THE CONNAUGHT Junior Open on Saturday showcased some impressive young talent with Essex-based players featuring heavily when it came to trophy time.
However, the performance of the day came from Brighton’s Marco Tsang Chi Hin who epitomised the word determination by not only showing great skill and athleticism in winning the boys’ U-19 event, but by putting in so much effort to actually compete at the Chingford event.
Marco’s day began at 6am when he caught a train from Brighton into Waterloo. He then travelled across London to Liverpool Street where he caught the over-ground service to Chingford before hiking the final mile and a half to the club.
That showed his commitment, and his display in beating Jamie Carroll, Sujan Srindran, Oscar Khoo and then Harry Kitchens in the final was equally as impressive. Marco is a superbly gifted athlete who could probably perform well in any sport. Squash can count itself lucky to have such a polite, well-mannered, talented individual in its ranks.
Chelmsford’s Eleanor White took the honours in the girls’ U-17’s after a terrific day’s action pitched against Essex team-mates Paige McCoy, Piper-Rose, Tatum, Ellli Barrot and Aliza Sheikh. Many of matches were close-run encounters highlighting the strength in depth of the Essex squad system. Elli’s match-up with Piper-Rose was a real cracker going to five before Piper-Rose edged it.
Daniel Choudhury from Bucks was the stand-out player in the boys’ Under-15’s. He is tall, athletic and plays a high-tempo, intelligent brand of squash. He had too much ammo for Jason McNally, Zaid Mushtaq and Ryan McCoy but the division produced some excellent matches down the order.
Yusef Sheikh flew the Connaught flag winning the boys’ U-13’s while Renitha Srindran snaffled the U-11 girls prize. Jake Sim Baskar was the best U-11 boy.
Another great event run by the ever-popular Dave Webster and his loyal team.
