Junior Championships Showcase Future Squash Stars

The Club’s junior squash championships were held earlier this week and featured some very promising young players. We ran two round-robin events – one featuring the U15s and the other featuring both our U13 and U11 players.

In the U15s, reigning champion Alfie was determined to defend his title but faced a strong challenge from Alex and Niamh. Niamh was really focused in her two matches and performed very well, giving Alfie a real scare in their second game (with some cracking rallies!) before going down 11-3, 11-9. Alex also managed to beat Niamh 2-0 in a hard-fought tussle, and this set up the U15 final between Alfie and Alex. The final featured some long, entertaining and evenly-matched rallies, but Alfie managed to maintain his lead throughout, despite Alex trying everything he knew. And so, Alfie retained his title with a 11-6, 11-4 win.

In the younger age group, U13s Jai and Jesse proved just how much their games have come on in the last six months. In their deciding final match, Jai was slightly slower to settle than Jesse but eventually got into his stride to push Jesse all the way in the second game. Jai fought back from 9-3 down to level at 9-9. However, Jesse had the greater accuracy, particularly with his stunning forehands down the wall, and eventually triumphed 11-1, 11-9 to take the U13 title.

Our two U11s, Flo and Elliot battled hard against the older U13 boys, with Flo managing to win the second game off Jesse before eventually losing 2-1 in a hard fought, high quality and very entertaining match. In the U11 final, Elliot never stopped trying but Flo’s greater experience and range of shots was too much and she took the title 11-5, 11-5.

The U18 final will be played soon, featuring Dan vs Jonathan in what promises to be a great match.

Well played to all the players! Junior squash continues to thrive at the Club with more than 20 youngsters now taking part in our weekly coaching sessions, plus a further 10 playing in the Bedford Squash Academy at Mowsbury and a number of others in our adult box leagues. We really look forward to the next big event – the County Championships – in the Autumn.

If you would like your child to try squash then please email [email protected] and we will arrange a free taster, we run sessions on a Saturday morning. It is a wonderful sport for youngsters, with loads of skills development (ball skills, balance, agility, coordination) as well as all the fun of charging around a court at top speed and hitting a ball as hard as you can!  Note that the Bedford Squash Academy at Mowsbury is open to non-members as well as members and details can be found here.