Yesterday (Sunday 17th May) was Club finals day and we were treated to some thrilling squash with juniors at the centre of the action.
In fact it all started at the
Saturday morning session where a Club Plate semi-final was played between
Tom Symmons and
Tom Blair. Crucially this match was in old-fashioned hand-in hand-out scoring to 9. So although
Tom S. with his usual attacking flair took the first game 9:0,
Tom B. with his great mobility, fitness, and grit was able to grind out the match to 5 games. By the fifth game
Tom S. was looking worn down and was making plenty of tired errors so that
Tom B. won that game and the match 9:0 - quite a turn around!
Unfortunately for
Tom B. that success meant he had
two matches to play on the following finals day. Firstly the Plate final and then a repeat match against
Tom S. for the
Junior U16 trophy.
First off though we had the
Junior U13 final between
Jamie Sandford and
Jo Weavers. They had met before in the qualifying matches when
Jo had been too strong for
Jamie who had ended up with only a handful of points in the match. Fresh from their county U13 training that very Sunday morning with
Bob Maison they were both looking quick and sharp. And
Jamie certainly was able to get some good rallies going. But he was facing a very assured and tactically aware opponent who was the worthy winner of the match and the trophy:
Jo Weavers.
Then
Tom B. played his
Plate match. He turned out an astonishingly good performance which pushed his adult opponent
Paul Handsgate through some punishingly long rallies and took the match to 5 hard games. At one point it looked as if
Tom had finally ground his older opponent down and pushed ahead as
Paul produced a series of tired errors. But he managed to hang on and finally clinch the match when he applied enough pressure to get a similar series of errors from
Tom. With the final game so tight, this was
just enough to clinch it for the older player.
After a short rest,
Tom B. had to go on to face
Tom S. in the
Junior U16 final. This was a great match as
Tom B. faced up well to the physical demands of playing this second match. One crucial factor was that this match reverted to
junior PAR 11 scoring. So unlike their
Saturday tussle this very much favoured
Tom S.'s attacking style of play throughout. He won the first game and the tipping point was the second game where
Tom B. actually had game ball but was then pushed to a tie break. During this he lost his concentration in a rather scrappy rally and gave away a penalty stroke to lose the game.
Tom S. looked very assured after that with
Tom B. under the pressure of having to win the third game. But even then it was an excellent game of squash - impressing some of the adult spectators who have not seen our juniors in action recently.
Although losing to
Tom S. in that final,
Tom B. was justly awarded the
Cilla Fuller trophy for most improved junior, which he received from his coaching mentor
Derek Fuller, to great acclaim from his fellow juniors and club members.
Derek reminded us all the it was
Cilla who was key in starting up the junior training sessions at the club over 20 years ago so we should be just as proud of her vision as we are of our string of excellent junior players.
Thinking back just a few years
Comberton members can remember the battles between
Nils Downes and
Euan Macnamee which turned them into the quality players that they are now. Looks like
Tom Blair and
Tom Symmons will be similar duelling partners for a few years to come.
