THERE was an all-English final to the Antica Roma Senior Graded sqash Tournament held at Beau Sejour over the weekend. Laurence Graham was the best of the local bunch in the A Grade event, making it through to the semi-final before being beaten by number one seed Mike Biggs 3-1.

But the top seed was not to win again. In the final he found himself outmanoeuvred by Burrell and beaten in straight sets.

The tournament featured a good UK entry, as pointed out by Peter Bridgeman, director of island squash.

‘Thirty-three players came over to take part, which was fantastic,’ he said.

‘We saw some excellent games, with a lot of very long five-setters and many of the players were very tired by the time they reached the finals.

‘However, it was all great experience for our local players as many of the visitors were very strong, this shows them levels they should now be aspiring towards.’

Islanders’ success was restricted to the C and E grades.

Guernsey’s juniors dominated the E section with Nick Appleton beating Jeremy Teehan 3-0 in the final of the main competition and Katie Ozard defeating Hernir Reinrkens, also in straight sets, in the plate final.

In the C grade competition veteran Max Trouteaud enjoyed a hard-fought game against Surrey man Shane Patterson, before pulling through 3-2 to take the title.

On the way to the final Trouteaud beat young hopefuls Ben Brehaut and Chris Whitworth.

In the B grade, Guernsey’s Andy Radford put up an excellent performance throughout the weekend after narrowly beating Lisa May from Berkshire in the opening round 3-2.

He then had another two five-set wins in the quarter and semi-finals against Steve Hubert and Paul Francis respectively, before eventually losing 1-3 in the final to Paul Stewart from Berkshire.