DAVID HARRIS REPORTS
Last weekend the 2018/19 Miles Smith Essex Junior Squash Grand Prix series moved to Bishops Stortford Squash & Racketball Club for round five of eight..
The event saw the debut of 17 new players from Bishops Stortford, Brentwood, Saffron Walden, Epping and Connaught, only one player short of our record for GP entries seen as GP2 earlier in the season. 57 players playing, 130 matches and one busy day!
In the girls’ year 4 & under Grace Woodhead took the honours again while in girls’ year 6 and under current series leader, Isabella Johns, reasserted her dominance on the group by taking the win. Second was Lucy Pegram.
The girls’ year 8 Group B proved to be a very competitive affair as always with Eleonore Dewey taking top spot from Eliza Hancock second and the ever improving Prabhneek Atwal taking 3rd.
Kylen Calder finished second in the Year 4 B event
In the boys’ year 4 & under, eleven players battled for supremacy. In Group A, Matthew Sutton continued his dominance of the group by taking first place with brother Tristan finishing a close second and the ever improving Cullen Clark taking third. In Group B, Benedict Bachelor, in only his third GP, took the honours with debutant Kylen Calder finishing second and Harrison Young third.
The boys’ year 6 & under group saw two groups playing with Group A being dominated by Louis Brown continuing where he left off after GP4, Matthew Yip claimed a closed second place with Dylan Smithson taking his second podium in a row with third place. Taking his first ever GP Group win was Edward Wilson improving on his third place at GP4, with Arthur Cutter taking second and debutant Laurence Cox, finishing in bronze position.
The Boys’ year 8 and under featured the largest number of entrants again. In Group A, Arjan Kingra took his second win on the season with Oren Goddard, following up his Group B win at GP4, taking second and Aidan Clifford third. In Group B, Thomas Owen took 1st place but only on count back in his defeat of Harry Betts in the group stages. Both players finishing on the same number of points but Thomas’s 11/9 5/11 13/11 victory in round 3 was enough to claim the prize. Harry Betts on his debut taking second place with Sebastian Bachelor, third. In Group C, Luke Sagood followed up his debut win in GP4 with another here. Second and third places were filled with debutants Reggie Edwards and Ellis Sooprayen respectively.
In the boys’ year 10 group, another hard fought group saw debutant Toby McBurney from Brentwood take the win. In what was probably the match of the day Trystan Fleming and Joe Ludlow-Gibbon, who were battling for second and third place in the group, produced a match which went the way of Trystan 11/9 20/22 11/8.
I would like to thank all parents and players for your continue support of the premier Essex Junior Grand Prix series A big thank you to The Bishops Stortford club and all their staff for making us welcome, especially club coach, Jake Byrne and Manager Andrew Mulvey.
Grand Prix 6 takes us to Colchester Garrison on Sunday 10th March 2019 where we always receive a bumper entry played across six courts, one of our show case events. We look forward to welcoming you all.
