County Success for Henley Squash Juniors
Players from the Henley Junior Squash Club featured prominently in the recent
Oxfordshire and Berkshire County Championships, gaining two county titles and five
runners up positions.
In the Oxfordshire County Championship held at the Abingdon Squash Club,
Jonathan Betts led the way by taking the U19 Boys’ title. He won his first match with
a comfortable 3-0 victory. He was awarded a walkover in his second match due to an
injury to his opponent. In the final, Jonathan came up against Sam Austin. The first
game was close affair with Jonathan winning 11-8. However Jonathan's present
good form allowed him to easily win the next two games at 11-2 and 11-4 and
thereby secure the championship. In the U11 championship, Rory Richmond made
his way through three preliminary rounds to reach the semi-finals, winning all of his
matches 3-0. He faced number 3 seed Felix Loeffen in the semi-final, again winning
3-0 after a hard fought game. In the final, he faced English number 10 Luke Perkins,
who proved too strong for Rory, winning in straight games. Despite losing in the first
round of the U15 Boys’ championship, Art Lawton went on to win his next two
matches 3-0 and 3-1 to secure a place in the plate final. The final consisted of four
closely contested games, but Art was eventually beaten by Henry WiIliams 3-1.
The Berkshire County Championship was held at the Datchet and Eton Squash Club
and Beth Ireland enjoyed a double success. She won the U13 Girls’ title in style by
winning all her matches and came second in the U15 Girls’ tournament despite being
only 11 years old. Her brother, Jake Ireland, competed in the U15 Boys tournament,
playing some fantastic squash but ultimately just missing out on the title
in a closely fought final against Jason Mcanally. In the U19 Boys’ competition, James
Little won two hard fought matches 3-0 to reach the final against Alex Norman.
Despite playing some of his best squash of the championship, James eventually lost
out to Alex who recorded a 3-0 victory.
There were several other good performances from Henley Juniors with James
Dunning and Miles Edwards coming 4th and 5th, respectively, in the Berkshire U13
Boys competition and Ewan McCracken coming 6th in the equivalent Oxfordshire
competition. All three players are just 11 years old and so will be able to look
forward to entering the same age group next year and improving on this year’s
finishing positions.
Jonathan Betts with Oxfordshire County Coach Ben Rosec
Art Lawton with Oxfordshire County Coach Ben Rosec
Beth Ireland with Berkshire County Coordinator Roy Dowling
Jake Ireland with Berkshire County Coordinator Roy Dowling
James Little with Berkshire County Coordinator Roy Dowling