As in previous seasons the Inter County competition threw together the Northern 4 counties Cumbria, Lancashire, Northumbria, and Yorkshire, to contest the stage 1 group at Carlisle; and as in previous seasons Cumbria's lack of strength in depth, and general lack in numbers of girl players meant that 3 tough games were in store for our 5 girls throughout the day.

l to r, Victoria (Penrith), Sarah (Whitehaven), Jessica, Luisa, Hannah (all Windscale)

First match up for Cumbria was against Northumbria and with Victoria Watson (Penrith) taking the opening 2 games off her opponent things looked bright, however in the remaining three games she lost narrowly to go down 2-3. At the same time on another court Sarah Frain (Whitehaven) was finding her opponent too strong all over the court, and no matter what she tried the Northumbrian had the answer, and Sarah lost 0-3. With the match in the balance next on court were Luisa Mc Gregor (Windscale) and Jessica Winder (Windscale), Luisa also took her opening game, but the wheels came off thereafter as her scores progressively deteriorated and she lost 1-3, but on the other court Jessica was having a great tussle with the Northumbrian number 1. Jessica took the first 2 games, before losing her way in the next 2 to see the games tied, however she dug deepest in the last to record Cumbria's first win, 3-2. Hannah Crichton (Windscale) lost to her opponent (the national under 15 number 1 player) 0-3, to round off a disappointing start for our girls losing by 4 ties to 1.

After the lunch-break it was back to business with Victoria and Sarah back on to make amends, however it wasn't to be as Lancashire opened up with two 3-0 wins, Victoria got into all her games but couldn't make headway against her more skilled opponent, and Sarah playing her best squash of the day only just lost the opener having pushed it into sudden death, got a bit lost in her second, but rallied well in the third to only just lose it, a commendable effort with nothing to show for it. So Cumbria was 2 ties down again. Luisa threatened to win her first game but fell away at the end, and then fell away in the match as the second and third games were lost for less points each time; fitness? As before it was Jessica flying the Cumbrian flag with a good win over her Lancastrian opponent 3-1, only just losing the opener in sudden death, but taking the next 3 games with a sudden death winner in the fourth game to seal it. Hannah as before completed the match and after losing the opener in sudden death and the second closely, sneaked the third, only to lose the fourth again to sudden death, once more nothing to show for a gutsy display. Cumbria again losing the match 4 ties to 1.

Last up were Yorkshire for our girls, and as reigning under 19 champions we were up against it, and so the results went. Victoria and Sarah had similar games, both getting into their first 2 games  but not scoring heavily, only to play better in their third each getting to nine points but losing 0-3,  Cumbria were two ties down. Luisa and Jessica fared no better in their games both also losing, Luisa struggled to make any headway at all and fell away again losing 0-3, however Jessica did win the third game of her tie and could have took the fourth in sudden death, but didn't, a 1-3 reverse. Hannah with only pride to play for and looking for her first win of the day, pushed her opponent all the way to lose in 5 games having taken the first and third, but her legs let her down (hard training and three games in a day don't match) and she too lost 2-3, and therefore the tie was lost 0-5.

Cumbria finished 4^th (last), but played some good squash with little return on the day for it, there's always Stage 2 to look forward to, all the same teams again, away though next time, looks like our County coach is going to have to crack the whip!