ESSEX players emerged from this weekend’s British Junior Championships in Manchester with success, near misses, huge amounts of praise and no shortage of memories after a tournament that showcased the best young players in the nation.
And leading the county parade was Billericay’s Alice Green who stormed to the British Under-15 title without dropping a single game throughout the entire tournament. In fact, Alice surrendered just 48 points in her five rounds of matches, such was her domination of the event.
The win also gave 14-year-old Alice her second British Junior Championship title, matching the Under-13 trophy she won two seasons ago. Her coach, Paul Selby from the Off The Wall Squash Academy in Colchester, (pictured above with protiges Alice and Ollie Green) was in Alice’s corner throughout the tournament and he was full of praise for her performances.
“Alice was in inspired form from the first match to the last,” said Paul. “It’s never easy going into a tournament as number one seed. It adds pressure and you are there to be shot at. But Alice was never fazed and never really troubled throughout the Championship. She should be proud of her achievement.”
Essex almost bagged a second title after Redbridge’s Elise Lazarus (pictured below) reached the final of the U-17 event. Elise has not played much tournament squash over the past 15 months, but she returned with a bang taking out 3-4 seed Amy Jones, 9-16 seed Rawan Elkalaawy and second seed Jasmine Hutton on the way the final.
Her run was only ended by number one seed Lucy Turmel from Suffolk. Elise’s coach Jack Jago said: “We have to be pleased with how Elise performed, considering the limited time she had to prepare. We can take plenty of positives away with us.”
Essex can also boast a third and fourth place finish at the Championships. Alice’s younger brother Ollie Green banked third spot in the boys’ Under-13’s and Colchester’s Ellie Hewes was fourth in the same age group confirming the county’s tremendous strength in depth.
Joel Braddock was 10th in the U-13’s, Charlie Martin 13th in the U-15’s and Eleanor White gave a good account of herself in her matches and finished 16th in the U15’s.
DAVE KITCHENS KINDLY REPORTS ON THE PLAYERS BELOW
In the U17’s, Joe Blackmur, who came through the qualifying event to beat a 9/16 seed in the main draw and put himself into the Monrad, then had a pretty tough tourney and could not manage to bag another win and finished up a very credible 16th.
Boys U13
Harry Martin battled through qualifying and landed himself the chance of an upset in the main event by drawing a 9/16 seed in the shape of Tate Harms from Suffolk. But, it wasn’t to be for Harry and he went down fighting 3-0. That put him in the knockout plate and in the first round he was paired against another losing qualifier. It would be fair to say that he did not have a great day at the office, and just couldn’t find the consistency in his game we are used to seeing and he was on the losing end of a 3 love defeat.
Boys U15.
Charlie Martin, who went straight into the main draw and finished 13th had a fantastic win in the first round proper, taking out 9/16 seed Perry Malik. It has to be said that Charlie was probably not the favourite and soon found himself a game down. Then after a see saw second with some incredible rallies he lost a very tight contentious second game. From there though Charlie did not look back , Paul Selby guiding him to a memorable 3-2 win and into the main draw. It was difficult from there and the next match he won was his 13th/14th playoff. A great weekend for Charlie.
Our two other competitors in this event, aside from the previously mentioned Charlie Martin, were Timmy Bacon and Harry Kitchens. Firstly, Timmy did a great job in coming through his qualifying match into the main draw after receiving a first round qualifying bye. It was all going a bit south for him in his match and he soon found himself 1 game and 2-7 down, with dad Alan on tender hooks. But with Lauren Selby in his corner he was sure to turn it round, and he did running out a 3-1 winner and into the main draw.
That’s when things changed a little as he was drawn against the 3-4 seed Ben Socket, a top fiver and previous third place in the U13’s. It was always going to be a tough ask for Timmy and he was defeated 3-0.
In his first round plate he put in a great solid performance against a tidy opponent. Showing maturity and cool headedness in his play he won that one 3-1. The next day though he was a little flat and saw a winnable match in the plate quarter final run away from him 3-0. Good effort though.
For Harry, who was in the main draw directly, he was up against the 5/8 seed in the shape of Lewis Anderson. Harry has not beaten the lad previously but went into the match with just the right attitude, take the game to him. He came out of the blocks firing, dominated the first game and went 1 up.
An upset on the cards maybe ? From there though, and despite some long rallies and great retrieving he eventually lost 3-1. Good performance though. In his first round plate match it did not get any easier as he was up against a previous U13 quarter finalist only a couple of years ago. Another great battle but after a tough, close 3-0 loss against the eventual winner of the U15 plate, Harry’s tourney was over.
Girls U15
Our other girl in this event was young Amy Aspinall, who qualified into the main draw and was then up against a 9/16 seed from Surrey. Despite battling hard as she always does it was not to be and she was on the end of a 3-0 loss that put her into the plate. But, she could not find her A game in that match and after some great rallies was on the end of a 3-0 defeat.
Boys U17
Essex had thee competitors in the U17 in the shape of Haydon Smith, Joe Blackmur and Aaron Allpress. In the qualifying event went Haydon and Joe. After a really dogged performance from Haydon , who never knows when he is beaten, he came back from 2 love down in his first qualifying match to level at 2-2. But, in the fifth he saw the prize and lost a bit of focus and ended up going down 2-3. Shame.
Into the main draw directly went Aaron, but it has to be said did not get very lucky when the qualifier he was to face was a previously highly ranked opponent, Michael Mattimore, coming back from injury. Unfortunately he lost 3-1 in a tight match and put himself into the lottery of the knockout plate. He won his first match in a pretty straightforward 3-1 and then unbelievably found himself up against Jack Newey in the plate quarter final, for the 3rd tourney in a row.
The result was again straightforward and Aaron ran out a 3-0 winner. That’s where his tourney ended though as in the plate semi he was playing Hasnaat Farooqi, a tough competitor these days, and despite a real battle of attrition and and incredibly tight first two games, his opponent who went on to win the plate, the ran out the winner 3-1.
FULL LIST OF WINNERS:
http://www.squashsite.co.uk/bjc/today.htm
