On Saturday afternoon we played the U16 age category of the
Agricole senior-junior doubles tournament. This is kindly sponsored by
Jeremy Cole's Agricole Ltd company. Teams included high quality senior junior pairings of the calibre of
Derek Fuller and
Tom Blair the defending champions and also some family teams. We also had guest appearance a quality father-son pairing of
Paul and Mike Jordan from Hunts County.
In the first round
Steve and Jack Murphy were knocked out by
Julia Dolman and Chris Shaw while
Colin Walker and Sam Prime were beaten by
Dave and Jo Weavers.
Julia and Chris were then beaten by the defending Champions
Derek Fuller and Tom Blair who won through the the final by then successfully taking on the amazing combination of
Chris Agg's power with
Sam Bradshaw's flair and quickness.
In the lower part of the draw
Mike Macnamee and Jamie Sandford knocked out
Andy and Will Thorne but were then beaten by team
Jordan to set up the second semifinal against
Martyn and Tom Symmons.
Martyn and Tom had earlier beaten the wild card maverick pairing of
Nick Hipwell (playing as a senior) with young
Will Collett.
Nick and Will had knocked out
Ashok and Sachin Babbar in the first round despite some concern that they were bending the rules about the inter-generational nature of the competition.
Will calling
Nick 'Dad' between points just didn't convince the spectators!
After an exciting semifinal with team
Symmons just edging the visitors team
Jordan out of the tournament we were set for the final. First though we had an exciting Plate final between
Steve and Jack Murphy and
Colin Walker with Sam Prime. By now both teams had really picked up the knack of doubles play and were firing on all cylinders and it was a great final with the
Murphys finally victorious.
In the final proper the two teams were looking a bit jaded after an afternoon packed with squash.
Tom and Martyn had switched forehand and backhand defence in the previous match and this meant
Tom Blair and
Martyn were battling it out on the forehand more crucially
Tom Symmons was pitted against the deadly
Derek Fuller on the backhand. There was also the usual argumentifying over lets with some criticism of the referee Macnamee who - perhaps understandably - seemed to just want the whole thing finished with!! Finally
Tom S. managed to contain
Derek and
Martyn played tricky old man squash to frustrate
Tom Blair's attacking flair.
The
U19 age group will be played in September - so there is still time to put in your entry - if you haven't already. Remember that it is not the actual age of the junior that counts - it is just the age category of your
membership.
