A group of eight Isle of Man junior squash players travelled to Liverpool to compete in the Merseyside County Junior Championships recently with considerable success.
Sidney Batty won the under-11 competition without conceding a single game. The ease with which Sidney won was slightly surprising but explains why he has been selected for the England Squash Regional training squad and has risen to 61st in the England squash rankings.
Sidney also competed in the u13 competition with brother Edward and Dewald Joubert. The latter two faced each other in the first round. This was a superb match with Dewald starting very strongly before Edward fought back from 2-0 down to reach match point at 2-2, 10-7. Dewald showing great composure to save the match points and eventually won 3-2.
Joubert also played well against number one seed Alex Rutter, taking a game before losing 3-1. Dewald eventually finished fourth.
In the u15 competition, Patrick Fitzpatrick cruised through to the semi-finals where he met Liverpool’s Matty Powell who was in inspired form the whole weekend, winning the u15 competition and finishing runner-up in the u17s. Patrick lost 3-0 to Matty but picked himself up well to win the third/fourth place play-off 3-0.
Another all-Manx first round match saw Patrick play Liam Quinn in the u17s. This was another extremely close encounter with Patrick just ahead most of the way until a topsy-turvy final game in which Quinn had three match points. However, Patrick showing great determination eventually won 12-10 in the fifth and went on the finish fifth overall.
Liam also competed in the u19s along with Tarek Gomaa. Liam, despite some phenomenal retrieving and being hampered by blisters, lost a good game with number three seed John Roach in the first round. Tarek won his first match but then faced reigning champion and No1 seed Anthony McCarthy. Tarek earned much admiration for his spirited play but lost 3-0 and eventually finished fifth with Liam sixth.
Hannah Dixon and Courtney Gilardoni played in the girls’ comp which was a round robin. The other girls had no answer to Hannah’s stunning serve, drive and drop tactics and she won all her games 3-0 to pick up the title for the second year running. Courtney had to win her final match against Kate Roylance to finish second and, encouraged by the rest of the squad on the balcony, played some of her best squash to date to win 3-0.
A very successful weekend was made even more enjoyable by the immaculate behaviour of the IoM juniors both on and off the court.
Isle of Man Squash Rackets Association president Les Callow commented: ‘What a remarkable result, it just shows that the time all the coaches put into the juniors is paying off. I think we should all be very proud of what we have achieved so far in such a small community and hope that, with the ongoing support from the coaches, we can achieve much more. Well done to everybody involved in junior squash and to the juniors themselves.’