Agricole Cup Under-16 Competition.

For our last Saturday session in 2011 on the 18th December we had a great fun tournament - the Agricole Cup.

This is an adult-junior squash doubles competition which was originally designed to be for family pairings but the rules also allow juniors to trade-in their actual Dad or Mum for a supposedly more competitive player.

This happened last year when Tom Blair recruited Derek Fuller to be his partner - going on to win the competition. Derek Fuller has been Tom's squash mentor for several years and so this was an excellent adult-junior pairing.

The Agricole Cup is sponsored by Jeremy Cole http://www.agricole.co.uk/ as an annual event with an Ul6 and an U19 age groups (for the junior member of each team obviously!).

Last Saturday we played the U16 competition between eight teams including four actual family pairs and even two from the same family!

David and Rob Snelling, Ellis and Keith Maloney, Mary and Helen Snelling and Will and Nick Collett.

The first round was as two leagues with each team playing each for maximum points from just a single game to 15.

The top two teams from each league went to the knockout stage while the bottom two went to the plate competition.

Top points in one league went to Lawrence Temple/Julie Miller and Todd Roberts/Martyn Symmons. Top of the other league were Will/Nick Collett and Sam Hicks/Andy D'Alessandro.

In the following hard-fought plate League Henry Prime/Mike Macnamee came second above Ellis/Keith Maloney and Mary/Helen Snelling. However winners of the plate were an undefeated Rob and David Snelling - one of our highest placed family pairs - who were both awarded special prizes this year.

In the knockout semi-finals Todd/Martyn and Will/Nick in the best of three games - in a close match Todd/Martyn won through to the final; while in another close match Andy and Sam beat Julie and Lawrence.

In the final Todd and Martyn tried every possible tactic but could not outmanoeuvre the combination cf Sam on the forehand with an amazingly quick coverage of the front court from Andy - Sam and Andy won the trophy in a convincing three games. Although not a family pairing Andy is Sam's coach and so it was again good to see the Agricole supporting squash skills passing from one generation to the next.

Jeremy Cole presented them with their trophy reminding everyone that there was still the U19 competition to play for this season

Both Dave and Rob Snelling and Will and Nick Collett received special awards as the highest placed family teams.