DAVID HARRIS reporting
The second round of 6 Counties Squash Grand Prix series organised by Essex Junior Squash took place this weekend Sunday 13th December with U11 and U13 teams from Kent, Middlesex, Suffolk, Surrey and Essex battling for honours.
Played at the Ipswich Squash Club the series has been set up to feature Inter County Squad players on the fringe of selection for their main squads.
In the U11 category our Essex team, featuring Jacob Drew, Lara Newton, Alex Banhidai, Renitha Srindran and Josh Stephens, came within one match of winning their age group. Having beaten Middlesex 4-1, Surrey 5-0 and Suffolk 4-1, a winner takes all clash was setup with Ken,t who had earlier beaten the same three counties 5-0 in each of their matches.
Jacon Drew and coach Lauren Selby talk tactics during the 6-Counties competition
The match started well for Essex with Jacob Drew coming back from 0-1 down to beat a very impressive Alessandro Mutti 2-1 taking games 2 and 3 11/7 & 11/8. Lara Newton went down to the pocket rocket that is Lottie Hill 3/11, 2/11 before Alex Banhidai restored Essex’s lead with a well crafted 2-0 over Ryan Slater 11/5 11/8.
Ella Tunon from Kent, having won the Mega series event the previous day, proved too strong for Renitha Srindran, defeating the Essex girl 3/11, 7/11.
This setup the boys number 1 match as the U11 group decider. An incredibly hard fought first game saw Jude Gibbon prevail 12/10 over Josh Stephens of Essex. Josh came out ready to do battle in the second game but Jude changed tactics early on and opened at 5/0 lead and despite a heroic fight back, Kent went on to win 11/5 and the U11 category.
Another great weekend of performances from our budding stars; Jacob Drew dropping only one game on his way to four wins; Alex Banhidai dropping no games on his way to four wins and Josh Stephens winning 3 of his 4 games playing 1. Both Renitha and Lara continue to improve on their performances and win games against more experience opponents.
In the U13 category the Essex team of Aidan Cahill, Libby Connor, Yusuf Sheikh, Sophie Brame and Brandon Higgins-Pearce were in even more dominant form winning their matches 4-1 against Surrey and Kent followed by a 3-2 defeat of Middlesex, topping the table by 16 points.
Aidan, Yusuf and Brandon won all 9 of their matches with the loss of only 1 game showing the strength in depth Essex have in this boys age category.
Sophie Brame, who was struggling with sickness all weekend, refused to let her team mates down and battle hard for wins in the opening two games before her she finally gave in to illness, but not until after she fought her way through a 2/3 loss in the final match.
This weekend also saw a welcome return to county duty for Libby Connor who has been out of action for 3 months with a knee injury. She played hard but her lack of match practice showed. We are sure she will be back to full match fitness shortly but for now, it was great to see her back on court.
A massive thank you to Emily Ison and all at Ipswich Squash Club for letting us take over their facilities for the day.
Round 3 of 4 will be held at Bexley Squash Club on Sunday 28th February 2016.
