Essex Junior Squash Closed 09

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The Essex Junior Squash Closed event took place at Clubkingswood Basildon over the weekend of 26th and 27th September 2009. This year’s event saw over 70 junior players competing to be county champion. With 10 events ranging from u11 boys and girls through to u19 boys and girls, It was particularly encouraging to see how close the standards were in each age group which produced a number of upsets in the seeding.

The Essex Junior Closed is an important event in the junior calendar, not only are players competing to be county champion at their age group but they are also challenging for places in the county teams. Essex has always been a very successful county in the world of squash; this year’s event saw 21 nationally ranked players entering.

This year also saw 12 players entering the event for the first time. ES&R Development Coach for Essex Chris Vine said “it is really encouraging to see so many new players in the boys under 11’s and 13’s, over the next 12 months we will be working hard to develop the girls game and encourage more participation in squash”. “This will be achieved with the help of newly appointed girls development coach Sarah Clarke”.

The boys under 19 event was a close event between Alex Lemom from Connaught (England number 22), Niall Engerer David Lloyd Gidea Park (England Number 24) and Ross Brown Lexden (England Number 31). The final was between Niall Engerer and Ross Brown who had already met in the group stage of the event. The group stage produced an exciting match between Niall and Ross, with Ross playing out of his skin he managed to control the match and not let his higher ranked opponent into the game, Ross went on to win the match 3/0. This set up an interesting semi final between Alex and Niall, which saw Niall dominate to take the match 11/1 11/4 12/10. So the final was a rematch between Ross and Niall, this time Niall got off to a good start taking a close first game 11/8. Ross fought back hard to take the second game 11/9 which levelled the match at 1-1. At this stage the large crowd that had stayed to watch the finals were treated to the closest game of the match, both players raised their games and put everything into it. The third game went to a tie break with Niall with Niall just taking it 12/10. This seemed to give Niall confidence, he went on to take the forth game 11/5 and the match 3-1.

Richie Fallows showed why he is ranked number 1 in the uk winning the boys under 15 event without dropping a single game. Richie who still has a whole season left in the u15’s was at times pushed by his opponents but always seemed to find another level to move up to, certainly a player to look out for in the future.

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The match of the weekend was in the semi final of the boys u17’s event between Jon Matthews (Park Drive) and Jack Jago (Connaught). The match went to and fro Jack taking the first game and Jon coming back to take the second, as the match went on the rallies got longer and tougher. Jack once again to the upper hand with some excellent shot play and snatched the third game 11/6. But once again Jon fought hard, dug deep and managed to scrape the forth game. This attracted a large crowd who were treated to an array of brilliant shots and excellent retrieving, Jack showed his determination and went on to win the match and continued his good form to win the under 17 boys event.

The girls under 13 winner Elise Lazarus from (Redbridge) showed her continuing improvement by beating last years winner Collette Whittington from (Romford YMCA) in the final.

“Overall the event was a great success proving to be very competitive. It was very nice to have such a large crowd watching the finals at the end of the weekend. ” Said Steve Payne Chairman Essex Junior Committee. He went on to say “It has been a great atmosphere here this weekend with so many junior players enjoying their squash “ He also gave thanks to Club Kingswood for hosting the event, Suzanne Matthews, Martin Watts and John Dowie for helping to run the event.

Martin Watts
8th October 2009

Essex Junior Success!

The weekend of 28th February saw Essex juniors dominate when Redbridge Sports Centre hosted the Essex Junior Open Squash tournament. Players travelled from all over the country, with some coming from as far as Guernsey to compete in the prestigious Essex tournament.  The competition which was held over two days turned out to be a huge success for the host county competitors winning seven of the ten titles up for grabs.

Congratulations to Alex Lemom who beat the higher ranked David Wardle 3-1 in a thrilling Boys under 19s final and Sister Sophie Lemom who always looked in charge in her match final beating Emma Wardle comfortably 3-0. Other Essex players to take titles were Hannah Jones G17, Anna Kimberly G15, Grace Gear G13, Elise Lazarus G11, and Daniel Wheeler B15s with Michael Robinson (Surrey) winning the B17s, Bradley Masters (Kent) B13s, and William Henden (Norfolk) taking the B11s title.   

‘It’s been a fantastic weekend of squash’ said Steve Payne Essex Junior squash Chairman, ‘with over 400 matches to get through our tournament Director Dave Lazarus did a great job with the court scheduling, enabling the weekend to run smoothly and matches to run on time. With all age groups from under eleven to under19 taking part it’s particularly encouraging for the future of the sport to see the younger age groups, under eleven and thirteen so well represented’.