North of England Junior Open Newcastle,

November 13/14^th, 2010

The Northumberland Club Jesmond, was the destination of 4 of our junior players over the weekend, and they had some great games in their various age group competitions.

Pick of the crop was Megan Singleton in the Girls under 15 competition. She was in a round robin of two groups of three, and unfortunately the two best girls were in the same three, Megan and Charlotte Cooper. Megan played Charlotte first and looked to be cruising having opened up a 2-0 lead, only to let the match slip out of her grasp, losing 3-2 (15/13, 11/8, 8/11, 9/11, 7/11). In her other game she made no mistake despatching Beth Parker comfortably 3-0. This qualified her for the semi-final, where she played Charlotte Fish, who she easily beat 3-0 to make the final. Waiting in the final was her first game conqueror Charlotte Cooper, so Megan knew what to expect, and started as before winning the opening game. However Charlotte also knew a bit more about Megan's game now and took the next two games to lead 2-1. Megan 'dug-in' and took a tense fourth game to again level the match, and held her nerve throughout the last to take it 11/7 for a great 3-2 victory, and the title. Megan was helped in the earlier round with words of encouragement from her fellow club players, but their absence throughout the final showed her fine understanding of reading the game and knowing what's required to get the job done. Well Done Megan!

In the Boys under 11's Ross Singleton won his first two rounds with comfortable 3-0 victories over Tom Porter and Sam Todd. His opposition in the semi-final was a step up from his earlier rounds and he lost to Davis Collins 3-0. Once again, this was a good showing from 'young' Ross, who is giving these older boys a run for their money.

In the Boys under 13's Jackson Holliday was trying to carry his good form in the British Nationals with him into this event, and started off in great fashion, with an easy 3-0 victory over Robert May. But as has happened a few times before, he came unstuck in his next encounter with the number 2 seeded player Haydn Maclean losing 3-0. There were no further games but for the record his position was between 5 and 8.

Last but not least, Ryan Doran was competing up an age group in the Boys under 19's. This,  alongside the fact that he's only recently returned to competition squash having being 'laid low' with a virus since the middle of August, meant he was in for a tough weekends squash. He lost his opening game to Cole Windsceffel 3-0, which was the toughest player he could have drawn, and it was proved to be the case when Cole went on to win the boys under 19 competition. Now in the lower half of the competition, he set about his opponents with a greater degree of enthusiasm. First up was number 3 seed Ian Hogg who Ryan despatched 3-0, and his next opponent faired little better losing 3-1. The final game for Ryan saw him up against ex-clubmate Owen Barrett, and it was Owen who triumphed once again. Ryan managed to take a game but couldn't maintain a high enough standard throughout, and lost the match 3-1.