ELISE LAZARUS marked her return to competitive action after a five-month break by winning the girls’ under-15 title at the Nottingham Squash Silver event at the weekend.
The England number one ranked age-group player from Redbridge was in a strong field but looked comfortable in the early rounds as she reacquainted herself with the demands of a competitive two-day event. However, she was fully tested in the final up against Yorkshire’s Ellen Cooper, a former English Open U-13 semi-finalist.
Cooper was dominant in the opening exchanges and took the first two games. However, Elise re-grouped, kept her composure and fought back to win the match 3-2, showing extreme resolve in the fifth after trailing 5-0.
The in-depth strength of Essex players was brilliantly highlighted by the performance of our British under-13 champion Alice Green, now competing in the under-15’s. The Billericay girl, who plays at Club Kingswood, took out the second and third seed players Karina Tyma and Cary Jones playing some of her best squash of the year. Those victories and the punishing schedule eventually took their toll but Alice and her coach will be thrilled with her sixth place finish. She looked a spent force in the 5/6th place play-off against Hertfodrshire’s Amber Marshall but will take away enormous confidence from the event.
Alice’s younger brother Oliver finished a brilliant fourth in the boys’ under-13’s after being ranked 9/16. He beat Andrew Shipley and Simon Herbert along the way, eventually losing to Sam Osborne-Wlyde, the recent U-11 boys’ English champion from Worcs, in the 3/4th play-off. Joel Braddock lost the Plate final of the BU13 after losing to Oliver in the first round. Nottingham appeared to be a tournament too far for Joel who looked a little jaded after a tough season.
Ellie Hewes finished 7th in the under-13’s in another impressive Essex performance. In the 7/8th play-off, Ellie, from Colchester, was 2-0 down and trailing 10-8 in the third to Kent’s Lottie Taylor-French, but came back to win the match 3-2. Ellie has performed that feat a few times in her fledgling career displaying a brilliant never-say-die attitude. Essex’s Amy Aspinall came 18th, but showed a real improvement in her performance and can take a great deal from the weekend.
In the under-19 boys, Jags Sehmbi had the toughest of first round matches pitched against top seed Patrick Rooney from Merseyside. But the Redbridge player came within a whisker of claiming a deserved victory and notable scalp. Jags led in 8-5 in the fifth before eventually losing 11-9 in the match of the tournament. Rooney, an England player who will be going the world juniors, swept through the rest of the event without dropping a game underlining the performance of the Essex player, who also remained unbeaten all weekend after that early reverse.