Sport
| Published date | 14 April 2023 |
| Publication title | Dumfries & Galloway Standard |
Days one and two were qualifying matches with the first in each of the three groups going on to play for the titles, with the second and third team playing each other to have a say in the overall winners.
The 18s were a young team with three of the players being 15-year-olds and one 12-year-old and they were drawn against one of the favourites in West of Scotland, who won the 18s last year, and a strong Ayrshire team.
The kids put up a good effort but as expected the young team struggled with the strength of their opponents and lost all their matches. This put them in group three for the last two days.
Like the 18s, D&G's 15s were also a young team with three of them being 13 years and one 11-year-old. They also struggled in the opening two days as they were drawn against Tayside and the North East. Both these districts have large cities to pick players from with Dundee and Aberdeen respectively. Again, another good effort against their opponents but ultimately they ended up in groups three, also for the 15s.
The 12s were drawn against the East of Scotland and Central with both expecting to be challenging for the top spots at the end of the week.
Day one saw the singles matches with D&G winning two matches out of four in each rubber, leaving everything to play for in day two with the doubles.
The girls' match ended in tight losses with the boys winning both of theirs, resulting in two match tie-breaks to 10 with one boy and one girl from each team
pairing up for the shoot-out. This was a great achievement as D&G could end up in any of the three positions.
The East were up first as D&G took an early lead and went on to win the shootout, this guaranteed them second place in the group before playing Central. This tie-break was tight after the first six points as they turned at 3-3 before D&G started to win more of the battles and eventually took the match 10-7 to secure first spot in this group and a place at the top league. A really great achievement for this little district.
Days three and four were all about positions. The 12s were matched up against Tayside and the West of Scotland with both the 18s and 15s playing against the Highlands and Borders.
Day three was a wet day so play was slower. Both D&G boys 12s players won their singles matches against Tayside so this match sat at 2-2 before Thursday's doubles but they struggled against the West going down 4-0.
The 18s completed day three with a 2-2 tie against Highlands and both girls won their singles, going 3-1 down against Borders. The 15s played their doubles matches on Wednesday losing both against the Highlands and winning both against the Borders so all to play for on the last day.
D&G players entered day four with lots of matches that had purpose and a good team spirit.
The 12s battled away with their doubles but it looked like a day too much as they lost all four rubbers to finish third overall but what a great achievement for them.
The 15s started their singles and completed a 6-0 win over their Borders opponents. Against the Highlands was trickier and D&G ended up losing that match 5-1 overall. This left the 18s with their doubles and neither pairing troubled the experienced Borders pairings and lost the match 5-1. This left D&G up against the Highlands to see who would come second in the group and eighth overall. Unfortunately, the boys were out muscled by their older opponents which left it up to the girls.
The girls stated slowly, going 4-1 down in their first set before clawing it back to win the first set 6-4. Set two was a surprise as the girls did it again, going 4-1 down before taking that rubber 6-4, 6-4. This left D&G with a mixed pairs match tie-break.
Both started nervously before D&G started to win the rallies and ended up 9-4 in front. They had five match points to do this before the Highlands started to chip away at this, 9-5, 9-6, 9-7 before they completed the win 10-7. A tremendous effort from D&G as they came seventh overall.
Thanks to the Holywood Trust for supporting the team, to Dumfries Tennis Club for allowing the use their facilities for practice this year, to The Print Copy Centre in Dumfries and to the parents and children for their efforts and to both captains, Rebecca Topping and Michael Goldie, for their support during the competition.
Overall standings 12s: Dominik Czopek, Jack Wearing, Lucy Scade and Caitlin Topping - 1 West; 2 Tayside; 3 D&G.
15s: Cameron Hunter, Nathan Zaoral, Autumn Hodgins and Eilidh Topping - 7 Highlands; 8 D&G; 9 Borders.
18s: Fergus Reynolds-Lewis, Flynn Dalgliesh, Eve Crombie & Isla McFarlane - 7 Borders; 8 D&G; 9 Highlands. Hockey Dumfries Hockey Club Clydesdale 2 Dumfries Men's 2s 1 Dumfries travelled to Titwood on Saturday with a youthful squad of 14 players looking to continue to develop the youngsters in what is left of the season.
It was a different looking Clydesdale side to that which had travelled to Dumfries a few weeks earlier. Dumfries also fielded a squad containing four lads and their dads, which is believed to be a first for the club.
The first...
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