Thrilling finals day

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.