THE island’s juniors upstaged their older team-mates at Beau Sejour yesterday. Natalie Dodd, 15, and Issey Norman-Ross, 14, defeated Gemma Coquelin and Alison Strobridge in an all Guernsey final of the women’s doubles.
The Guernsey Two pair won 2-1.
‘I’m shaking because I’ve got so much nervous energy,’ said Dodd after the match.
‘I didn’t think we were going to win.’
The Ladies’ College duo won the first game 11-6 before Coquelin, 25, and Strobridge, 23, bounced back to take the second 11-9.
‘I expected them to win the second game because they were up for it more,’ said Dodd.
‘They had a little pep talk.’
While their opponents got themselves through the second game, the juniors mentally prepared themselves for the third.
‘We went on and tried our hardest as we thought that they would try and pick up their game again,’ said Norman-Ross.
Dodd and Norman-Ross proceeded to claim the last game 11-8 and the match.
‘The girls were just too strong,’ said Strobridge.
‘They kept fighting and they kept getting the ball back. Unfortunately we were the ones who kept making the mistakes. It’s promising for women’s squash though.’
The pair are products of the very successful Guernsey squash development programme and their coach, Peter Bridgeman, did not look too surprised by the result.
‘They’ve got plenty of talent and they looked more in control than the senior players,’ said the director of island squash.
‘They go on court with confidence so the occasion doesn’t get to them and maybe it got to the senior players.
‘They played good squash, they moved the ball around well and it was good to watch.’
Strobridge did have some joy in the evening session, winning her first group mixed doubles match. Playing with Martin Watts as Guernsey One they overcame the Cayman Islands’ Merta Day and Jake Kelly 2-0.
Today sees the final of the men’s and mixed doubles.
Article posted on 3rd October, 2007 - 12.00am
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