The Worcestershire team consisted of:-

Daniel Brown, Kiera Marshall, Sam Osborne-Wylde and Ross Williams from Barnt Green
Grace Cumiskey from Stourbridge
Leon  Smith  from Stourport

There were some very close games and the team finished in 4th position.  Warwickshire were the winners,  Gloucestershire were second, Oxfordshire were third and Avon fifth.

Worcs v Glos lost 7 games to 10, Worcs v Avon won 15 games to 0, Worcs v Oxon lost 3 games to 12 and Worcs v Warks lost 7 games to 12.

This years 2010 Area squash championships was held at the Edgbaston Priory club in Birmingham, a competition between the counties of Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Shropshire, Staffordshire and Herefordshire, there were over 70 entries of which about 21 of them were from Worcester.

Our county were represented from clubs such as Barnt Green, Stourbridge, Manor Park, Stourport, and Evesham. We had players in a majority of the age groups in both Boys and Girls from under 11’s to under 19’s. For some of our Juniors it was their first major tournament so they could be excused for being a little nervous, others just took it all in there stride, but they all gave 100% and enjoyed the weekend of squash.

We had triumphs with Will Vanston, Jake Dukes and Kira Marshall finishing runners up in their age groups and Elizabeth Parkes winning her age group. So a massive well done to all of you who entered and keep it going just remember you are not just getting more experience playing different people you are also making new friends.

Thanks to all the parents for taking your kids and supporting not just your own child but all the others and a big thank you to the West Midlands divison of England Squash Ammy Tilley, Vicky Hynds John Davies and Darren Lewis for such a smooth running tournament.

South Marston Open 2010 Entry forms uploaded. U11 and U13 form is here and U15/U17/U19 is here

The 2010 Championships will be held over the weekend of the 25th and 26th September 2010 at Energie Fitness in Redditch
You can download the Entry Form Here or the Rules here (although the rules are dated from 2009 they are the same!)

The Junior Grade was well attended and sponsored by Subway with T shirts and medals, results below;

The U11’s were very well represented with 11 entries
My thanks to John Parkes  and Basil Taylor for there help and to Phil and Helen for keeping us supplied with drinks and food and to all the juniors for marking the matches

Bett Dryhurst

We had a great turn out for the Stourbridge leg of the Graded Tournaments with 22 players competing for Grades F1 to D. It was played in good spirit and was very competitive with the kids trying their very hardest to win.
In The F2 Grade we had Keira Marshall, Anthony Marshall, Grace Cumiskey and Edward Ingram. Anthony Marshall finished 1st winning all his games and Edward Ingram finishing runner up.
In the F1 grade we had Reeve Lewis, Aaron Pitter, Christopher Marshall and Daniel Brown, here we had Daniel Brown Winning and Christopher Marshall coming runner up.
Competing in the E2 Grade there was Emma Ingram, Anna Young, Sam Milne and Evie Edwards, here we had Evie Edwards winning and Emma finishing runner up.
The E1 Grade featured Amar Singh Ghag, Daniel Pearce, James Middleton and James Cumiskey. Amar proved too strong for this group with James Middleton coming runner up.
In the D Grade because we had a few more numbers we split this group into 2 leagues, in the 1st league there was Elizabeth Parkes, Anna Johnson and Sam Wittin. With Elizabeth Parkes winning both her games she finished on top.
In the other league there was Thomas Heneghan, Jack Dukes and Thomas Griffiths. Thomas Heneghan won both his matches so finished 1st. Therefore the final was between Elizabeth and Thomas it was a very close fought match with Elizabeth just winning 2-1.
So we are now on to our last Graded Tournament of the season over at Barnt Green at the end of March, look out on the notice board at your local club for details.

FINAL PLACINGS
F2 Grade Winner - Anthony Marshall, Runner Up - Edward Ingram
F1 Grade Winner - Daniel Brown, Runner Up - Christopher Marshall
E2 Grade Winner - Evie Edwards, Runner Up - Emma Ingram
E1 Grade Winner - Amar Singh Ghag, Runner Up - James Middleton
D Grade Winner - Elizabeth Parkes, Runner Up - Thomas Heneghan

There were 16 juniors who competed in the Graded Tournament held at Manor Park Squash Club on Saturday 5th December 2009.
In the F2 event there were 3 girls who took part. They were Kiera Marshall from Barnt Green, Philipa Smith and Tanya James both from Manor Park. Keira won this event by winning both of her games. Tanya was runner up.
In the F1 there were also 3 entrants. Anna Young from Manor Park, Daniel Brown from Barnt Green and Christopher Marshall from Stourbridge. Anna won this event with Daniel runner up. Unfortunately Christopher had to withdraw as he pulled a muscle in his match with Daniel.
The E2 event also had 3 competitors. Murray Wright, Bill Thomas and Anna Young all from Manor Park. Anna won all her matches with Murray finishing runner up.
The E1 event had 7 competitors. In group 1 was Amar Singh Ghag from Stourbridge, Matthew Smith and Max Middllebrook from Manor Park and Thames Heneghan from Evesham. In group 2 were Joel Wright and George Davies from Manor Park and Thomas Griffiths from Stourport. Group winners were Thomas Heneghan and Thomas Griffiths and in the final play off Thomas Heneghan won by 3 games to nil. The 3/4 play off was between Joel and Amar with Joel winning by 3 games to nil.
All in all, this was a very successful day and some excellent squash played by the juniors who took part.

Stage 1 of the girls U17 Inter-county tournament was held on 25th October 09, at Energie Fitness, Redditch.
Knowing how strong Wales would be, Oxfordshire were to be our real challenge, and they were up first…
Jess played at number 5, losing the first game narrowly, then winning the second with a couple of good volleys. Her opponent tightened up her serves putting Jess under pressure, and sadly she lost 3-1.
Charlotte, playing at 3, had the game of her life! Playing a left-hander can take some getting used to, but Charlotte went for it from the first serve and won the first game. She then had a flying start in the 2nd but at 9-4 up she relaxed and unfortunately let her opponent back in. Her head dropped a little, she lost the third as well and, looking tired, she had to re-group, realise her opponent’s weak spot was her backhand, and get busy! She turned it around to 3-2.
So at 1-1, the number 4 and 1 seeds kicked off. Olivia at 4, as always, went on with plenty of determination and ran for everything! Her opponent had too much match experience, however, and won the match 3-0.
Elizabeth, at 1, and her opponent, had a very close 1st game, never getting more than 2 points away from each other. At 10-10, it went to 2 clear points, which Elizabeth won 13-11- the following 2 games, Elizabeth proved too strong and won easily  3-0.
So there we were on 2-2 with Anna to play (no pressure then!) The first game Anna played with great accuracy, winning easily, then the following 2 games were the complete opposite and she found herself 2-1 down. In the 4th, Anna began volleying on every occasion, a definite turning point! At 2-2 in games, and 2-2 in matches, who was going to win?!
At 10-10 in the 5th, the support and cheering from the rest of the team, helped Anna to win! A fantastic result for our Worcestershire girls!
As predicted, South East Wales went on to beat both Oxfordshire and us, so this means that Worcestershire and Wales will go into the promotion stage in January.
‘Player of the Match’ has to go to the whole team- they worked so well together and were determined and supportive.
Well done girls- keep working towards stage 2!!

Didn't the boys do well yesterday? They each contributed a vital part to the end result, and if any of them had dropped from 100% effort to 99% effort (or in Jack Duke's case from 110% to 109%), the result would have been very different. I'm presuming the boys came second in their group - it depends on how England Squash interpret our winning draw against Warks. So, I think we got through to the next round - I'll be very disappointed if we don't after a performance like that.

--------------------------------------------------
  Opponents         Northants    Cambs       Warks
  --------------------------------------------------
  Outcome            won 3-2    lost 1-4    won 2-2
  --------------------------------------------------
  #1 Jack Lubke        3-2        1-3         3-0
  #2 Tom Heneghan      3-0        2-3         3-0
  #3 Tom Griffiths     3-0        0-3         1-3
  #4 Jack Dukes        1-3        3-2         0-3
  #5 -                 0-3        0-3          -
  --------------------------------------------------

Here are some memorable moments from the day:

Jack Lubke's first match against the Northants #1
I only saw odd moments of this match, but I could see that Jack was really suffering in the opening couple of games, and it was clear that he hadn't shaken off his cold. But he clawed his way back in the third and then got stronger and stronger in the next two to take the match 3-2. We could hardly believe it when we realised that his win gave us a 3-2 victory against Northants.

Jack Dukes's match against the Cambs #4
The Cambridgeshire team were particularly strong this year, and dominated the day. Their #4 was two or three years older than Jack (who's only 11), and in the first two games, his superior reach, strength and racket skills, gave him sufficient advantage to take those games. However, Jack has a secret weapon - a belief that he can get to and play any ball, no matter how far away. Even if the ball is in the opposite corner of the court, less than 1" off the ground, and about to bounce for the second time, Jack will try and get to it. The amazing thing is, that because Jack doesn't waste any time thinking about whether he can get to a shot or not, and just launches himself off instantly, he does actually reach and return a ridiculous number of lost causes. In the third game, Jack's retrieving was so effective, that his opponent got fed up with all his winning shots being returned, lowered his margin for error and started tinning the ball. Also, (despite the fact that Jack had done 90% of the running in the match), Jack's opponent started to tire and didn't seem interested in chasing the ball any more. Jack kept up the same blistering pace and took the next two games to level the match. The Warwickshire coach then obviously had a word with his player, because in the fifth he played much better, but Jack hung in there, never slowed down, never gave up on a shot, dived head first into corners (like a young John Parkes), used the back wall as a trampoline, saved match ball after match ball and eventually won with some ridiculous score like 17/15. Undoubtedly this was the match of the day. We'd all love to know what Jack eats for breakfast!

Thomas Griffiths's key match against the Warks #3
We knew every game was going to count, so it was important that we picked up games even in the matches we lost. The Warks #3 was a particularly strong player, and Thomas came off after losing the first game, saying, "he's REALLY fast!".  I said, "so are you", and sent him back on. Thomas rose to the occasion, threw himself around the court when necessary and took the next game. Although he ended up losing that match 3-1, the game he won made all the difference, because we drew 2-2 in matches with Warks, but the game score gave us seven to their six, so (I'm assuming - the organiser is going to confirm with England Squash) gave us a winning draw.

The last two matches of the day
Both Jack Lubke and Thomas Heneghan had to win their final matches of the day 3-0 against their Warwickshire opponents to keep us in the competition - talk about pressure! Warwickshire is a notoriously strong county, and even though they were missing a couple of players from their normal line-up, so were we!  Both Jack and Thomas got off to an excellent start against the Warks #1 and #2 respectively, going 2-0 up in games. Jack then powered through the last game to give us the first 3-0 outcome we needed, but things were getting tense on Thomas's court. The Warks #2 was nearly 12" taller than Thomas and by using his extra reach and strength, put Thomas under a lot of pressure and managed to build up a small lead of two or three points. Thomas played some intelligent tight squash and hit some superb backhand volley drops to claw back a couple of points to level the game. Despite Thomas's best efforts, his opponent pulled away again and served for the game at 10/9, but Thomas raised his game, saved two game balls, and eventually took the game 13/11 to tremendous cheering in the balcony. We had our vital 3-0 win.

Player of the day
A really difficult choice - they were all in contention - Jack Lubke for his amazing comeback, Thomas Heneghan for his stylish squash and final shot of the whole day which gave us our win over Warks, Thomas Griffiths for best newcomer and Jack Dukes for the 110% he puts into every match. On point difference, it should go to Thomas Heneghan (eight games won, three lost), however, I'm inclined to award it to little Jack 'Duracell' Dukes for playing up an age group and achieving that spectacular 17/15 win in the fifth against the Cambs #4.

A memorable day!

We have around 80 junior boys and girls ranging from 7 years old starting on the foundation mini squash scheme, all the way to 19 where they then enter the senior age groups. They are based from all around the counties clubs like Manor Park, Evesham, Stourport, Barnt Green, Stourbridge Energie Fitness, Dave Lloyd  to name but a few.

In fact junior squash in Worcestershire has not been as productive as it is now for many years. This is thanks to Bett Dryhurst who is the main coordinator within the junior section. She is a Level 3 coach, and all other coaches are either Level 1 or Level 2 qualified, which offers a good level of coaching from beginners to county level. Our juniors represent Worcestershire from U11’s to U19’s in the Harris Inter county championships.

The Inter County Championships are one of England Squash association’s flagship events involving all 38 counties and over 2000 individual players.  There are 19 categories covering all junior and masters age groups as well as the prestigious men and women’s events. They play twice in a season over 2 weekends (it makes for some competitive squash). They can also join the England Squash ranking system, in which there are many tournaments organised all around the country. They can enter and play in competitions, building up their England ranking position. All this information can be found on the England squash and Racketball web site www.englandsquash.com/competitions

We also hold a junior county closed tournament every year organised over a weekend where they compete to become county champion within their age group. There is also a prestigious award-“The Brook Oldman Trophy” which goes to a junior who has contributed to squash in playing, training and other duties with Worcestershire squash. For further details and past winners please see the Brook Oldman trophy section of the website. We have training dates that are arranged through out the year at different clubs. They are normally held on a Saturday afternoon and coaching given by qualified coaches open to all commited junior squash players. There is no charge for this. So if you have a son or daughter or a friend that is interested in takeing up squash please get in touch with us for further details.

2009 Junior Closed Tournament Application Form | 2009 Junior Closed Tournament Rules