County teams have performed very well this season on the national County Championship circuit, not least of all the Veterans who won their national title, and this form was continued right at the other end of the age spectrum when the Cadets travelled to Bishop Auckland for their second, and final, round of five matches, eventually finishing a very creditable second in Division 1A.
Representing Leicestershire were Jack Rogers, Oscar White, Jinious Sheth, Kinar Sheth and Maya Dehnen and they began the day in third place after the first round of matches.
The team went 3-0 up against Lincolnshire but could only muster one set from that point to lose 6-4, despite Jinious Sheth winning both his while Kinar Sheth beat the highly ranked Darcie Proud.
The next two matches were both won, at 8-2 against Cheshire with Rogers and the two girls all winning two from two, and a 7-3 victory against Durham seconds with Rogers and Kinar Sheth again in unbeatable form and Jinious Sheth joining in with two of his own.
The fourth match was a must-win encounter against Durham first team who were ahead of Leicestershire after the first round of matches. The two Sheths were now very much on-song, winning their two apiece, Rogers taking one while losing the other by a nail biting deuce in the fifth. And then White came along with a vital victory to secure a terrific 6-4 success.
Leicestershire needed to win their final match well to secure second position, and the team rose brilliantly to the occasion with a splendid 10-0 victory over Lincolnshire seconds to seal the runners-up spot to make coach, Shirley Pickering, a proud leader.
Three of the five Leicester League Cup Finals have been played, with the most exciting so far the one for the lower graded players, those below 115, which is mainly Division Five and the bottom half of the sector above.
Knighton Park beat Nomads 5-4 but no fewerthan seven of the nine sets needed a fifth game to decide. Dan Pearson won three for Park, needing five games against Terry Highton, while Aga Hirt and Max Huggins both won one, all three of theirs needing five games, Roger Burley won two for Nomads, Steph Burley one.
The crunch came in the final set when Huggins kept his head to defeat the wily Highton, who had earlier won one, 3-2 (11-5, 8-11, 6-11, 12-10, 11-7) in the most thrilling of finales.
Knighton Park have done well so far as they also won the other two competitions. The top rated open-to-all Rose Johnson Cup saw Karen Smith come back twice from 2-0 deficits to beat both Andy LeButt and Dave Grundy of Electricity in five, while Chris Rogers also won two. Les Baker lost to Grundy but defeated Tomas Oravek three straight to give the Knighton team a 5-1 scoreline.
This is the same score that the Park beat Syston Casuals in the Corrall Cup for those graded below 210. Peter Wilson beat John Szostak, James Morley scored against Mike James and then Aman Rashid put the Park 3-0 up against Ian Wetherley.
Syston pulled one back when Szostak beat Morley before Wilson and a very solid Rashid saw their team home with two further successes.