REPORTS BY PAUL ALLEN AND DAVID HARRIS
LAST weekend saw the England Squash U11 Festival take place in Warwick and Kenilworth.
The festival is the national U11 Inter County championships for this age group and features the country’s top U11 players and with Essex entering three teams, expectations were high of top eight finishes for all our teams.
COACH Chris Chitty with our U-11 girls, Leah Brooke, Renitha Srindran and Lara Newton
The girls’ team of Lara Newton, Renitha Srindran and Leah Brooke, along with coach Chris Chitty, headed off to Warwick. In their round robin group, the Essex girls beat Worcestershire 3-0 and Middlesex 3-0 before losing out to the strong Yorkshire 2 team 2-1.
In the quarter final the team proved to be more than a handful for Wiltshire with another great display in which they won 3-0. This set up a 5/6 play-off match Gloucester.
The girls again stepped up to the mark and won this match 2-1 to take 5th place in the Inter County finals.
Essex entered two boys’ teams of three plus reserves and ,as ever, we were well represented in talent and depth in a competition containing no less than 28 teams.
Essex A. Alex Banhidai/ Edward Mason/ Jacob Drew
Essex B. Luke Scott Stevens/ William Wand/ Oliver Harris/ Jamie Smith
After a hectic 9.30am start due to some last minute unknown fixture changes by England squash, the boys were given their motivational team talks by coach Paul Allen just minutes before their opening matches. Despite this rather rushed approach both teams were unnerved and opened their campaign with a 7-2 and 9-0 white washing of Bucks and Leicester respectively. (One point per game plus three points bonus for the overall win)
Further impressive wins for both our teams against Derbyshire, Wiltshire, Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire, saw Essex A and B finish top of their pools. This would mean playoffs for positions 1-8 against other pool winners.
The Essex U-11 boys with coach Paul Allen
Sadly, both teams lost their first playoff matches. Essex B stood little chance against tournament favourites Sussex, whilst Essex A didn’t quite have the strength at strings one and two against Devon despite a convincing opening win from Jacob drew at third string.
At the start of the day with 28 teams taking part you would think the odds of our two teams competing against each other was slim, however this happened for the right to finish 5-8. This match was played in great spirit with loud cheers by both sets of Essex parents, mostly for the underdog B team, whenever points were scored. Although they are all good friends, Essex A were not feeling all that friendly, winning the tie without the loss of a game.
Finally, at around 6.15pm, the Essex teams had their final playoff matches. A 9-0 win for our A team over Northumbria saw them take an impressive 5th place and although chuffed, it left them wondering what might have been, if only they could have raised their level against Devon earlier in the afternoon. Our B team went down fighting in a close match against Middlesex and finished a highly respectable 8th.
A great day’s squash along with impeccable behaviour from our Essex players.
Bring on next season’s U11 festival.
There are more photographs on our Facebook page. Check them out HERE
