Liam Hignett catches the eye of Hampshire selectors (From Basingstoke Gazette)

Liam Hignett catches the eye of Hampshire selectors

2:00pm Wednesday 13th February 2013 in Sport

TOTALLY Tennis Performance player Liam Hignett was selected to attend the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) 14 and under AEGON County Cup Team Trials training camp.

Coach and County Cup captain Paul Scullard ran both the two-hour training camps over consecutive weekends at the beginning of the month for the 12 selected players from across Hampshire, at Winchester Tennis club.

The County Cup training camps were used to help the selection of the final team, which was predominantly selected on player rating. Attendance at the training camps was a show of commitment to the team.

The top 12 ranked boys in the county were invited to the camps by ex-Totally Tennis player and coach David Kirby, who is now the Hampshire LTA County Talent and Performance Coordinator.

Kirby said: “I invited the top 12 ranked boys in the county to select the team which will be based on rating and ranking along with individual performances in the trail sessions.”

In total 44 counties will compete in the qualifying event, placed in two groups of four counties and six groups of six counties per gender.

These groups are placed in no particular order and will compete over one weekend in order to find a winning team for each group to progress to the finals.

Each team plays four singles and two doubles. All singles matches will be the best of three tie-break sets but in the doubles the third set will be replaced by a match tie-break.

The winning teams then progress to the finals weekend at Nottingham Tennis Centre from May 17 to 19, where eight teams per gender will compete to be County Champions.

The Hampshire team will compete in Group F to be held in Southampton against teams from Kent, Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Northamptonshire.

The AEGON County Cup Events give players the opportunity of representing their counties in a competitive team environment and the age group categories range from nine and under right through to 35 and over.

The AEGON 14 and Under County Cup Event was first played in 1998 with Essex boys and Warwickshire girls being the first winners. Since then, Middlesex boys have won the championships five times and Middlesex and Yorkshire girls are tied with four wins each.