REPORT BY DAVID HARRIS
Woodford Wells Squash Club staged the penultimate round of the 2014/2015 Essex Junior Squash Grand Prix series on Sunday, an event designed to provide competition for the next generation of young players.
Aimed at youngsters who have yet to wear county colours, the Grand Prix competition is being staged over six months at five different venues with points from each event counting towards an overall total.
A record number of entrants for GP4 meant the schedule was hectic to complete in the 6 hours available but thanks to some pro-active management by the EJS Committee, all games were completed earlier than scheduled.
Year 10 winner Mary-Kate Lavery
Year 8 and under winner Henna Kaur Ranu
The girls’ Year 10 and Under was a very competitive affair, as always, but was boosted by entry from Walthamstow (Pradyna Chaudhari) to the regular four girls from Woodford Wells, Mary Kate Lavery, Isabelle Locke, Anna Bantock and Catherine Lilyanagama.
As always in this group, the squash was extremely close and Pradyna made her presence known by pushing all the girls hard, in particular her match against our current series leader Mary Kate Lavery, went all the way with Lavery emerging victorious 11/8 8/11 12/10. This victory and her defeat of Anna Bantock proved to be enough for Lavery to take the Girls Year 10 title for the third successive event.
The girls’ Year 8 and Under category was again contested hotly by our two new players to the GP series. Henna Kaur Ranu taking the honours with Daisy Newton from Mersea finishing runner up. Both girls are making great strides with improvements to their game all of which was visible since Bishops Stortford.
The girls’ Year 6 category and Under was boosted by new entrants from Woodford Wells and the return of Renitha Srindran from Redbridge, such that organisers had to separate the girls into two groups. In the group, India Shepperson (pictured above) making her debut in the series, swept all before her without losing a game on her way to the group win. In the Red group, Olivia Broderick upped her game from the last GP at Bishops Stortford to claim the group win with Renitha finishing 2nd.
In the Boys’ Year 6 and Under category 12 entries meant the group had to be split into two. With the top four from this age group in action it was clear one or two of those players would start to edge away at the top of the group tables. The year group also saw the introduction of players from Walthamstow who were sure to test the mettle of the established Juniors.
In the Red group Charlie Broad saw off his nearest challenger in Sebastian Waugh with a highly entertaining 2-0 win 11/7 13/11 but as expected, Jai Chaudhari from Walthamstow caused an upset by finishing second in the group after a battling display against group winner Broad. The match between these two youngsters had the crowd in raptures as Charlie won 2-1 10/12 11/3 11/7.
Blue Group winner Daniel Caton
Luke Woolridge won the boys’ Year 10 and under
In the Blue group Daniel Caton enhanced his reputation by seeing off series leader Oliver Harris 11/7 11/6. Once again our newbie from Walthamstow upset the establish group by taking victories against leading lights in the series to finish the day third in the group behind Daniel and Finlay Ryan.
In the Boys’ Year 8 and under category, a four way battle ensued with local lad and new to the GP series Joe Shepperson from Woodford Wells. This completed a nice double for the Shepperson family with India winning the Girls Year 6 & Under earlier in the day.
The Boys Year 10 and Under category turned into a battle between the current Year 10 series leader, Luke Woolridge and new boy, Varun Shah from Walthamstow. Both Luke and Varun had taken maximum points leading up to their clash late in the day for what would be a group decider. Both played some high quality length shots to the back of the court, but Varun’s extra power caused Luke early problems. The lad from Marconi adjusted well to the pressure and adapted his returns well to the power of the lad from Walthamstow and as the game went on, his match experience began to show with Luke eventually winning the decider 11/8 11/7.
The final round of 2014/2015 sees the EJS Grand Prix move to The Garrison in Colchester on Sunday 3rd May. Entry can be completed online at www.essexjuniorsquash.com
GRAND PRIX 3 RESULTS
Girls Year 6 and Under Blue Group
1st India Shepperson, 2nd Renitha Srindran, 3rd Anna Daniel
Girls Year 6 and Under Red Group
1st Olivia Broderick, 2nd Grace Knox, 3rd Olivia Knox
Girls Year 8 and Under
1st Henna Kaur Ranu, 2nd Daisy Newton
Girls Year 10 and Under
1st Mary-Kate Lavery, 2nd Anna Bantock, 3rd Pradyna Chaudhari
Boys Year 6 and Under – RED Group
1st Charlie Broad, 2nd Jai Chaudhari, 3rd Sebastian Waugh
Boys Year 6 and Under BLUE Group
1st Daniel Caton, 2nd Finlay Ryan, 3rd Akash Shah
Boys Year 8 and Under
1st Joe Shepperson, 2nd Matthew McCormick, 3rd Fin Guest
Boys Year 10 and Under
1st Luke Woolridge, 2nd Varun Shah
Essex Junior Grand Prix Series – Standings after GP4
| Girls Year 6 and under | Kingswood | Lexden | BishopsStortford | Woodford Wells | Total | |
| Alice Lindsay | 6 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 12 | |
| Brooke Smith | 4 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 11 | |
| Olivia Broderick | 0 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 10 | |
| Anna Daniel | 0 | 0 | 4 | 3 | 7 | |
| Rosie Mortimer | 2 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 6 | |
| RenithaSrindran | 0 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 6 | |
| DeeyaKaurRanu | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 5 | |
| IndiaShepperson | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 5 | |
| Grace Knox | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 4 | |
| Lara Newton | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
| Olivia Knox | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | |
| SophieBrame | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| AnahKassam | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Girls Year 8 and under | Kingswood | Lexden | BishopsStortford | Woodford Wells | Total | |
| Henna KaurRanu | 0 | 0 | 6 | 4 | 10 | |
| Daisy Newton | 0 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 6 | |
| Libby Connor | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | |
| Girls Year 10 and under | Kingswood | Lexden | BishopsStortford | Woodford Wells | Total | |
| Mary-KateLavery | 0 | 16 | 16 | 16 | 48 | |
| AnnaBantock | 0 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 36 | |
| Isabelle Locke | 0 | 10 | 10 | 6 | 26 | |
| CatherineLilyanagama | 0 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 24 | |
| PradnyaChaudhari | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 10 |
| Boys Year 6 and under | Kingswood | Lexden | BishopsStortford | Woodford Wells | Total | |
| Oliver Harris | 3 | 4 | 7 | 3 | 17 | |
| DanielCaton | 0 | 5 | 6 | 6 | 17 | |
| Charlie Broad | 4 | 0 | 7 | 6 | 17 | |
| Sebastian Waugh | 0 | 6 | 6 | 4 | 16 | |
| Finley Ryan | 0 | 0 | 4 | 5 | 9 | |
| Matthew McCormick | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 8 | |
| Ross Jordan | 0 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 8 | |
| BenjaminKelling-Reis | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 5 | |
| JaiChaudhari | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 5 | |
| Joshua Cheadle | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 | |
| JoeRampton | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 4 | |
| OliverDavonport | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 | |
| AkashShah | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 4 | |
| Williams Sanders | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3 | |
| Max Harris | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3 | |
| Eddie Harris | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3 | |
| Joe Douglas | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| ZakKassam | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | |
| Max Newton | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Jamie Smith | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Boys Year 8 and under | Kingswood | Lexden | BishopsStortford | Woodford Wells | Total | |
| Fin Guest | 0 | 0 | 8 | 6 | 14 | |
| BastianKelling-Reis | 0 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 10 | |
| Joshua Lambert | 0 | 0 | 6 | 4 | 10 | |
| JoeShepperson | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 10 | |
| Ben Long | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | |
| Thomas Munn | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| Boys Year 10 and under | Kingswood | Lexden | BishopsStortford | Woodford Wells | Total | |
| Luke Woolridge | 10 | 16 | 12 | 16 | 54 | |
| AdrianDibattista | 16 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 24 | |
| Edward Brown | 0 | 0 | 16 | 0 | 16 | |
| David Munn | 12 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12 | |
| Erik Shu | 0 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 12 | |
| Varun Shah | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 12 | |
| Stephen Barry | 0 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 10 | |
| Ben Long | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 | |
| Matt Gibson | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 6 |
WWW.ESSEXJUNIORSQUASH.COM
