The Southend League Junior Boys team have booked a place in the finals of the Carter Cup, part of the English Leagues Cup competition, after beating teams from Peterborough and Norwich. The finals will be held at the home of Drayton and Long Eaton TTC, Derbys on Sunday 5th July.
Playing at the home of Hockley TTC the Southend team were made up of 3 boys from Hockley and two from Stanford TTC. Elliot Brackenbury and James and William Evesham from Hockley TTC, and Vivaan Babbar and Josh Freeman from Stanford TTC. Mitchell Jones of Stanford was their coach.
The format for each match was four singles and one doubles and with a five man squad Mitchell was able to vary his side with all the boys getting at least one game. Southend got off to the perfect start whitewashing Peterborough 5-0 Brackenbury and Babbar winning both their singles whilst the Evesham brothers combined for the doubles.
The Norwich team then took on Peterborough and also won 5-0 albeit Peterborough’s best player, Adil THobani, picked up an injury during the match and had to withdraw thus conceding three matches.
The decisive match between Southend and Norwich turned out to be the closest as Norwich’s best player Finley Howes, ranked in the top 200 juniors in the UK, beat both William Evesham and Freeman in four sets whilst they, in turn, had no problem beating the Norwich number two Joseph English to leave the singles all square. The crucial match then turned out to be the doubles and coach Mitchell Jones made a key decision in pairing Brackenbury and Babbar against the Norwich pair. It turned out to be the right one as they won three sets to one and a 3-2 victory put them through to the finals.
A great performance by the boys and we wish them every success in the finals.
Report by Paul Strutt
Elliot Brackenbury, Vivaan Babbar, William Evesham, Mitchell Jones (Coach), James Evesham, Josh Freeman.
