Agricole Cup U16 an exciting end to the term.

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.