Colchester’s Haydon Smith has the stiffest first-round challenge at this month’s Tecnifibre England Junior Championships in Birmingham with an opening Under-15 match-up with number one seed Jared Carter from Hampshire.
Carter, the current England number one, is ranked 28 places higher that Haydon but will present a notable scalp if the Essex player can reproduce the form that got him the final of the Essex Junior Closed in September.
Essex has seven players entered for the Championships, which are being held at the Edgbaston Priory and Birmingham University starting March 20th.
Ellie Hewes (U-13), Oliver Green (U-13) and Alice Green (U-15) are all 3-4 seeds while Joel Braddock (U-13), and Aaron Allpress (U-17) are seeded 9-16. Harry Kitchens (U-15) has drawn 9/16 seed Lewis Anderson in the first round giving him a decent shot of an upset. The match will also be a repeat of the National Junior Racketball U13 semi final in 2014.
Alice is the reigning Under-13 champion but has now left the age group. The current England number four is our only U-15 player. Elise Lazarus has not entered.
Note from ESR: Main Draws will be 32 maximum, first round winners of the Main Draw will play out to a finishing position and will have matches until Sunday afternoon. First round losers of the Main Draw will go into a knockout plate. ALL scheduled matches MUST be played. Anyone not completing all scheduled matches without good reason may be banned for a time and taken off the National Rankings.