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30th Dec, 3
Days to go ...
The Drysdale Cup
 The
Drysdale Cup is the trophy that the U19 Boys
have competed for since 1926, starting with
CJ Wilson from Repton, and followed
by many stars of past and present
generations.
A word of warning to the 2016 winner - the
Cup has been known to come off the base, as
a few recent winners have discovered, so be
careful !!!
All about the Drysdale Cup |
All about the Drysdale Cup |
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29th Dec, 4 Days to go ...
Three Clubs
This
year's BJO again takes place at three
Sheffield Clubs - Abbeydale and
Hallamshire (who will be hosting the
event for a 21st year) and Fulwood,
with finals day at Abbeydale.
And all three are gong to be busy, busy,
busy ... |
28th Dec, 5
Days to go ...
Top seeds on a
mission
After a Christmas break, countdown is back
with a look at some of this year's top
contenders ...
The U9/U17 top seeds - Nouran Gohar,
Hania El Hammamy, Youssef Soliman and
Youssef Ibrahim - will be looking to add
to their BJO title collection, while the
U13/U15 draw toppers - Nour Aboulmakarim,
Jana Shiha, Sam Todd and Mostafa Asal -
are all aiming for a first BJO title.
In recent years (from 2010) the top seeds
have taken 29 of 48 available titles (2015
was the best with 7, 2011 the worst with 1),
how many will come through this time ...
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24th Dec, 9 Days to go ...
A little something extra
There's
sometimes an exhibition math laid on on
semi-finals day - this one from 2012 between
Peter Nicol and Thierry Lincou was a
classic.
We don't know what's in store this year, but
we'll let you know ... |
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23rd Dec, 10
Days to go ...
Best of Enemies
You
may be from the same country, on the same
team, you may heve been playing each other
since you were tiny, but all that goes out
of the window for the duration of your match
...
 Salma
Hany Ibrahim and Nouran Gohar
played in the U19 semi-finals last year,
Nouran saving three match balls on her way
to winning in five games before taking the
title the next day - again in five, against
Mariam Metwally.
They would go on later in the year to
contest the world juniors, where Salma had
match balls in the semi-final (against
Habiba Mohamed) and Nouran won the
title, before teaming up to retain the team
title for Egypt.
That team final was Salma's last junior
match, Mariam is also out of age now and
Habiba is injured, but Nouran is back this
year to defend her title |
Egypt's World Junior Team
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Last year's all-Egyptian semi and final
five-setters |
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22nd Dec, 11
Days to go ...
You can't do it on
your own
However good you are, you're going to need
some help and support from your coaches,
parents and friends if you want to do well
at the BJO ...
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21st Dec, 12
Days to go ...
Behind the scenes
It takes a lot of organising, and many of
the staff, volunteers and referees in these
photos from 2005-2010 were doing those jobs
since well before then, are still doing it
now, and are appeciated by all ...
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20th Dec, 13
Days to go ...
Some change more
than others
The BJO is a tournament that many players
(along with their coaches and parents) spend
their formative and growing years competing
in ...
And as you can see from these photos from
2005, 2006 and 2007, some grow and change
more than others ...
Can you recognise them all ??? |
19th Dec, 14
Days to go ...
Going
for the spectacular
There's
bound to be some great action in Sheffield
in the New Year, and a few players will be
taking to the air to make their point - but
it's unlikely anyone will dive more often
than Karim El Hammamy did in his 2013
semi-final.
That day it wasn't enough as Karim lost out
to eventual champion Fares Dessouki, but he
did get his revenge in the World Junior
final in Poland later in the year.
We have some other dives and stretches, from
Salma, Kanzy and Nour and others, but we'll
save them for later ...
also today : the
DRAWS are out |
Karim's Dives |
18th Dec, 15
Days to go ...
The
Group
Selfie
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They may not
have had mobile phones back in 2006, but the
competitors were just as keen on getting
group shots to show off (or on).
We'll be
setting up an area where you can post your
own selfies for 2016 - with some token
prizes on offer - where we can all show off
together, so get your thinking caps on ...
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17th Dec, 16
Days to go ...
Flashback to 2005
 Or
maybe it's 'back to the future' as the
Egyptian contingent did rather well in 2005
- you may recognise some of them !
In the finals were Tarek Momen (B19), Omar
Mosaad (B17), Raneem El Welily (G17), Ahmed
Osama Hawas (B15), Heba El Torky and Aliaa
Balba (G15), Nour El Tayeb and Abdel
Megid (G13).
The photo of finals day though (by Fritz
Borchert)was Pakistan's Basit Ashfaq winning
the B19 title.
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Finals day 2005 report
(photos are missing) |
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16th Dec, 17
Days to go ...
Who's coming to
Sheffield ?
The draws for the 2016 events will be
available shortly, but you can have a look
at who's coming to Sheffield in the entry
lists for the eight events - 416
players in all.
No surprise that England have the
most entrants, and that Egypt has a
full complement of five in all of the events
(six in one), but there are a few surprises
in there, such as an entrant from Reunion
Island and 39 from the USA - from
a total of 32 countries represented -
time to get those flags checked!
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Draws & Schedules |
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14th Dec, 19
days to go ...
Great British Hopes
Here's the 2016 Poster, featuring Patrick
Rooney and Georgina Kennedy.
 Patrick
(@Patrick_Rooney2),
18 years old, is from Merseyside and
this year has won the U19 events at the
Dutch Junior Open and the English Junior
Champs, and reached the third round in the
World Juniors.
In this year's BJO he lost in the third
round to Kush Kumar, and in 2014 finished
4th in the U17.
 Georgina
(@ginakennedyy)
also 18, is from Kent and this year has won
the London U23 Open, the Dutch Open, and the
English, British (closed) and European
Junior titles, and reached the quarters of
the World Juniors.
In this year's BJO she reached the Quarters,
losing to Salma Hany, and also reached the
quarters of the U17 in 2014. |
English Junior Champions |
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