Racquets Junior Open – Bronze sanctioned event 2015
Racquets boys top the tables in national ranking tournament
Ben Hedger took his first Under 17 Open tournament title last weekend on his home turf of Racquets Fitness Centre.
60 players of high national rankings and aged 8 through to 16 came from all over the country to compete in one of the England Squash national ranking tournaments.
There were concerns before the tournament as Ben has been suffering from an injury that was stopping him from training. He had to take a month off and just started playing again 3 weeks before the tournament. Ben played extremely well throughout the tournament. He had dug deep in the semi-final against Wycliffe England International Nathan Mead after being 2 games to 0 down. The final was a very close fought game where Ben overcame Cameron Haddow from Suffolk in an exciting match 3 games to 2. Ben’s coach, Simon Martin, said ‘Ben really showed he has the talent to win Under 17 open tournaments and we hope he will take this win with him to the next one and make winning them standard practice. Ben plays for the Racquets men’s 1st team in the Oxfordshire leagues which provides plenty of tough match experience to ensure tournament wins in the future.’.
Another one of Racquets juniors also did extremely well. Nick Harbour didn’t meet his local rival and number 1 seed Marcus Tranter in the final as Marcus was knocked out by Marcus Connor, from Aylesbury Grammar School. Marcus’s technique is excellent but Nick was too clever at the front with great touch and deception. Nick will now hope to move into the top 20 in the country in the Under 15 rankings as a result of this, his first Under 15 Junior Open tournament win. Simon Martin, one of Nick’s coaches said ‘Nick has shown great guts and determination in recent weeks as well as being immensely talented and a particularly polite lad. His parents were very proud and I and Nick’s other coach, club Professional Will John have been very impressed with his improvement over the last 6 months maintaining a regular spot in the mens’ teams playing in the Oxfordshire Inter-club league.’
There were 3 Racquets players in the tournament this year and the last one was Ollie Coulcher-Porter. The Under 11s was extremely strong and Ollie lost in the first round this time round. That was the last match that he lost though as he went through to win the final of the plate.
Racquets coach Sue Martin-Downhill said ‘Ben, Nick and Ollie are great ambassadors for squash and we are extremely proud of all of them. Their behaviour on court was impeccable, they helped run the tournament and marked games whenever asked. Winning the age groups was just the icing on the cake.’
Racquets is a proving ground for great squash players. Top class coaching is available here in Thame so if you might be interested in taking up a sport which is fun but can also be taken up seriously you don’t need to go further than just behind Thame’s famous Cattle Market.
We’d like to thank the sponsors of the tournament Technifibre and Meritus International Hotels for their prizes for the winners.
For some photos please click here.
To follow in their footsteps join one of our squash courses or come along to any of our squash classes and learn this great indoor, warm sport. Also we have squash camps during the half term holidays – join us for competition, training, coaching and a laugh.
Here are the draws
Mixed U11, Girls U13, Girls U15, Girls U17, Boys U13, Boys U15, Boys U17
Tournament Organiser:
Simon Martin
info@racquets-fitness-centre.com
07803 964 124
01844 261 754
