Dedication and research pays off for James Portsmouth in Racquets Jan 2016 One-Day squash tournament

Racquets held its January One-Day Junior squash tournament last Saturday 30^th January.  A smaller entry than previous tournaments but by no means less competitive.  James Portsmouth showed that applying yourself to one sport for just a year can produce great results.

We had new young players come from Henley and Abingdon as well as home grown players from Racquets making up a tournament of a huge variety of standards.  The ages in the tournament ranged from 9 through to 14.

We handicapped the tournament so that the better players had to secure more points than the others giving everyone the chance to take 1^st place.

Racquets coach Will John said ‘For the better players this requires a lot of concentration as the loss of any points can prove disastrous with some of the newest players only needing 3 points for a win !’

The results were 6^th place Elio Babb (Henley), 5^th place Matt Harper (LWS year 7), 4^th place Sam Crowley (Abingdon), 3^rd place Joey Monti (Barley Hill year 5).

The final was between Luke Hayes (Barley Hill year 5) and James Portsmouth (LWS year 7) with Luke starting on zero and James starting on -8.  Luke is a strong competitor as we have seen in the last few months with his recent great tournament results but James has improved his game markedly in the past month to take 1^st prize in a display of controlled quality squash with great technique and touch.

James’s coach Sue Martin-Downhill said ‘James has been dedicated to squash for a year now watching PSA events on Youtube and SquashTV for hours every day, taking note of racket technique and movement on court by the professionals.  This is showing in his improvement and I expect to see him challenging higher up the leagues and ladders and hopefully we will be able to arrange for him to attend some local national ranking tournaments in the coming year.’

To start playing squash please do give Simon or Sue a call at Racquets Fitness Centre on 01844 261754.  We are particularly keen to encourage ladies and juniors who have never played before as we have new groups who have started learning this year and they are very keen to have more players.