WELSH UNDER 18/UNDER 20 TEAMS FINISH RUNNERS-UP

WELSH UNDER 18/UNDER 20 TEAMS FINISH RUNNERS-UP

Wales come 2nd in the Under 18 & Under 20 Test Matches

Wales Under 20 mixed team came second in the Test Matches at Lilleshall beating Scotland twice, and although losing twice to England, pushed them all the way.

In the first match on the Saturday Wales narrowly lost to England 3-2. Hannah Davies got Wales off to a winning start with a 3-0 win over Chloe Pearson before Matt Sidaway levelled it for England with a 3-0 win over Nyall Driscoll. Then Tesni Evans put Wales ahead again with a 3-0 win over Victoria Temple-Murray. Will John then took Tom Ford on and although he lost 3-0 the games were very close and Will created chances to win both the first two games before losing them 11/9 and 14/12 so it was left to David Haley who took on Adam Auckland and he lost a narrow 3-1 encounter, having won the first he lost his way a little before picking it back up and got edged out 11/9 in the fourth. A really good solid team performance and a 3-2 loss.

In the second match Wales defeated Scotland 3-2. Nyall was on first and after being unwell for a month he was starting to visibly look unwell and struggle and went down 3-0 to Greg Lobban. The girls then put Wales back up 2-1 with comfortable victories for Tesni and Hannah. Chris Ferguson then defeated David Haley 3-0 to level the scores at 2-2. Will John stepped up and despite narrowly losing the first game took control by levelling with another tight second game v Ewan Urquhart and then moved away with some quality squash to secure a 3-1 win and a 3-2 Welsh win.

Now to Sunday and with Nyall withdrawing unwell Jordan Davies stepped up to play in the Under 20s. So match 3 v Scotland a 4-1 emphatic win for Wales. Again the girls got Wales off to a flyer with comfortable 3-0 wins and the victory was secure when Jordan defeated Ewan Urquhart 3-0. David then beat Greg Lobban 3-0 before the only loss when Will John lost 3-1 to Chris Ferguson in very long hard match where Will maintained a very high brand of squash mixing attack and defence very well –so 4-1 Wales.

The 4th and final match saw Wales take on England and start within an hour of finishing the last one! But although losing 4-1 it was a very valiant performance as a team and one to be proud of. Hannah Davies was on first and lost 3-2 to Victoria Temple-Murray and then after his earlier very hard match Will John tired and went down 3-0 to Adam Auckland. Tesni Evans then pulled one back by beating Chloe Pearson 3-0 and keeping her unbeaten record for the weekend before Jordan Davies had a cracking game with Matt Sidaway before going down 3-1 so victory for England. Tom Ford then completed the match with a very hard fought 3-1 victory against David where in each game David had his chances but couldn’t quite take them but was a super match.

England 1st – 91 points 

Wales 2nd – 75 points 

Scotland 3rd – 43 points

“So well done the players who made Wales proud and played as a team and performed very well in this high standard squash arena and a well worthwhile test for them”.

Andrew Evans North Wales Regional Performance Officer