A great weekend of squash was had by all at Newport Squash Club on the weekend of the 4th, 5th and 6th of March 2011. The 15th Welsh Masters Championships kicked off on Friday afternoon with players from Over 35 to Over 65 Men and Over 35 to Over 50 Women competing from all over the UK; even the players who had long moved away from their beloved Wales had come back to play.
A record entry this year for the Championships which was being held for the first time at Newport Squash Club, for the last 14 Masters Championships have been held at Swansea Lawn Tennis and Squash Club and run by Geoff Thomas, another big thank you to Geoff and SLT&SRC for all those years.
In the Women’s Over 50 event Sian Johnson won her 10th Masters Title, a big well done to Sian who won all of her matches in the round robin group, runner up was Kath Horler-Clee.
In the Women’s Over 35 event Carolyn Gooding won her fourth on the bounce and her fifth Masters title in total, and it was another familiar face at the top as Joanne Dark came in runner up. The same winner and runner up now for the last 3 years, a great effort by all the ladies taking part in the event, some great squash was on show and a great standard of play also.
To the Men’s and top seed, Geoff Trenchard in the Mens Over 65, who has previously reached 3 finals, and won them all, again reached the final and won again. Geoff beat Del Lewis in the final, without dropping a single game on his way to the title.
In the Men’s Over 60 event the 2000 Over 50 Champion Mick Mooney looked in fine form as he won his second Masters title beating Leighton Jenkins in the final. A very strong draw in the Over 60’s with Mick Nash and Mike North also in the draw, both losing in the semi-finals.
The Men’s Over 55 event was won by the 2008 Over 55 Champion Alan James who was playing in his 14th Masters final and by winning it has now won 9 Masters titles. In the first round of the event there was an upset as Kwesi Hazel took out number 1 seed Paul Tudor 3 – 2, in the first game both players got to 9 – 9 and each had 6 game balls to win it. A great marathon match and definitely the game of Saturday without doubt.
In the Men’s Over 50 event, also known as the Baber Cup, Jon Evans was again Champion and again played Mike Workman in a repeat of last years final. That’s a hat trick of titles at Over 50 for Jon, who was relentless in his match against Mike, a great effort by all the players in the draw.
In the Over 45 semi-finals all 4 of the top seeds made it through but it wasn’t the number 1 and number 2 seeds who made it to the final. Stephen Wall beat number 2 seed Ian Fenner-Evans and Gary Hales beat number 1 seed Richard Murphy. Gary Hales an 8 times finalist and 4 time Champion in various Masters age groups lost in the final to 2009 Champion Stephen Wall in a repeat of the 2009 final.
The Men’s Over 40 draw went as seeded with the 2009 Over 40 Champion Mark Jones meeting Darren Jones in the final with Mark winning it. The two stand out performers from this event were Andrew Harris of Newport who reached the semi-finals and lost to Mark Jones and Liam Corrigan of Barry Leisure, who battled in every round to reach the semi-final, finally losing to Darren in a tight 3 – 0.
In the final age group, and the youngest players in the Masters, are the Over 35’s. Matthew Crowley again dominated the draw without dropping a game on his way to winning the title for the 3rd consecutive time. Jonathan Davies was his opponent in the final and came from nowhere in the draw to beat number 3/4 seed Paul Johnson in the quarters and number 2 seed Paul Barrell in the semi-final, a great effort from Jon in the final taking one game to a tie break.
Some words from Richard Murphy, Masters Committee Chairman.
“So that is it for another year, a big thank you to Squash Wales for running the event, a massive thank you to Newport Squash Club for their hospitality and warm welcome, the first year the Masters have been held at Newport but I’m sure not the last. A big thank you to the Bar Staff who kept the Masters thirst quenched and to the kitchen staff who kept us all fed all weekend. Also a thank you to all the referees who gave up parts of their weekend to be part of the competition and the biggest thank you is to the players who entered and spent the weekend in Newport, without the players the event would not be possible.
Let’s hope we have as big an event if not bigger next year, and good luck to all the players who will be selected for the Home Internationals.”
The Masters website is now live where you will find all the info, stats, video and photo’s as well as information on other senior competitions including details of the upcoming Home Internationals. www.squashwalesmasters.co.uk
You can find all the photos from the event at https://picasaweb.google.com/orangesquash2010 and video from the event at http://www.youtube.com/user/WELSHSQUASH
Words by Damian Burgess, Press Officer Squash Wales
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