Results from Racquets June Open Graded Squash and Racketball tournament
Last weekend Racquets opened it’s doors to players from all over the country for it’s June Open Graded Squash and Racketball tournament.
An Open tournament is one where players from any club and any county can come and compete.
A Graded tournament is one where players of any standard and age can compete and they are ‘graded’ according to their standard. Beginners will only play beginners, county players will play county players.
Our tournament last weekend included both doubles and singles of squash for a variety of standards and a grade of doubles for racketball.
7 grades of squash were competed for : A, B, D/E, ladies beginners and junior beginners grade singles, A and B grade doubles and 1 grade of racketball doubles.
The results were :
| Winner | Runner/up | |
| A singles squash main event | Nelson Fung | Alex Preston |
| A singles squash plate | Jason Varrie | Dave Stanton |
| B singles squash main event | Martin Smith | Peregrine Heathcote |
| B singles squash plate | Mary Woods | Ant Woods |
| D/E singles squash | Sam Woods | Oliver Dudley-Heidkamp |
| Ladies beginners | Molly Woods | Alice Draycott |
| Junior beginners | Chris Watts | Matt Harper |
| A doubles squash | Alex Preston and Darren Rix | Nelson Fung and Jason Varrie |
| B doubles squash | Nick Harbour and Ben Hedger | Anne Terry and Ben Terry |
| Racketball doubles | Ossie Mustafa and Beth John | Nick Wynd and Ben Terry |
Particular congratulations go to the new kids Jon Williams and Ben Dawson who entered the D/E grade squash tournament even though they had really only played racketball before. Both managed to hold their own against others who have been playing squash for far longer. We look forward to seeing how they progress in the next year or so.
The Woods family showed that squash is a real family sport. 4 of the 5 family members were in the tournament and everyone of them went away with a prize. Sam (age 10) winning the D/E grade, Molly (age 12) winning the ladies beginners, Mary (mum) winning the B grade plate and Ant (dad) the B grade plate runner-up. I think we will be seeing more of them in the coming years.
The doubles squash and racketball matches provided plenty of hilarity as these versions of the games are played at a high speed and in fantastic spirit. The average age of the racketball players was around 55 – so our sports definitely provide exercise for everyone !
Alison Waters, the current British Closed Squash champion and World #4, visited the club in the evening. She kindly played many of the players in the tournament and then she and Will John played an exhibition match for us all to watch and enjoy. All the new players learned what they are aspiring to and went away buzzing from the experience.
We are looking to run another open tournament in September 2014 with one or two junior tournaments in the mean time. Kids get the 12th July in your diary for a mini junior tournament.
