REPORT BY LEE HORTON
Amelie Howarth (Hampshire) and Jonah Bryant (Sussex) were crowned English Under 11 Champions in Sheffield at the weekend, but there were plenty of excellent performances from Essex players.
The impressive girls’ number one seed Amelie Haworth brought unseeded Francesca Hall’s (Yorkshire) run to an end winning their Semi Final in straight games while 3/4 seed Meh Shah (Middlesex) booked her place in the final without dropping a game throughout the tournament, beating Charlie McCrone 3-0 in the other Semi. In the final Haworth took the Girls title with an outstanding game of squash defeating Shah 11/3 11/1 11/3.
Essex’s Leah Brooke (pictured left) claimed some notable scalps finishing a highly creditable eighth while Renitha Srindran claimed 11th position. Essex coaches Lauren Selby and Dave Webster were hugely impressed.
Essex’s Alex Banhidai from Bishop’s Stortford Squash Club (pictured above) was the shock performer of the tournament starting from an unseeded position. He powered through to the semi-finals removing some highly fancied players before falling to top seed Abd-Allah Essa.
Jonah Bryan, who beat the second seed Yusuf Sheikh (Essex) in Saturday’s Quarter Final registered another 3-0 win against 3/4 seed Harry Bloomfield. In the Final Bryant was dominant thought out in both thought and movement, playing with maturity well beyond is tender age and won 11/3 11/3 11/2 in 17 minutes to take the title of English Under 11 Champion 2016.
Alex eventually finished 4th and Yusef, from Connaught, 5th.
Click below for a full list of results and finishing positions.