7 northern counties descended on The Northern, Manchester, to contest the Northern Junior Cup on 17th May. The event sees mixed teams from the U11 and U13 age groups, and gives a great opportunity for more junior team competition outside the inter-county championships, and we had a team in each category.
The event is growing every year, this year seeing 80 players from 7 counties participating in 120 matches in an 8 and a half our festival of squash!
U11 Event
Squad:
1. Freddie Gilberg
2. Archer Robson
3. Marwan Dawood
4. Orson Kennedy
5. Charlie Tomkins
Our U11s were seeded 3 and faced Cheshire in round 1, where all 5 players won 3-0 to advance to the semi-finals against Yorkshire, and despite being the lower seeds, the team played very well again, taking the match 5-0 to reach the final!
Durham & Cleveland were our finals opponents in a well-fought match; however, Archer, Marwan and Orson came through their matches to seal the team’s place on the top spot of the podium!
U13 Event
Squad:
1. Hector Wilkinson
2. Salma Barkouk
3. Lucy Barnett
4. Emma Robertson
5. Eloise Davies
Coming in as the number 6 seed in the U13 event, our team faced a strong [3] Merseyside in round 1 with a solitary win from Salma seeing us lose 4-1. The team bounced back in round 2 against D&C, narrowly winning 3-2 (10 game to 5) thanks to wins from Salma, Lucy and Eloise!
In the 5th/6th playoff, we faced Lancashire, and it was another 3-2, but this time we came out on the wrong side to place 6th overall, with Salma winning her 3rd match of the day, and Eloise getting her 2nd victory!
Big thanks go to the host club, The Northern, and all the counties who participated, as well as to Liam Gutcher, who was instrumental in organising the event and John Thompson for coaching our teams!
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