Press Release:
From Chris Vine – Team Manager – Essex Boys U13’s County Squash team – October 2009

Just about remembering to turn the clocks back, the Essex County Boys U13 Team travelled to East Anglia Tennis & Squash Club Norwich to play in their Stage One against Norfolk, Suffolk and strong favourites Herts.  Team members Fraser Linning (Redbridge) Charlie Green (Ardleigh), Alex Shuter (Lexden) Conor Adams + Ben Richardson (Harwich) and  Andrew Oram (Romford YMCA) were all in high spirits and looking forward to some tough games, especially Charlie who as usual had to be prised down from the ceiling! owing to the high numbers of sweets fuelling his e-numbers!

Team Coach Chris Vine had the responsibility of installing some “team essentials to the squad – realistic expectations, team spirit, good behaviour etc prior to their first game against Suffolk and to their credit the team performed extremely well with Charlie, Alex, and Conor all winning comfortably against Will Davis (2), Rob Brennan (3) and Lucas Balista (4) respectively – Ben Richardson also had an easy win 3-0 by default! As Suffolk could only manage to field 4 players.  Frasers game against Ben Turmel at 1, however was an entirely different affair.  The first two games went to Linning 11/9, 11/6, - some harder and longer rallies in the third game however seemed to affect his confidence losing it 5/11, - with this third game loss, the match seemed to slip away and Turmel seizing the moment went on to win the next two 11/3, 11/3 and with it the match 3-2.  So a slight blip but still a good win 4-1 for Essex.

The next match against Norfolk saw Essex play some familiar faces.  Ben Richardson and Alex Shuter gave the county the best start winning their matches 3-0 against Jagan Crane (5) and Sam Henden (3) – both Essex players had to win one of their games 12/10 so credit to them for not allowing the opponents “in” to the match.  Next up Conor Adams (4) and Fraser Linning (1) against Will Henden and Liam Bond.  Adams had the easier match winning comfortably 3-0, Linning took one more game winning 3-1, losing the first 13/11 and promptly reversing the trend after wise words from Coach Vine winning the second 11/6 – After the second game Henden seemed to drift away (in his head) to other places and tamely surrendered the next two games 4/11, 6/11 never really troubling a now super confident Linning.  Charlie Green (2) played familiar opponent Milo Butler winning the first game 11/6, and nearly losing the second, managing somehow to literally “scrape it” 13/11 - normal service was resumed however with Green winning the third 11/4, as his opponents head dropped to the floor! – mention must be made also of Green’s outrageous lob serve to the middle (just in) which Butler tried in vain to volley in mid-air only to see it die in the nick and roll out – this was at 9/4 to Green giving him match ball! – second match to Essex by a very convincing 5-0 scoreline.

The third match against favourites Herts was always going to be the toughest match, although mention must be made of Andrew Oram’s magnificent win against Freddy Sapone at (5) who’s name seemed to reflect his fiery temperament.  Oram won the first game 11/7, quickly reversing this losing the second by the same score 7/11 and the third by a similar margin 8/11.  Herts seemed to use the same tactic throughout the squad whacking it as hard as possible virtually all the time to the back of the court and Oram to his credit seemed to cope with it better than his team-mates as he battled back to win the third 11/9 despite one or two close calls.  In the fifth Sapone capitulated and despite a late rally at 2/10 down wasn’t able to deny the Essex man his win 11/6 and the match 3-2.  To be fair to Herts however they were “bigger and stronger” with three 12 year olds in their team and despite brave efforts Shuter, Adams, Linning and Green all lost quite quickly against Alex O’Sullivan (3), Hamish Gilliams (4) Lawrence Green (1) and Tim Richards (2) respectively and with it the match 1-4.

The good news? - most of our team are young and have at least two more years at this age group – we also managed to come second this year an excellent achievement and go through to the next round as runners up! – watch out everyone Essex are on the up!!!

Thanks to all who came to support and the boys themselves for excellent performances across the board and good behaviour!

Chris Vine
Team Coach
October 2009

From Chris Vine – Team Manager – Essex Boys/Girls U13’s

It was a busy stage two day on Sunday Feb 1st 2009 – the boys U13 team played at Ipswich Sports Club Suffolk and the girls U13 team travelled to Edgbaston Priory Birmingham.  Mike Aley and Conor Adam’s dad Matt were the team co-ordinators for the boys and Chris Vine went with the girls team.

The boys team of Richard Horswill, (Connaught) Kieran Green, James Marrison, Charlie Green, Ben Aitken (Ardleigh) and Conor Adams, Ben Richardson from Harwich - all played very well.  Kieran won two of his matches against Suffolk and Berkshire respectively and the others won at least one match each, Richard had two five setters winning one 11/7 in the fifth.  Overall Essex lost to Suffolk (1-4) Herts (0-5) and they beat Berkshire as they had done in the first stage 3-2.  At least four of the seven boys in the squad will be available for the next three years – so good times and maybe a title could be in the offing! – certainly for a junior county team to win a title at least four out of the five should be ranked in the top twenty in the national rankings!

The girls team of Collette Whittington (Romford YMCA), Rhea Mitchell, Ellie Brown (Frinton) and Chloe Rudkin (Harwich) had a very tough day.  All of the matches were closely fought and on another day Essex might have won all three!.  Against Warwickshire, Collette lost 0-3 to the amazing Alice Harvey (who hits Forehand both sides!), Ellie won easily 3-0 and Rhea lost (just) in five to Libby Corke to give the match a 1-2 scoreline to Warks.  The next match against Lancs was a similar affair – Colette lost 0-3 (13/15 in the second), Ellie again won 3-0 comfortably and Rhea again lost 2-3 (11/13) in the fifth – same scoreline 1-2 to Lancs.

In the final match Colette lost 1-3 to Tilly Spence, Ellie won 3-0 against Lee Beachill’s daughter Jess and Rhea finally won 3-1 against Kasey Henderson to give Essex the (deserved) victory 2-1.

Chloe Rudkin (9) played two friendly matches against two players from Yorkshire.

Chris Vine
Feb 2009