Tim Outhwaite, Jackson Holliday and Hannah Crichton played over the weekend at the Northern Squash competition and took in the opportunity to watch the British Nationals at Sportcity whilst there, in what proved to be a relatively successful weekends squash.

Tim Outhwaite

Tim Outhwaite playing in the boys under 11 event lost his opening game to William Evans 0-3, 11/1, 11/5, 11/2, this put him into the 5/8 play off game against Carlisles Aidan Raine whom he also lost to 0-3, 6/11, 5/11, 0/11. Playing now for position 7 or 8 he beat Matthew Harrison from Whitehaven 3-1, 6/11, 11/7, 11/6, 11/8 to finish 7th. Well done Tim, more good experience on the circuit and a few points for your ranking average.

Jackson Holliday

Jackson Holliday had a bye in the first round of his boys under 15 competition and then had the mis-fortune to meet one of the 11 players from Quatar who had come over to play in a couple of competitions for experience. Obviously their ranking in the competition was unknown and a more than useful Umair Umar Zaman beat Jackson 3-0, 11/6, 11/6, 11/7, and although Jackson played well he just made too many errors to give himself a chance of beating his foreign opponent. In his next game playing for 11 to 14th position he needed to win or was out, and against Guy Maxwell who was seeded to beat him, he played a virtually error free first game and stunned Guy from the outset. Jackson relaxed slightly and erred a little more in the next two games but Guy had no stomach for a tussle and Jackson triumphed 3-0, 11/3, 11/7, 11/7. This put him into the 10/11 play off game against Dan Zaidi and after losing a close first game 9/11, and taking a tight second game 11/8 to level the score, Jackson let his head take over which was to the detriment of his squash game and this got him on the wrong side of the marker, he consequently lost the next two games comfortably 4/11, 5/11 to lose 1-3, and finish 11th.

Hannah Crichton

Hannah Crichton playing in the girls under 19's had a call 10 minutes before arriving (09.50 am) in Manchester to say that her morning game against Ellie Cowie was off as she had injured herself on Thursday evening (!), so with her next game not being until 5.00pm she watched Jacksons opener then headed off to Sportcity to watch the James Wilstrop v Adrian Grant semi-final. On her return she played Chloe Harrison and beat her relatively easily 3-1. Hannah led the first 10-6 and then somehow eventually lost it 15/13, but got back on track taking the next three games 11/6, 11/6, 11/9. Another trip to the Sportcity finals followed where we now watched the other mens semi-final featuring Nick Matthews against reigning Champion Daryl Selby which rounded off the day nicely. On Sunday Hannah played Hannah Shipley and in a long tight match came through in the end 3-2, 6/11, 11/7, 8/11, 11/9, 11/5, lasting the pace better and playing the more attacking squash when called for. Hannah's final match was against Jessica Dixon (playing her only game of the day) and with Hannah only having been off court just over two and a quarter hours she was a little heavy legged. However, taking nothing away from Jessica who is very athletic in her court coverage but some of the shots Hannah played would have been winners against someone less fit and agile, or someone who like Hannah had already played that day, Jessica winning 3-0, 11/6, 11/8, 11/8, which was a great effort from Hannah, finishing second overall.