September 2014 Racquets Open Graded Tournament – a fantastic success
Racquets Fitness Centre, Thame, Oxfordshire welcomed over 70 squash players from all over the country on 19/21st September 2014.
The standard of squash ranged from World Ranked #27 Adrian Waller to complete beginners Joanne Clay and Ellen Gipp, and beginner juniors Ned Richards, Curtis Mortimer and new to squash in the past week Fionn Leaney.
What a tournament ! Matches were played from 3.30pm on Friday night right through to Sunday at 7pm.
In the junior beginners grade, a talented Fionn won. They were using the orange beginners ball and junior squash rackets which are smaller than the usual rackets.
The ladies beginners was won by Susan Watts who showed us that she is no longer a beginner and will move into the next grade up next tournament.
The E grade was contested by boys aged 8 to 15. Many from Lord Williams’ school but also from Abingdon and Oxford schools. The matches were all hard fought and close as each of these boys have been learning the game for a while now and all know what it takes to play competitively. The final was between Oliver Coulcher-Porter and Adam Barlow-Heal. Oliver won with a consistent and effective serve and great knowledge of the tactics of the game.
The D grade was won by a lady who has not played many tournaments so it was difficult to know which grade for her to play in. It became obvious after the first round that she was a grade too low. The girls had put the men and boys in their places to win through to the final and Katherine Fitzgerald won 3-1 over Molly Woods.
In the C grade final was contested by Dave McMahon and Joe Burbank – both will be vying for positions in the B grade no doubt in the next tournament.
The B grade included a few who had decided that playing World Ranked players would not be too much fun. But the latter stages of the tournament showed that low A grade players will have very competitive matches against high B graders. Ozkan Mustafa managed to get through all his games to win over Matthew Hewitt (World Deaf Ranking #4).
The A grade was entered by a host of World Ranked and Ex-World Ranked players. Mark Cairns played through to the semi finals (Highest World Ranking #7) beating our home professional Will John (World Ranking #223), Scott Handley (Highest World Ranking #41) from nearby Wallingford made the quarterfinals losing to Richie Fallows (World Ranking of #99). The upset of the weekend was the final of the A (Elite) grade with Rex Hedrick (World Ranking #57) beating World Ranked #27 Adrian Waller. An entertaining game played at the highest level of squash.
In the Doubles tournament, a very tired but determined Jason Varrie and his partner Neil Robertson won through against the World Deaf Champion Jamie Matthews and his partner Phil Thomas (National Deaf Champion). Top class doubles watched by a full gallery.
The fantastic result of our tournament was that the world class players were able to bring their family and close friends to play in the tournament too. So they got to watch and support as well as being the centre of attention.
Throughout the weekend there was a great atmosphere and we’d like to thank the sponsors and the staff for supporting the tournament organisers.
