U13 V Dorset Shires and South west combo

U13 vs. Dorset

Unfortunately none of our small squad of girls was available to play in the match against Dorset, so the opposing coach kindly agreed to a boys-only, 8-a-side. This provided an ideal introduction to the U13 season, allowing everyone to play a singles and four doubles matches.  It took place in the wonderful Portchester Centre, a BE-funded facility with 7 courts which only opened in July and compared favourably with St Ursula’s in every way!

We have entered both the Shires League and SW Leagues, and because we had to forfeit all of the girls singles, girls doubles and mixed doubles, the official scores were: 

Shires: 4-12

SW: 6 - 30

However, if we look at it as a boys only match, the scores were much closer:

Shires: 4 – 4

SW: 6-9

This has to be qualified by the fact that Dorset’s top three boys, all Gold or Silver standard, were playing for their U15s on the day, but nevertheless, the Dorset team contained some excellent players and we gave a good account of ourselves. If a couple of the marathon three-set doubles had gone our way we could have notched up a win of sorts.  Our match day coach, Becky Cox, did a fantastic job with the team, keeping motivation levels high and identifying several key points to work on in training. The fighting spirit shown by our players was admirable, and we had super support from parents.

Here are the warriors with Becky and our new mascot, an Avon bear whom the players have named (for some reason) Steve.  He’s looking forward to our next match on 13 November at home to Cornwall.