I found out - mainly by asking why the ITF junior final was on Friday rather than Saturday - that the winter county cup(open age)is on this weekend.
I did find it a bit strange that it is a 3 day event starting on Friday morning, especially when some of the lesser counties will not have 6 pro players so they will have to ask players to miss school or take time off work. It may work for the top counties with lots of pros.
I'm sure the event could be played over two days.
Anyway - I noticed Liverpool is hosting one ladies event (5 mins from me) with N Wales, Cornwall, Oxfordshire and N Scotland so I may pop down on Sunday
This is one of the lower leagues and when checking the LTA website, I didn't recognise too many from the counties.
Runs for 3 days as would be a big ask to travel (often half way across the country) and each player to play 3 singles and 3 doubles over 2 days, also court availability and scheduling as men's and women's at same venue, so 2 x 6 singles and 3 doubles x 3 (for each county).
Thank you for posting re Live Stream - it's not well publicised :0) Should be good today with yesterday's winners Berks and Herts playing each other in the men's. Berks have a tougher team than yesterday with Marcus Willis at no 1 today and Herts playing one of their youngest men's team ever.....
Runs for 3 days as would be a big ask to travel (often half way across the country) and each player to play 3 singles and 3 doubles over 2 days, also court availability and scheduling as men's and women's at same venue, so 2 x 6 singles and 3 doubles x 3 (for each county).
I totally agree. Even if six courts are available ( and usually only four are allocated) that still means three rounds of matches - and they can take over six hours ( and please lets not hear any suggestions of short sets etc)
How many pros compete anyway? - they will feel they have bigger fish to fry in pro events elsewhere. Winter County Cup is a great event and well worth watching. Most players regard it as an honour to play for their counties and when tennis is such an individual sport, it is a great opportunity for them to enjoy a team competition which most of them relish. I spent the day in Shrewsbury yesterday at a Ladies Group 5 event and there were still some high quality, highly competitive matches to watch
I noticed the Winter Cup forms part of a wider year long Country Race. Counties earn points for the summer and winter cups and also for the various junior levels. Seems there are basis points for playing at group one, two etc level and then group points for how you perform in that group. Surrey have won the race the past two years, it started in 2015. This year Herts lead from Kent and middlesex and Yorkshire as they entered the winter cup with this being the final event. It's called the County Race but not sure where they are racing to or it is just for topping a table.
So Herts held on and became the "overall" County Champions across all events and age groups, for the year. My county, Yorkshire, settled for 4th place.
There doesn't seem to be a thread for the Summer County Cup, and I haven't time to start one.
Just wanted to say that this year's is under way this week, and having had a quick look through the player lists, I noticed Eleanor Dean partnering Helen Horsfall, Naomi Cavaday, Laura Sainsbury, Lucy Brown - and a lot of current players who are not out playing ITF's this week.
For the third time in five years, Laura Eales wins 15 out of 15 matches, this time with Esther Curtis ( the previous two occasions with Lissey Barnett)
Aimee Gibson also managed 15/15 this week for Essex in Group 1, eleven of them partnering Eden Silva, who didn't play today.
Emily Arbuthnot and Amanda Elliot managed 14/15 for Herts, only losing to Aimee and Eden !
Louie McLelland and Sophie Williamson for North of Scotland managed 15/15 in Group 7
I've seen quite a few others with just the one loss, (Holly and Ella are one pair) but haven't looked through all the results yet.