words by Damian Burgess
On the weekend of the 14th to 16th January 2011 the top squash players from around the country came to the capital to battle it out in the POINTFORE Welsh National Championships. With over 100 entrants and more than 350 matches played over two and a half days it was a busy weekend for all.
Matches begun on the Friday afternoon with players playing their first round matches in the B, C, D and E Grades. A great atmosphere was building at the Sport Wales National Centre in Cardiff and players were getting in the mood for a great weekend of squash.
The Saturday morning saw all other grades commence including the Men’s and Women’s A grades. Matches started very early on the Saturday with players rolling out of bed to play at 9am sharp, an early start also for the referees and tournament staff - the coffee machine was much appreciated. The atmosphere was building through the morning and there were great crowds on the glass back courts for the Men’s and Women’s A grade - top seeds Peter Creed in the Men’s and Tesni Evans in the Women’s were through as well as all other seeds.
Quarter Finals were scheduled for Saturday evening and the crowds were still at SWNC, Men’s top seed Peter Creed bt Dave Haley and number two seed Jethro Binns bt Matthew Crowley. In the Women’s, top seed Tesni Evans bt Abby Hicks in the first Semi Final but number 2 seed Beth Winstanley was beaten by 3 to 4 seed Hannah Davies, and an all North Wales clash was set for the ladies Final. Mike Workman was very pleased that nearly all his seeds in all grades were through to the Sunday.
Sunday was set to be a busy day for players, referees and tournament staff although injuries were forcing players to pull out across all grades. The intense weekend of squash was taking its toll on the players.
Another early start for all with matches again starting at 9am - yes 9am on a Sunday morning. Well done to all who played before their breakfast. As well as Semi Finals and Finals there were playoffs for positions scheduled for Sunday.
In the Men’s Semi Finals number 2 seed Jethro Binns went out to Nic Birt 3 – 1. In the other semi, Peter Creed beat Greg Tippings 3 – 0 in a hard fought contest. This set up a Final which was identical to one of the Semi Finals of last years National Championships between Nic and Peter, arguably one of the best matches of last year, which lasted
more than 80 minutes and going to 5 games - three of the games were decided in a tie break with one going to 18/16.
The Women’s Final was played early as Tesni and Hannah are both from North Wales. Tesni has recently had success on the Women’s Pro Tour (WISPA) and has climbed up 90 places in the rankings over the last few months.
Hannah fought hard in every rally but Tesni was too strong and controlled the key rallies in the match, Tesni came through to win 3 – 0, her first, but surely not her last, Welsh Senior National Title. In the Ladies B, Nia Kenward won all of her matches, Jo Watkins was runner up. In the Ladies Over 45 Sian Johnson bt Lynne Davies 3 – 2 to win the title. Well done to Tesni and to all the ladies who entered. It’s good to see women’s squash on the rise in Wales.
To the Men’s A final, Peter Creed, current Welsh number one, defending National Champion and world number 123, against the experience of Nic Birt. Last year this pair met in the Semi Final, Creed winning that one 3 – 2, 11/9 in the fifth. Both players started this years Final with a fast pace, some quick fire rallies were mixed in with long and well thought out rallies. The crowd behind court 1 filled every seat and were not disappointed by the standard of the final. After 2 games it was tied one all, then after some well constructed rallies Peter pulled a lead in the third and there was no looking back from there. Peter won in four 3 – 1 and had defended his title.
In the Men’s over 45 last years winner Richard Murphy was against last years runner up Ian Fenner- Evans, the men put on quite a show of squash, the rallies were relentless and both worked very hard for each and every point. Richard was controlling many of the rallies and his consistent length and working boasts were catching up with Ian. In one rally in the third game Ian must have run the equivalent of 50 court sprints, the crowd behind court two were appreciative of the effort by both players. Richard Murphy came out on top 3 – 0, a great game of squash.
The Men’s Over 35 was won by last years B grade winner Paul Barrell, the Welsh ranked number 10 equipped with a new beard looked strong in all his matches. The Over 35’s played a round robin format, with 4 matches each.
Thank you to Robert Wilde and Bob Burgess for their time and efforts in taking all these amazing photo’s of the event. To view more photo’s from the event go to http://picasaweb.google.com/orangesquash2010
Thank you again to all who took part, the sponsors Pointfore for their support and prizes for the event, the staff at Squash Wales, the Sport Wales National Centre, the referee’s and volunteer’s, the parents of any juniors who took part and again to everyone who took part, without you we could never hold an event. Hopefully next year we will have more entrants from more clubs from all around Wales.
PLEASE SUPPORT SQUASH IN WALES.
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