14/15^th April 2012

 The competition this year attracted a very strong entry with 120 players covering Boys & Girls age groups of u11,13, 15, 17 and 19 respectively. 

There was massive interest from local players but also many entries fromYorkshire,Cumbria and Durham&Cleveland.

 A special thanks to Prince and Ian Woodsports who sponsored the event.

 The final results are shown below;

                   Winners                                   Runners-up

Boys u11     Andrew Shipley – N’umbria    Adam Goad -Cumbria

Boys u13    Max Forster – N’umbria           Angus Forster – N’umbria

Boys u15    Stuart McGregor –Yorks         Dan Harrison –Cumbria

Boys u17    Jack Bearpark –Yorks             MarkRichmond– Warks

Boys u19    Tom Lee –Yorks                      Ian Hogg –Yorks

Girls u11    Lucinda Cross- D&C                Lydia Robinson –Yorks

Girls u13    Josie Barker – N’umbria                   Poppy Jaram –Yorks

Girls u15    Laura Neill – N’umbria            Tegan Younger – N’umbria

Girls u17    Charlotte Cooper- N’umbria   CharlotteFish –Yorks

Girls u19    Helen Dowson – D&C              Sarah Frain –Cumbria

 Throughout the weekend there were some epic matches and high drama but without doubt, the match that attracted the most attention was the Boys u13 final between the Forster boys Angus and Max. Three of the games went to extra points to find the winner and Max’s never say die and constant returns finally won the day. One can forsee many more matches between them in the future.

 The  Mens 055 promotion weekend took place at the Vagrants Squash Club in Creweover the weekend 24/25^th March and we were up against tough County opposition fromCheshire,Lancashire and Derbyshire.

 The squad who travelled were as follows;

 1)     Derek Collins – Northern

2)     John Thompson –Tynemouth

3)     Alan Coates – Dunston

4)     Colin McNestrie –Tynemouth

5)     Jim Douglas – Northumberland Club

6)     Ken Johnson – Newbiggin

 We started against the home county Cheshireand unfortunately it went very badly with a 5-0 loss and only 2 points collected. The 2^nd match againstLancashire was marginally better with a 3-2 defeat although Derek and John won their respective matches at the top of the order. The final match on the Sunday against Derbyshire produced a 3-2 win overall with 3-1 wins for Alan, Colin, and Ken taking us over the winning line.

Final Positions

1)    Cheshire

2)     Derbyshire

3)    Lancashire

4)    Northumbria

Jim Douglas

After a long period of good results in events throughout the country Michael Mattimore was selected to play for England at the 5 nations event in Cardiff on the weekend 21st/22nd of April.

The event is a 5 way match against Scotland, Ireland, Wales and France. Michael was part of the winning Under 13 team winning all of his matches 3-0 in a team made up of the best  3 boys and 2 girls in the country.

CONGRATULATIONS MICHAEL!

John Smith from Newbiggin made his comeback to competition after surgery last year and made it to the semi-finals of the O65 event losing out to top seed Philip Ayton.

Steve Calvert also on his comeback reached the quarter-final of the O45 event losing to number 3/4 seed Frank Ellis.

In the Mens event four players attepmted to qualify to the main draw, Richard Shellam, Liam Gutcher and Matt Hardy won their first matches before losing in the 2nd round. Dave Barnett made it to the qualifying finals losing out to Scottish player Kevin Moran.

Sam Ward also attempted to qualify in the ladies event but lost out in her first match to Rachael Chadwick.

Northumbrian players dominated the winning 6 of the 8 events. The u17 events were won by the Northumberland Clubs Dan Wareing in the boys and Sophie Noble from Northern in the girls beating Simon Graham and Caitlin Vitty respectively.

Jamie Todd from Tynemouth was top seed in the U15 event and won a tight 5 setter against Joe Dale from Durham. Charlotte Cooper comfortably won the girls u15 event in her last at that age group before moving up to u17′s.

The boys u13 was dominated by the Northumberland Club with Joe Wareing the eventual winner beating Angus Forster in the final. Josie Barker from Northern won the girls U13′s.

The u11 titles went to players from further a field with Michelle Tang beating Aanya Hamilton in the girls and Jon Wright beating Max forster in the boys.

Venue – Fairways Lodge, Lancashire.

A top 2 finish would keep team in division One, relegation if not!!

Team – DAVE BARNETT, JON TATE, LIAM GUTCHER, MATT SAMPSON, JON EVANS and CHRIS CLINTON.

First match was against hosts Lancashire. The first 2 strings were shared with a win for Evans and a loss for Gutcher. The win was then sealed with Barnett and Sampson getting wins at 1 and 4 leaving Tate to battle hard only to lose out 13-11 in the fifth to finish with a 3-2 win.

Saturday afternoon was a match against Merseyside, Chris Clinton came in for Evans at 5 and won convincingly 3-0 and with Barnett winning 3-1 on the other court it was a strong start. Sampson lost 3-1 at number 4 but Gutcher clinched the win with a nail-biting 3-2 win against Mike Beecham which left Tate to consolidate with another 3-2 battle this time winning, 4-1 win in the end.

After the 2 Saturday wins it left the team not having to win on sunday as Division One place was already assured but the team didn’t take it easy and won the match against Merseyside 5-0 to top the group in style.

Divison One squash next season.

The English Junior Closed took place in Surrey from 2nd-4th March. It is the 3rd major junior event of the season with only the best players in the country competing.

As in the previous British Closed and British Open events Northumbrias juniors had some great results.

Michael Mattimore – 3rd in U13

Lucy Beecroft – 3rd in U17

Sam Ward – 5th in U19

Laura Neill – 6th in U13

Jamie Todd – 7th in U15

Chris Wiggins – 10th in U15

Maria Bainbridge – 14th in U17

The event was played at RAF Halton, Staley was seeded 2 but beat the one seed Damian May 3-2 in the final.

The boys under 15 team was the first boys team from Northumbria to make it to the finals since the format of the event changed a few years ago. They had to top their second stage group to make it through against Yorkshire, Cheshire and Cumbria.

Yorkshire and Cheshire teams looked on paper difficult to beat but it wasn’t close as Yorkshire were beaten 4-1 and Cheshire 5-0 along with a 5-0 win over Cumbria to cap off an emphatic group victory and a place in the finals weekend on 10th/11th of  March in Surrey where they will play Sussex.

Team – CHRIS WIGGINS, JAMIE TODD, ALEX ROBERTSON, ADAM BAINBRIDGE, MICHAEL MATTIMORE and SAM BROUGHTON.

On the same day the boys 15 team won through the girls under 19 team were looking to progress once again to the finals where they have competed many times in recent years. Going into the day they were in 2nd place in a 4 team group and needed to finish in the top 2 to clinch a finals place. The Lancashire team withdrew so only 2 matches vs Cumbria and Yorkshire were played. Cumbria were beaten 5-0 and Yorkshire who topped the group were also beaten 3-2 to confirm a finals place.

Along with the boys they will compete on the weekend 10th/11th of March in Surrey and will play Gloucestershire in the last 4.

Team- SAM WARD, LUCY BEECROFT, MARIA BAINBRIDGE, JAYNE OSWALD and CHARLOTTE COOPER.

The girls under 17 team were the 3rd of the teams to progress to the finals, they had to finish in the top 2 of their group against Warwickshire, North Wales and Cumbria. Despite losing to Warwickshire 4-1 they beat Cumbria 5-0 and North Wales 4-1 and took second spot and a place in the finals.

The u17 event is on weekend 17th/18th of March at Lilleshall Squash Club and like the u19 team will also play Gloucestershire.

Team – LUCY BEECROFT, MARIA BAINBRIDGE, JAYNE OSWALD, CHARLOTTE COOPER and EMMA HALEY.

Of the other teams who had reached the second stage the boys u17 were 2nd in their group, boys u13 were 3rd and also girls u13 3rd and failed to progress this time.

GOOD LUCK TO ALL TEAMS IN THE FINALS.