Words by Damian Burgess 3.4.2011
The weather was dismal but the squash brightened Newport Squash Club on the weekend of 2nd and 3rd April with another great Caffrey’s Newport Open, players from all over Wales came to the city. This is a graded event so there was all abilities and ages on show, Men and Ladies competed for the titles and for the prize, some cans of Caffrey’s.
In all the grades there were great matches from the very first round, juniors were competing against adults as well as other juniors, a great atmosphere was building from the very first point on Saturday morning.
In the A grade of the Men’s event Peter Creed, the current champion of two years as well as two time National Champion was again in fine form and extended the great run he has had over the last two years. Everyone thought it would be a Peter Creed and David Evans final but an injury to David in the semi-final against Nic Birt forced him to pull out. The final was contested between Nic and Peter; the two had met at the Sport Wales National Centre in January for the Welsh Closed Championships, when Peter came out on top, winning 3 – 1.
The final started well for Nic and he was quickest out of the traps taking an early lead, the crowd filled the balcony at Newport Squash Club. Nic took the first game but it was soon 1 – 1 and both players were finding it hard to control the very warm and very alive ball. Nic then took a 2 – 1 lead but the match was soon leveled again at 2 – 2, what a great final. The final game was very tight and reached 9 – 9, a point now for either player would give them “Match Ball”, Creed took the point and then took the next to take the Championship. This is Peters second title of the season in Wales after his National Title win, Peter is also now unbeaten in a Welsh Competition in 2 years after three Caffrey’s and two National titles.
After the win Peter said “Thank you to Squash Wales for their support, thanks to Newport Squash Club and Greg Tippings on another great event, thank you to the sponsors of the event Caffrey’s and thank you to Damian on all the coverage of the event and previous events, it makes a difference”
In the Women’s A grade final the two top seed made it to the final without dropping a single game, Tesni Evans the current Women’s Welsh National Champion was taking on current Welsh number 1 and number 1 seed for the event Deon Saffery. The pair have never met in a competition, the packed crowd were looking forward to a great exhibition of squash from the two young ladies.
Like the men’s final the women’s went to 2 – 2 with each of the ladies taking the lead before the fifth. In the fifth game Tesni and Deon both took control of different rallies, the retrievals by both players were exceptional with both making little or no errors rally after rally. The fifth went to 9 – 9 and after a long rally which Tesni controlled very well, came a mistake from Deon giving match ball to Tesni. Another great rally and again the same outcome, match to Tesni, loud applause for both ladies for what was a great match.
After the match Deon said “Tesni is a great player and has lots of potential, hope she sticks with the same attitude throughout her squash career, some people forget to enjoy it and that's always a key thing. I enjoyed the match and the crowd were great supporters”
A great weekend of squash from everyone, all the grades had some great and memorable matches. In the ‘B’ event Tej Saran beat Joel Makin in the Final, in the ‘C’ event Emyr Evans, brother of Tesni, took the spoils after beating Jason Gollaglee and in the ‘D’ event an all Newport Squash Club final with Dylan Banks edging Daniel Bergin 3 – 2 in the final, a great show of squash from both players, the future is bright for these juniors.
In the Over Age events Paul Johnson beat Jason Burgon in the Over 35 final, and in the Over 45’s Richard Murphy added another title to his 2011 collection after beating Mark Huxtable in the final.
Videos from the event are available at http://www.youtube.com/WELSHSQUASH
Words From Damian Burgess Press Officer, Squash Wale
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