South Wales boys and girls perform well in County Cup

Paul Dancey on 28/05/2012

The South Wales boys and girls teams qualified for the under 14 AEGON County Cup finals in Nottingham – where both went on to finish sixth.

The teams that travelled were Matthew Story, Tiago Micallef, Tiarnan Brady, Charlie Heaton (all Cardiff), Matthew Lloyd (Swansea), and Thomas Davies (Abergavenny) for the boys. The girls team was Rebekah Charlotte O’Loughlin (Crickhowell), Alice Warren, Joely Lomas, Luisa Braunverova (all Swansea), and Alex Oelmann (Cardiff). Captains were Craig Ingham, Ben Coates and Melissa House.

The boys started the finals against Surrey, losing 4–2, with Matthew Story winning 6–3, 7–5 and Matthew and Tiago in the doubles 7–6, 6–0.

It was a similar story for the girls against Yorkshire with an overall score of 5-1. Here, Joely Lomas and Alex Oelmann took the win in the doubles in a third set tie-break.

The second day was a lot brighter on the court, with both teams securing a win and the chance to contend for either 5th or 6th place.

The boys beat Durham and Cleveland 4–2 comfortably, while the girls had a tougher job – eventually winning a fiercely competed tie-break, beating Cambridgeshire 12–10 in the shoot-out.

Day three was crunch time, with the boys drawn against Hertfordshire and the girls facing Middlesex. Unfortunately, South Wales lost in both rubbers - the boys going down 4–2 and the girls 5–1.

Two weeks earlier, the boys had topped their qualifying group in Bath and the girls won their contest in Stourbridge to reach the final tournament.

"Congratulations to all players for their commitment," said team captain Ben Coates. "They competed well and were a credit to South Wales. Many thanks are due to the Tennis Wales team for smooth and successful organisation leading up to the event."

Tennis Wales chief executive Peter Drew added: "This is a terrific achievement for our South Wales teams to finish above all but a handful of the counties throughout Great Britain.

"The players, coaches and team captains really deserve full praise for their efforts."

back to article index