By PAUL ALLEN (Essex U-13 coach)
A huge congratulation’s to the boys U13 Essex team who became national champions this weekend in Nottingham at the England Squash Junior Inter-County Championships.
After the high of defeating rivals Surrey in stage two to qualify for the finals weekend, the boys were highly motivated.
They began the weekend in style with a slightly nervous but convincing 4-1 win in the semi final over a rapidly improving Northumbria side. Having come across Northumbria a couple of years ago in the U11’s it was great to see how far they had progressed.
Solid win’s at strings 1, 2, 4 and 5 for Ollie Green, Joel Braddock, Harry Martin and Ryan McCoy respectively. Unfortunately Michael Tallentire found it difficult at third string against a Northumbrian opponent who was to be honest probably on par with his team mate’s playing at strings 1 and 2.
Onto the final Sunday morning verses Essex squash’s old foe ‘Yorkshire’. We were now down to the final two county teams in the country. The national rankings of the players involved in both teams indicated the games would be close.
Ryan McCoy was once again given the nod at string 5 over his close friend Ziad Mushtaq. Ever since Ryan’s huge win verses Surrey in stage 2 he has never looked back. Known affectionately by his team mates (and team manager) as the ‘big gun’ he once again kept up his unbeaten record in this campaign with a powerful and fearless 3-0 win, this win from the ‘big gun’ would ultimately prove to be vital.
A great start for Essex was soon wiped out at 3 and 4 strings. Despite their best efforts 3-1 losses for both Michael and Harry against technically gifted and accurate Yorkshire opponents found Essex 2-1 down in the overall tie.
Although we were all now a little nervous we needn’t have been. This team is very fortunate to have England’s No.3 & No.8 ranked players in Ollie Green and Joel Braddock.
They both knew what they had to do against their lower ranked opponents. Using not just their ability and strength but also their experience at this level they both came away with convincing 3-0 wins, giving the Essex team a 3-2 victory over Yorkshire and claiming their prize as the top U13 boys county team in the whole country
Thank you to everyone involved in Essex junior squash for helping to make it happen, staff, volunteers, parents and ultimately my special players.
Well done.
Team: Ollie Green, Joel Braddock, Michael Tallentire, Harry Martin, Ryan McCoy, Zaid Mushtaq.
Essex had two other teams in action at Nottingham and both reached Sunday’s finals eventually finishing runners-up. A magnificent achievement for our Under-17 boys and Under-17 girls, whose team was made up of two U15 players and one U13.
In the National Trophy finals our Girls U15 team and Girls U13 A team both finished runners up whilst our Girls U13 B team came third.
Full reports of those matches will be posted as soon as details are received.
