North of England Junior Squash Championships
Winners and Runners Up
The region’s junior squash players have had a flying start to the season with two major tournaments in September. The North of England Junior Championships, sponsored by Matrix Orthopaedic Solutions, was a prestigious silver-rated event held across three venues, The Northumberland Club, Northern Squash Club and Tynemouth Club.
Attracting a huge number of entries from across the country, local players had the opportunity to test themselves against some challenging opponents.
Northumberland player Kimberley Hay emerged victorious in the girls’ U19 event and success followed for Tynemouth’s Lucy Beecroft in the girl’s U15 final. Caitlin Vitty fought well to claim the runners-up place in the U13 final. In the boys’ events, Chris Wiggins won the U13 B group and Alex Dyer carried away the U13 plate final. The event was closely followed by the Junior Squash County Closed tournament hosted by The Northumberland Club and sponsored by D B Glaziers. With 90 entries from across the region and 10 events from an under 9 age group through to under 19 boys’ and girls’ events, the tournament was a huge success with some top quality squash throughout and the occasional unexpected result.
Eight year old Lewis Follin was favourite in the mixed U9 event and duly delivered the victory, beating a very promising Max Forster.
In the U11 events, Laura Neill came out on top of a round robin group beating all her opponents to take the title convincingly.
Nine year old Joe Wareing defended his title from last year but did have a tough challenge this time out against the fast improving Michael Mattimore.
A totally dominant performance by Charlotte Cooper in the girls’ U13 event saw her hardly dropping any points to take a very impressive victory.
Dan Wareing followed his brother’s success by deservedly winning the boy’s U13 event, having improved his game significantly recently. The chasing pack of talented boys in this age group will make a very strong county team this season.
Lucy Beecroft was again in excellent form winning the U15 county title while still only 12 years old!
A repeat of last year’s boys’ U13 final saw Simon Grabham winning the most closely contested event of the weekend. There were six players with a shout of winning this event and some very closely fought matches made for entertaining squash.
Samantha Ward has been fast improving in recent time and won the U17 county title in a very high quality final.
Cole Windscheffel played to his potential to give a very determined performance in the boys’ U17 final, beating the number one seed. It wasn't to be a double success for Windscheffel in his second final. Although he played well he was no match for Christian Beck who won the boys’ U19 event with a controlled highpace performance.
A great tournament, organised by Dave Barnett of Northumbria Squash, with some quality performances from all age groups. For further information about local junior squash, contact Dave Barnett on dbsquash@yahoo.co.uk or visit the Northumberland Sport squash pages.
