REPORT BY DAVID HARRIS
A great weekend at the office for Essex Under 11 and Under 13 teams in the Southern & Eastern Counties Grand Prix 3 at the Connaught Club in Chingford as 3 of our 4 teams pickup medals in friendlies against Middlesex, Surrey and Kent.
Our U11 Essex B team of Sam Bennett, William Wand, Jack Tooley, Eleonore Dewey and Imogen Fincken fought bravely to finish 4th beating Middlesex but losing out to Essex A, Kent and Surrey. Meanwhile the U11 Essex A team of Armaan Sattar, Zain Mughal, Mason Miller, Amelie Brooke and Rebecca Morley defeated Kent, Middlesex and Essex B before losing out to eventual winners, Surrey. The Surrey team of Sonny Maskell, Wilf Baker, Thomas Hill, Annabelle Hill and Amelie Richardson were deserved winners taking victory in all 4 matches.
In the U13 event, both Essex A and Essex B teams defeated Surrey, Middlesex, Kent A and Kent B before playing each other in a battle for 1st and 2nd in the final team match of the day.
With only 1 point separating Essex A and Essex B going into the last match a tense battle was expected.
Palmer Deville opened proceedings beating Luke Scott-Stevens 2/0 giving Essex B an early lead. Essex A pulled level when Alice Lindsay beat Martha Hoggarth 2/0 only for Essex B to take the lead again when Jamie Brown beat Charlie Broad 2/0. The deciding match saw Renitha Srindran clinch victory for Essex B in a thrilling 2/1 victory over Deeya Ranu. Essex B then rounded off the victory with Jenson Deville battling to a 2/1 victory over Robert Wand 8/11 12/10 11/9.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the parents for bringing their juniors along to this event and to Nicola and all her staff at The Connaught Club for making us so welcome.
David Harris
Essex junior squash chairman
