IT HAS been a very busy period for Guernsey juniors with some of them entering two major tournaments in as many weeks. The Winchester and Bishop’s Stortford opens attracted some of England’s finest players and with both tournaments having a record entry, junior squash once again seems to be thriving in the UK.
The large number meant that both clubs, despite having six and four courts respectively, had to use neighbouring clubs to cope.
Seventeen Sarnians travelled to Winchester, making it a demanding weekend for their coaches, Peter Bridgeman and Martin Watts, who made every effort to see all the Guernsey players.
All the juniors preformed well but some players were a little out of their depth in some of the match-ups.
In terms of results, the best performances came from Jack Tacon, James Brehaut and Natalie Dodd, who finished second in their respective age groups, and Issey Norman-Ross and Jacques Scowen who finished third.
Overall, Bridgeman and Watts were very pleased with the performances.
‘While this is a tough environment for our players, it is necessary for their development in squash,’ said Bridgeman.
‘It provides our stronger players with competition, which is sometimes lacking on the island, but also gives those other players some much needed experience off island.’
Only eight Sarnian juniors travelled to the Hertfordshire Junior Open played at Bishop’s Stortford Squash Club.
The tournament was an England Squash silver event, which carries twice as many ranking points as normal open events.
Scowen, Oliver Banton and Andrew Jensen all competed well in the boys’ under-11 event.
The first round was a group stage with three groups of four. Each of the Guernsey players were in a separate one and gave all their opponents a run for their money.
Scowen won his group taking both his matches 2-0 to make his way through to the semi-final.
Banton also made the last four, picking up the lucky-loser place.
In the semi-finals, Scowen and Banton found the going tough against their respective opponents, Bradley Masters and Nicky Rossitter.
Although putting in a good performance, both were beaten 2-0 by the more experienced opponents. In the third-fourth play-off, Scowen beat his Guernsey teammate.
In the girls’ under-13, Katherine Jensen had a comfortable win against Niamh Greene in the first round and then went on to play Emma Payne.
Despite losing the first game, Jensen dug in to take the next two games, 9-5 9-2, before Payne, ranked 15 in the UK, just managed to scrape the fourth, 10-8, before going on the win the fifth, 9-3.
Dodd won the girls’ under-17 plate.
After a redraw in the main events, she unfortunately came up against the number one seed and currently ranked seven in the UK, Emma Wardle.
Despite a heroic effort from Dodd, she was no match for Wardle on the day.
However, the Sarnian regrouped and went on to win the plate, overcoming two Essex girls, Ashley Sheekey and Hannah Payne, 3-0 along the way.
Shane Hudson had his work cut out in the boys’ under-17 event, but this tough competition brought out the best of him and he got stuck in against his first round opponent, Luke Bishop, who is ranked 38 in the UK, and kept the rallies going to wear his opponent down.
Unfortunately for Hudson, Bishop always seemed to have an extra shot to win the rally.
In the plate, Hudson met Llion McGrath from Nottinghamshire and once again gave 100 per cent and pushed his opponent hard.
The Sarnian almost took the first game by keeping the ball tight and containing his opponent at the back of the court, but winning that game seemed to give McGrath the confidence to dominate the rest of the match.
In the boys’ under-13 event, Gareth Banton and Tacon were both in good form and ready to take on their opponents.
Banton had a good win over Daniel Clarke from Surrey, who is ranked 50 in the UK.
Despite losing his concentration in the second game, the Sarnian controlled the rest of the match against a strong player and went on the win it 3-1.
His next match was against the 3/4 seed Ritchie Fallows, who is ranked 10 in the UK.
Playing someone of this quality brought out the best of Banton, who seemed to relax and get into the game very quickly.
He worked his opponent around the court, controlling numerous rallies, but unfortunately he made one or two errors at crucial times, allowing his opponent valuable points and games.
After breezing through the first round, Tacon came up against Russell Clarke, who is ranked 14 in the UK.
It proved to be a very tough match, which again brought out the best from a Guernsey player who controlled the encounter throughout and went on to win
3-0.
In the quarter-final, Tacon came up against Cameron Western, who is ranked 11 in the UK.
After having reached the final in Winchester the previous week and training hard in the Guernsey Squash Easter Camp, Tacon seemed tired going into this match and although he pushed Western in the second and third games, he could not sustain enough pressure on his opponent to take any games and went down 3-0.
‘It was good to see all the Guernsey players raise their game in such a strong tournament,’ said Watts.
‘All the players have gained valuable experience in this tournament as well as showing how strong Guernsey Squash are becoming.
‘Each player really gave it everything in their matches along with supporting the squad where possible.’
Article posted on 23rd April, 2007 - 12.00am
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