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Inter Area Junior Championships 2009
18-19 April, Birmingham |
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London take Inter-Area
title
Mike Harris reports
London caused a surprise by becoming the overall IAC 2009
Champions which took place last weekend at the Edgbaston
Priory Club and Munrow Sports Centre at the University of
Birmingham.
London’s win was even more impressive as they only won 1 of
the 7 titles on offer, the East who come a very close 2nd
won the 3 titles but it was London who were consistent
across the board with their lowest placing was 5th.
London’s only win came in the Mixed U11, Charlie Lee,
Curtis Malik, Peter Berkley, Jack Webster, Amelia Henley and
Bryony Smith put on a dazzling display throughout the event,
then beating a very classy team from the South West in the
Final.
THE FINAL MIXED U11
Two very talented girls began the Final, Amelia Henley
(Kent) versus Elin Jones (Gloucestershire), both players put
on a fantastic display of athleticism and sheer
determination but it was Henley who triumphed with hard
fought 3-0 win. The match was followed by the 1st of three
five set matches, unfortunately the gallery was so packed I
couldn’t see the match but Graeme Williams, London Coach
said “it was a cracker of a match!” Jack Webster (Surrey)
defeated Nathan Woodhead (Devon) 14-12 in the 5th.
On the other court the No.3 strings Peter Berkley (Sussex)
was up against Alex Lane (Gloucestershire). Berkley looking
very determined raced in to a 2 game lead but in the 3rd
game, Lane showed again why the South West are region not to
be underestimated, he forced his way back in to the game
with some great front court play and some incredible pick
ups, the pressure told on Berkley who made a few errors and
match was now on.
The 4th game was much the same and the
pendulum had well a truly swung back in favour of the Lane
who took the 4th. The decider saw Berkley fly out the blocks
and into an early lead; this seemed to knock Lane who had no
answers to the rejuvenated Berkley who closed out this
exception match.
With London having an unassailable lead in the overall
match, it would have been easy for the No.1 strings Charlie
Lee (Surrey) and Ruoshan Yau (Avon) to take it a bit easier
on each other………..NO CHANCE!!!!!
Lee and Yau put on a
display of squash that would have graced any major
championship final. Yau started the quicker and took the
first easily, Lee then found his rhythm and deft touch in
the front corners to take the 2nd and 3rd games, there
didn’t look any way back for Yau but in the 4th he dug deep
and found the strength and forced a number of errors from
Lee. Like Berkley the fifth saw Lee fly into an early lead
and though Yau fought valiantly to close the gap, it was too
late.
The final match between Curtis Malik (Sussex) and
Ryan
Wilson (Gloucestershire) was heading for another 5 set
thriller, Malik was fired up and took the 1st game
convincingly but with Wilson game point in the 2nd game,
Malik took a tumble and bashed his hip against the sidewall,
the match unfortunately came to an end due to the injury.
The quality of squash in this match was fantastic, the
passion and desire of every player was impressive, both
teams should be very proud and so should all the other U11’s
who took part. |
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SOUTH WEST GIRLS U13
Third time lucky for the U13 South West Girls! - The
Girls U13 South West team have been together for a
remarkable 3 years now! At the first time of asking they
finished an impressive 4th, bettered last year with a 2nd
place finish and finally managing this year to clinch the
top spot as deserved winners!
Their opponents in the final were to be the North East, made
up of the England no.1 Lucy Beecroft with Tilly Spence and
Emma Haley at 2 and 3 respectively. All players battled hard
with Kip Quiney (SW#2) taking the deciding rubber to win the
match 2-1 for the South West. |
"The tournament has been really well
run and great fun. The squash has been great but we’ve made loads of
new friends too!"...
... "Yeah that’s true actually, we have!’ Just going to show that
winning a national event is all well and good but if you can make
friends along the way it’s even more fun!"
(SW#1) |
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U13 Boys Championship was
won by East Mids beating
South East 3-2 in the final.
The match didn’t start well for
the East Mids when Huw Riddall (Buckinghamshire) defeated
Thomas Cooper 3-0 and Tom Kirby (Hampshire) beat
Harry
Falconer 3-2.
The East Mids comeback began when England U13
No.1 George Parker (Derbyshire) defeated Jamie Wilkinson
(Hampshire) and James Blythe defeated Joe Yerrell both 3-0,
the decider came down to Adam Turner (Derbyshire) versus
Jack Payne (Hampshire).
Turner started the brighter and looked more comfortable in
his surroundings and after winning the first game he and the
East Mids Team never looked back to take the match 3-0 and
the U13 title.
The U15 Girls Championship saw the favourites Mid
West up against East and again the Final lived up to its
billing going down to the wire.
Lucy Pallett (Warwickshire)
began the final confidently defeating Emma Payne (Essex)
3-0. The No.1 string saw the British No.2 Chloe Pearson
(Warwickshire) up against the England No.3 Brogan Lane
(Hertfordshire), the match swung back and forth, with both
players fighting hard for every point but also hitting as
many winners as errors but for the spectators it added to
the excitement and tension.
In the 5th Lane held her nerve
and saw out the match leaving the deciding match in the
hands of her team mate Anna Kimberley (Essex) who again was
up against the favourite Alicia Mead (Warwickshire).
Kimberley who is one of the most improved players this
season certainly wasn’t fazed by her opponent or the
occasion, looked physically and mentally strong, putting
together some excellent rally’s, she kept the pressure on
the tenacious Mead who wasn’t going down without a fight but
in the end Kimberley came through strongest to win the match
3-0 and take the title for the East.
The U15 Boys Championship saw two heavyweight teams
pitted against each other in the final, London versus the
East.
The first matches saw Jonny Brown (Surrey) up against
Harry Faulkner ( ) and Stuart Allcock (Sussex) against
Angus Gilliams (Hertfordshire). Faulkner started brightly and took
the first game, Brown came back strongly in the second to
level the match but Faulkner was building the pressure and
was now forcing errors out of Brown who didn’t have the
answers, 1-0 to the East.
On the other court the much
improved Allcock was finding the resilience of Gilliams hard
to break down. The match swung back and forth but after a
hard fought battle Allcock came through 3-2 and tie was
level at 1-1.
The next match saw the No.4 Andrew Taylor
(Middlesex) against Josh Ryan (Hertfordshire), with the
score even at 1-1, Ryan sensed Taylor was suffering and
turned the screw on his opponent who didn’t have a response,
with Ryan winning 3-1 and the Match score at 2-1 to the East
, everybody’s attention turned across to see the No.1
strings Ritchie Fallows (Essex) who was recently selected to
compete for England in the U15 European Team Championships
in May, up against a resurgent Cameron Western (Sussex).
The
match was played at a high pace and like the Faulkner/Brown
match Fallow’s seemed to have the edge over Western who had
to work incredibly hard to win each of his points. Fallow’s
sensed this and pushed even harder to take the match 3-1 and
the title to the East. The last match saw Harry Taylor
(Norfolk) defeat Josh Masters 3-1 in the dead rubber. |
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Tamila keeps her cool for the North West GU17!
What a performance this weekend by the North West U17
girls!!
Up
until the final not one of them had lost a match, though
they had the toughest test yet, coming up against an in form
South West team made up of Rebecca Quiney, Rebecca Epke and
Emily Penkett. Two of who had just watched their little
sisters win the U13’s event! Unfortunately for them they
could not repeat this feat even though 3rd string Emily
(nat. Ranking #17) started with a tense 3-2 win over a gutsy
Rachel Kennon (ranked #31).
This left the North West team with no room for mistakes in
the last 2 rubbers.
Captain Lucy Townley (NW#1) was on next against Rebecca Quiney, this was a serious pressure match, two of the
countries best girls, ranked no.’s 3 & 5 in the country
respectively. One looking to keep her team in the match, the
other looking to take the title! Rebecca had recently won
their last encounter so there was a plenty to do for Lucy to
keep her team’s hopes alive. Boy did she make up for it when
it mattered though as she hauled her team back to 1 -1 after
defeating a resilient Rebecca 3-1 in a closely fought match.
Game on......all to play for!
All the pressure was now on the #2’s, Lauren Tamila vs
Rebecca Epke, who could stay composed to become the
champions?! On paper Lauren was favourite though no-one was
counting their chickens as Rebecca was more than capable of
unsettling her and claiming the title for the South West.
Lauren however remained cool as ice and saw out a tough 3
games to clinch victory for the North West 2-1 overall in
what was a great team performance by the girls! |
"I’m so pleased we’ve won it,
I’ve played in this event every year without winning so I’m
just so happy to have won it in my last year!
We’ve played
well in every match and had that consistency right the way
through to the final.
A massive thank you to the girls and
to Becky (Botwright) who’s coached us all weekend!"
Captain |
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"The whole match was played in a great
competitive spirit and I couldn’t ask for anything more from the
team.
It’s been a great weekend and an honour to play with the other boys,
I couldn’t have asked for a better team to finish my last year with
- XX"
South West Captain
"The lads have been consistent over the whole weekend all
the way down the order, we’ve a real strength in depth as you can
see from the final and we’d all like to thank Bob for bringing us
this far"
East Captain
"My Eastern teams were fantastic and gave me everything.
The
girls u13 were so nervous they were physically shaking in
between games; the u17 girls were struggling for form having
had to spend so much time revising for upcoming exams and
the u17 boys were feeling the pressure as one of the
favourites."
Eastern Coach |
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East BU17 too strong in depth
for the South West!
This final created a lot of interest as it was anyone’s
guess who would come out as champions. South West no.1,
Nathan Lake, is hitting peak form ready to represent England
in the European Championships next month in Spain and was
favourite to pip the East Captain, Niall Engerer, at 1
string.
Very few could call the other rubbers though and
Niall was instrumental in creating a real team spirit which
undoubtedly transferred on to court for the Eastern boys.
The East we’re out the bocks the quickest, starting
extremely well and racing to a hugely advantageous 2-0 lead.
These matches would prove to be decisive as Declan Osborn
(E#5) fought hard in beating James Watkins 3-1.
Whilst on the other court Ross Brown (E#3) was holding his
nerve at 1-2 down and 7-10 match ball down against James
Ryan who was ‘playing out of his skin’ according to Captain
Nathan. Ross was proving to be his usual stubborn self, ‘so
focused and would just not go away’ coach Bob Maison
pointing out.
The South West referee, Tom Ford, showed great sportsmanship
in the tie break overturning a stroke against Ross given by
the East marker to allow Ross the opportunity to take it to
a 5th game. He did so and then went on to win and leave the
East in the driving seat needing just 1 win from the
remaining 3 matches.
Nathan dually made it 2-1 leaving the South West with a real
chance now but needing to win both remaining rubbers at #2
and #4. Nick Mulvey (E#2) has been playing the best squash
of his life over the past few months and was always going to
give Tom Ford a lot to do to keep the South West in the
match. ‘Fordy’ held strong though and showed real composure
under a lot of pressure from Nick, finally edging it 3-1.
Sadly for the South West this was all too late as the
deciding match had just finished on the next court. Two very
strong no.4’s had been fighting it out, the Eastern boy, Tim
Dixon putting in an assured final performance by seeing off
Scott Young in a far from easy 3 sets to maintain both his
team and personal 100% record over the 4 matches!
The East were victorious, 3-2, with team coach Bob Maison
over the moon having added to the boys and girls U15’s
titles at Edgbaston, hence making it 3 events out of a
possible 7, the most victories for any region! |
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FINALLY...
If this weekend was anything to go by, then Squash is
definitely on the up, the quality of squash on show was
exceptional, there was hunger and passion on court, the
support shown by all the players and parents up in the
gallery was fantastic and the behaviour on and off court was
exemplary.
“The National and Area Academy Programmes offers World Class
Coaching and the IAC 2009 offers players the opportunity to
compete against the best in the country without the pressure
of ranking points, this event has once again shown that on
any given Sunday with the right attitude and mentality
anything is possible.”
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Day Two in Quotes & Photos
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Robbie Williamson (North
West) lost 3-2 to Jack Alcock (Mid West).
Robbie struggled to sustain his play throughout the games –
he kept building up a good lead but then struggled to finish
the games off.
In the fourth Robbie had match points at 7-10 but in the end
he was just ‘too tired.’ |
David
wardle (London) bt Adam Auckland (East Midlands)
3-2
David thought he played pretty well today particularly after
some tough games yesterday. In his match against Adam he was
forced to come back from 1-2 down to take the match in 5
thus continuing his reputation as ‘the come back kid’!
The weekend was really enjoyable as a large number of the
top players were taking part. |
Roisin McNeil (South
East) bt Claire Henegahn (Mid West )3-0
Roisin is certain she will have to go on court more focused
from the start if she is to get a result in her final match.
She thought she was just a little of her usual pace and was
pleased to be able to get a result. |
Grace
Gear came to the tournament desk ‘exhausted’ after a
tough weekend of squash representing the U13’s East team at
#2 string.
10 year old Grace won all 4 of her matches even though she,
impressively, still has 2 more years in the age group!
The toughest came against Alice Harvey (West Mids)
who gave Grace a serious scare nearly coming back from 2-0
down before the Eastenerregained composure to see the match
out in a 5 set thriller saying afterwards ‘Alice is very
difficult to play as she has such a great reach and her
ability to use either hand is really tough to play against’. |
Lily Taylor (East
Midlands) bt Elizabeth Parkes (Mid West) 3-1
What a great game... Elizabeth thought she played well in
the first two games, moving Lily around the court well and
reading the game fantastically. The second was an epic
battle with Elizabeth taking it 18-16!
Lily stepped her game up in the 3rd getting off to a great
start and keeping the ball long. |
Catherine Finleyson (#2 South East) bt Roxanne
Resitavarz 3-0
Catherine felt her game wasn’t the tightest this morning and
Roxanne was returning a lot of her shots well, quite a few
surprised Catherine as she wasn’t expecting them to come
back. |
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Day One Edgbaston Results
Day One Munrow Results |
IAC under way in Birmingham
The Inter-Area Championships this year are being held across
joint England Squash & Racketball Gold Charter Clubs
Edgbaston Priory and University of Birmingham; hailed as one
of the largest junior squash team competitions in the world
with the top 296 players covering all 8 regions across
England.
This year has been extremely successful, particularly with
the introduction of a mixed under-11 category and the use of
the new England Squash & Racketball Development coaches. The
day has been smooth running with exceptional behaviour from
all players and a tremendously high standard of play from
under-11 right through to under-17.
On Sunday everyone is anticipating a nail-biting finish to
each match, with regional teams competing to be crowned the
best in the country. |
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IAC
Day One in Photos & Quotes ... |
Chris Vine (East Midlands) seen giving a talk between
games to Tim Richards (3) explaining to Tim to play
tighter squash from the back, have more self belief and
don’t be afraid to take the ball in short. (Which must have
worked as Tim went on to comfortably win the 4th game!)
James Powley (East) talking to Lawrence Green
(1) after a nervy first match. He turned Lawrence around
into more positive thinking and bringing his game back to
basics with which the player agreed. |
Dave Hymas (North East) during his team talk with
under-11 players. In undoubtedly the quote of the
tournament, Dave stated that “It’s not about the size of
the dog in a fight, it’s about the size of the fight in the
dog...”
After losing 5-0 to London in the first match the only way
was up for this team.
Graham Williams (London) with Tom Bailey (2)
at 1-1 with his South East opponent. Graham was keen to nip
Tom’s despondency in the bud getting him to focus on the
next game and not about the previous games. |
Lucy Beecroft, North East
U13’s
Lucy is ranked number one in England. We managed to catch
her after a 3-1 win over Elizabeth Parkes. Lucy modestly
stated that the games are going fine and that the team re
playing well.
They are hoping to come first. She has been watching James
Earls and Oliver Hollard and is impressed with what she’s
seen and as a whole is enjoying the whole competition. |
Lilly Taylor, East Midlands
U13’s
Lilly had just beaten Hannah Daly, a player who Lilly say’s
has improved alot since last time she played her’.
The team have high morale despite losing to the North East
this morning and are aiming to finish second in their group.
She has been so focused on her own game she hasn’t even
watched any of the other games today! |
Simon Retter (South East) establishing basic tactics
with his under-11’s mixed team, interacting with each team
member by drawing on the positives from the previous match
and getting them to apply this to their next matches against
the East Midlands.
Kirsty McPhee (East Mids) team talk to under-11’s
(mixed) picking them up after their loss in the morning,
confirming their team order and urging them to work hard and
to stay hydrated. |
Jon Tate (Mid West) with Cameron Wilson (2)
after losing his first game due to hitting too many loose
balls. Jon steered him to straighten the ball up and Cameron
was pleased to hear he was playing well despite not
believing in himself on court.
Cameron is just 10 years of age playing number 2 for the
under 13’s, so he has a lot to be proud of. |
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Vicky Hynes (Mid West) giving her team talk to the
Mid West under-11 mixed,
emphasising the enjoyment factor (yet the team still wanted
to emphasize the importance of the win...) |
James Earls, U17 (NE)
bt Ollie Holland (EM) and David Wardle (Lon)
James deservedly felt that he had played extremly well
throughout the first day but was confident there was more to
come.
“I was happy with the way I attacked and defended in both
matches but can still tighten up one or two aspects of my
game. If I can do that tomorrow, I hope to leave the
Championships having won all 4 of my matches”.
Hopefully the team can finish in the top four. |
Alice
Harvey ,Mid West U13’s
Alice Harvey doesn’t feel like this morning has gone very
well, however she seems to be winning her current game with
some greatly placed shots.
Alice said the Mid West are pretty happy and amining to
finish first. She amazingly has 2 false legs and stil makes
playing squash look easy! Well done Alice.
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London U17’s boys
The boy’s disappointingly lost their first match to a strong
side from the Eastern region, but they remain optimistic and
are very happy with how the team is playing.
Their team quote is
‘Chase the trophy, not the competition’. |
Emily Penkett, South West
U17’s
Emily fought a tough match and came out the winner from 2-0,
to 2 all to finally winning the last match 11-8.
Emily was happy with the result as she didn’t expect to win
at all. Team morale is high and they are ‘in it to win it’. |
IAC 2009 – The Largest Junior
Team Event in the World ???
Preview from Mike Harris
This weekend 18th – 19th April, England Squash & Racketball
are delighted to be running possibly the largest junior
squash team event in the world ...
The Inter Area Championships which is taking place at the
Edgbaston Priory and Munrow Sports Centre,
University of Birmingham is fast becoming one of England
Squash & Racketball flagship junior events, with 296
players from the eight regions competing against each
other, categories include girls and boys U13/U15/U17 plus we
are delighted to be introducing a Mixed U11 event.
IAC 2009 is part of the ever widening England Squash &
Racketball Area Academy Junior Programme which this year has
been mentoring talented young players, through a stimulating
& creative coaching and competition structure. We believe
players can develop to their full potential if they are
given direction and belief.
Area Academy players are receiving world class coaching from
Academy Directors Mike Harris, Annette Pilling, David
Duncalf and from our team of Area Coaches, Area Assistants
and Development Coaches.
Some of England’s current crop of senior World Class Players
are products of the Area Coaching system and we strongly
believe we can produce players who will fill their shoes in
the future.
 "The
IAC 2009 is a huge and exciting event, this has the feel of
a top class team event and for many of these players it
could be a stepping stone to representing their country.
Good Luck to all players and we hope you will have the best
weekend of squash possible."
England Squash & Racketball Academy Director
Groups
2008 Placings |
800 Kids for US
High School Champs
Over 800 players,
representing over 100 teams from 16 states descended upon
Connecticut this past weekend for the 2009 U.S. High School
Team Squash Championships. The High School Championships,
conceived in 2004, have grown to become the largest squash
event in the world.
Event Format
Saturday Schedules
Sunday Schedules
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