Another massive weekend of squash for Essex junior players saw our young stars shine across the UK and abroad as the county’s reputation continues to grow.
In Grantham, the Essex girl’s team of Hannah Morley, Mikayla Mann and Alice Lindsay were the talk of the England Under-11 Festival as they conquered everything before them to reach the showpiece final.
Under the watchful eye of Essex coach Chris Chitty and our Junior Committee Chairman David Harris, the girls were in superb form as they dispatched Warwickshire 2 and Yorkshire seconds 3-0 in their opening sorties. Lincolnshire went the same way in the quarter-finals with all three girls producing amazing squash.
THREE-SY DOES IT: Mikayla, Alice and Hannah take a well earned rest between matches in Grantham.
A 2-1 win over Warwickshire first put them into the final and a guaranteed second place. Unfortunately, the older opposition from Yorkshire were too strong and Essex went down 3-0, disappointed but still buoyed by their performances. Coach Chris Chitty was beaming after the event.
“I can’t tell you how proud we are of the girls,” she said. “They carried themselves impeccably and were a credit to the county. Their effort and drive was fantastic, and so was some of their squash. To finish second in the country is a fabulous achievement.”
A few miles along the motorway in Nottingham, Essex fielded two boys’ teams in the Under-11 Festival. Senior county coach Lauren Selby headed the squad who were certainly put through their paces over 10 hours of non-stop action. Lauren put in as many miles as the players as she ran through a labyrinth of corridors and staircases to get from viewing gallery to courtside to give our players instructions between every game. Think she may be due a new pair of trainers out of county coffers.
Yusuf Sheikh, Josh Stephens and Edward Mason were selected to represent the Essex first team with Jacob Drew, Alex Bahhidai and Stanley Sykes looking equally strong as our second team.
NUTS ABOUT NOTTS: Lauren Selby and the two Essex U-11 teams who ran their hearts out in Nottingham
The action was frenetic and non-stop with all six players putting in performances that belied their age and experience. With the action starting at 10am, it was wonder they were still standing at 7.30pm as they walked off court for the last time. England Squash clearly believed the youngsters were up to the massive challenge, and clearly they were.
Shame then that the organisers chose to put the juniors on hard-back courts with massively restricted viewing galleries while the five glass-back show courts with huge amounts of seating were reserved for an adult Fire Service event that had no spectators. Squash moves in mysterious ways at times.
To the best of my knowledge, sadly I and a lot of parents couldn’t view most of the action due to the restricted viewing, Essex firsts made the quarters-finals and finished overall eighth while the second string were 15th in a field of 28. Another terrific performance by the county and one that drew praise from coach Selby.
“I really couldn’t have asked any more of our lads,” she said. “Not one of them gave up a single point without running their hearts out. Their level of squash was incredibly high which gives me so much confidence for next year when the nucleus of the side will be back in the same age group. We will return better and more experienced.”
Elsewhere, Essex’s England Under-15 champion Alice Green played in the Norwegian Junior Open and pulled off another fabulous win. Alice finished second in this year’s French Open and she went one better in Oslo taking the title without dropping a single game. She beat the only other non-Scandinavian player in the event, Lucinda Cross from Durham and Cleveland, in the final.
Slightly closer to home, Joel Braddock claimed one of the best win of his young career at the Bedfordshire Open when he beat the talented Joey Dawson from Middlesex on his way to fourth place in the Under-15’s, despite being just 11 years of age. Joel also took out the fourth seed.
