Our old friends drawn from US Summer Camps are visiting Europe again this summer. There will be a group of around 20 girls in total and they’ve asked if we can host some games on Monday 10th and Tuesday 11th July. 

Unfortunately Monday’s beach event had to be cancelled as the weather forecast was poor, but Tuesday's indoor session  at Wirral Grammar went ahead.

The NBC group include 8 players, an organiser, and two coaches. A number of Wirral players were away and others were working so the match start was put back to 6:00pm. NBC were able to use of the court from 4:45 to 6:00pm for a training session and included our players as they arrived. It went well, a bit different from our usual session, and our younger players got a lot out of the new drills and working alongside the US group.

Wirral players: Lauren Coulter, Lily Hogan, Eloise Duncalf, Lois Watson, Helena Hinch, Imi Newall, Lily Bloomfield, Lily Prosser, Abi Larway, Eisha Chahal, Liv Stewart, Sadie Capstick, Libby Canham. 

As soon as we started the match it was clear the US team was going to be too strong. Our girls fought hard, serving well and chasing down a lot of the NBC attack but the visiting team's skills allowed them to build much more effective attack and we were always chasing the game. Some things to take away - an enjoyable match with a lot of hard-fought rallies, but a 3-0 loss. Our girls also could not match the intensity of the visitors and were surprised by the sheer amount of supporting noise they generated, something I’d like to emulate and something we need to work on.

It’s nice hosting visiting teams, there’s usually a good match to look forward to and always something to learn.

That was the last event of the 2022-23 indoor season. Outdoor training and tournaments now until September when VE's National Junior Championships will be on us almost immediately.