, 6/0 win for Aisha over Sian Next up at number 4 was Lydia who comfortably beat Alix 6/1, 6/1 giving Cambs a 3/0 lead. The top 3 singles however took on a different look and were all very competitive matches. Neha at number 3 had a really tough battle with Hannah before being edged out 6/3, 4/6, 3/6. Chaaya at two then had a very good match with Emily and came back well in the second set but just lost out in the third 3/6, 7/5, 3/6. The overall match was then evenly poised as Megan took on Vianne. Megan won the first set comfortably 6/2, lost the second 3/6 and was well up in the third before Vianne staged a comeback and then narrowly lost 5/7 to put the overall score at 3 matches each. Cambs third pairing of Natasha and Lydia got the team off to a good start in the doubles beating Hannah and Hannah 6/3, 6/4. The first pair of Kira and Aisha were really fired up and easily beat Emily and Vianne 6/2, 6/0 to ensure Cambs were 5/3 up. Sama and Megan then faced Emily and Amelia and came back from 2/5 down to win the first set 7/6 and then from 2/5 down to win the second set 5/7 to finish the day with a 6/3 overall win. This set up a final day with Cambs and Somerset both on two wins each although Somerset had won their respective matches 9/0 and 8/1!!! On paper Somerset were the stronger team but Cambs gave it their best shot and all the singles players put their heart and lungs out on the court for the County. Three courts were used so numbers 6,5 and 4 all started at the same time. First to finish was Natasha and she got the team off to a great start with a 6/4, 6/3 win over Amelia. Lydia had a tough battle against Annabelle and lost 2/6, 2/6 while Aisha was having a marathon match against Francesca. Aisha lost the first set 3/6 and was 3/5 down in the second and later match points down but eventually managed to win the set 7/5. Chaaya then started against Caitlin and despite some good play was beaten 2/6, 3/6. Aisha then went 4/1 up in the third before her opponent came back to 4/4 but then pulled the match round and won the third set 6/4. This left the match score at 2 matches a piece. Next up was Kira Reuter and Megan – they both played very well but Megan lost 2/6, 3/6 to Grace but Kira pulled her match round – she won the first set 6/2, dropped the second 3/6 and then got an early break in the third and held onto this and then broke again to win 6/2 in the third – great effort. After the singles we were 3 matches all. Cambs needed to win the third doubles match as our pair one were realistically going to have a tough match. Lydia and Natasha got off to a flying start and went 3/0 up and even had a deuce point to go 4/0 against Amelia and Annabelle. Once their opponent’s got a game then they started to get into the match. Had Cambs taken the three deuce points after this in the set then they would have won the set but unfortunately lost it 5/7 and then the Somerset pair gained more confidence and took the third set 6/2. As expected the Somerset first pair of Grace and Nirva then beat Megan and Chaaya 6/2, 6/3 – at this point Aisha and Kira at pair two were in a tie break in their first set and after losing it 6/7 they conceded as Somerset were already promoted. Overall the girls really played their hearts out on the Sunday and were so unlucky not to get promoted – it was a great team effort and captain Sue Rich was really proud of the team.  Congratulations and so well deserved, to our Ladies 40s County Tennis team as they had another great result on 2 March 2019, winning the 40s Ladies Indoor Midland Counties Tennis League, played at Corby Indoor Tennis Centre and retaining their title. Captain, Christine said it was a really strong team effort across the season so we remained unbeaten to reclaim the title, playing 6 counties of Bedfordshire (8-0), Northamptonshire (6-2), Leicestershire (8-0), Warwickshire (6-2) and final match against Lincolnshire (5-3), who had also won all their other matches. Another closely fought final, as Lincolnshire always has a strong team. A near repeat of last year's final but this time without the need for a tiebreak shoot out! Christine and Katie, lost a tight match against the Lincolnshire 1st pair dropping both sets but Fleur and Caroline, managed to split sets with the Lincolnshire 1st pair allowing them to clinch the vital set which gave us the 5-3 win. Both Cambridgeshire pairs won all 4 sets against the Lincolnshire 2nd pair. The players involved over the 6 matches were, Christine (Captain), Fleur, Kat, Katie, Rachel and Caroline with the final team shown above.
The 2019 12 counties championships saw the Cambridgeshire teams up in division 1 competing against Essex, Yorkshire and Leicestershire.  Girls The Cambridgeshire girls’ team of Megan, Neha, Lydia and Charlotte were up against Essex first. Megan led the way at number 1 with a focused performance against Iman winning 5-4 4-1. Neha at number 2 battled back from match points down to beat Lucy 1-4 5-3 10-8. Lydia lining up as Cambs number 3 took on Nyah losing out 1-4 2-4. The final match saw our number 4 Charlotte play Monica, a tough prospect and was defeated 0-4 1-4 making the final result 2-2. Up next was Yorkshire and a tough tie for the girls. Tight matches didn’t quite go the girls’ way on the day with Megan losing out 6-10 in a 3rd set championship tie-break after splitting sets one and two 5-3 2-4 to Jessica. Neha also lost out on a tiebreak set, this time in the second set to Jayanne having lost set one 0-4. Lydia put in a tough performance against Caitlin but fell just short 0-4 3-5 and finally Charlotte in another tough match losing 1-4 0-4 to Orfa. So, the girls took a 0-4 loss to Yorkshire. The final match was against Leicestershire and some very exciting matchplay. Most notably Charlotte who showed some serious Cambridgeshire grit coming back from 0-4, 0-3 down to defeat Daniella 0-4 5-3 10-7 in the final match of the day! Megan played clinical tennis getting the win against Lila 4-1 4-2 whilst Lydia also took a convincing win over Katie 4-1 4-0. Neha was out on court again in a drawn out fight against Anisha, coming from a set down to find the win with back to back tie-breaks 3-5 5-4 11-9. A convincing 4-0 win for the girls. In the other results, Yorkshire beat Leicestershire 4-0 and drew with Essex 2-2. Essex beat Leicestershire 4-0. This resulted in the Cambridge girls coming 3rd in the group with Yorkshire 1st, Essex 2nd and Leicestershire 4th..  Boys
The Cambridgeshire boys fielded the team of, Vincent, Zach, James and Darius. First up was Essex and a tough first round. Zach at number 2 losing 0-4 1-4 to Ben, James at 3 losing out to Tom 1-4 0-4 and number 4 Darius going down 0-4 2-4 to Anthony. Cambs number 1 Vincent had the closest of the matches and had his chances, eventually succumbing to Matt 4-5 4-1 11-13. So, 4-0 to the Essex boys. Up next was Yorkshire and Darius getting the team’s first win 4-2 4-2 over Ryan. Vincent and Zach were up against it with opponents Euan and Adam respectively. In a match of great ball striking Vincent went down 2-4 2-4 and Zach lost 1-4 1-4. The closest match of the round was with James who took on Thomas. After splitting the first 2 sets 4-1 1-4 James just lost out 7-10 in the championship tie-break making the final match score 1-3 to Yorkshire. Finally, the boys were up against Leicestershire which was a closer affair. Wins came for Zach and Darius. Zach showing great fighting spirit losing a set and 3-0 lead to go 4-8 down in the third set tiebreak only to go on a run of 6 points to win the match 4-1 3-5 10-8 against Jordan. Darius also came through a tie-break in the second set to take out Alex 4-1 5-4. After a battling first set James lost out to Andrew 4-5 1-4 and Vincent after a close first 3-5 set had to pull out due to cramp against Ben. This left the score at a 2-2 draw. In the other results, Yorkshire beat Leicestershire 3-1 and drew with Essex 2-2. Essex beat Leicestershire 4-0. This resulted in the Cambridge boys coming joint 3rd with Leicestershire Very well done and congratulations to Teresa, Pieter, David and Alan for their successful wins playing in new age groups at the ITF British Open Seniors Indoor Championships in Tipton last week. Teresa won the 50s ladies singles and 50s doubles (partner, Anne). Sue and Pat reached the semis of the 60s Ladies Double.
Pieter won the 50s Men's singles. David reached the semis of the 50s Men's singles and 45s doubles but his partner had to then retire, and Alan reached the quarters of the 55s Men's singles. A great week and a great start to 2019 for Cambs Senior Tennis.
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