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Norfolk junior squash players take on counties across the country
Norfolk's junior squash teams have been competing across the country in stage one of the national Inter Counties competition over the last few weekends and have come up against some tough opposition.
Norfolk Boys U19
Norfolk travelled to Cambridgeshire to take on their local rivals and Warwickshire. In the opening tie, Norfolk gave one of their best performances ever against the Cambs squad of England-ranked players. First to fourth strings Bradley Garrett, Ben Rawsthorne, Joe Bolt and Jack Bell all lost in three straight games but made their opponents work for points with strong performances. Alex Foster came away a 3-1 winner to give Cambs the tie 4-1.
Perhaps inevitably after such tremendous effort the Norfolk team seemed below par in the second tie against Warwickshire losing all five matches 3-0. However, collectively they took a lot more points in the second tie. Although going out in the first round the team will be entering a 'plate' competition introduced this year by England Squash following lobbying by counties, including from Norfolk Junior Squash.
Report by Steve Rawsthorne
Norfolk Boys U17
The Norfolk U17 boys squash team travelled to Amersham, Buckinghamshire to play the hosts and previous U17 Inter Counties champions, Cambridgeshire.
Norfolk started against Cambridgeshire with Luke Perry at No 3 string comfortably winning 3-1, while Jordan Creed at No 5 string also won comfortably 3-0 to get Norfolk in a good position.
Harry Taylor at No 1, playing up an age category at only 14 years old, fought hard to lose to Declan Osborne from Cambs 3-2, while Tom Morris struggled to find his form losing 3-0. Victory over Cambridgeshire was no longer a certainty and it was down to the No 2 string Joe Bolt to win for his county, which he did comfortably beating Steve Mason 3-0. Norfolk beat Cambridgeshire by 16 points to 7.
The scene was set for a tense showdown between Norfolk and Buckinghamshire, who beat Cambridgeshire earlier in the day by 17–6, for the top spot. Luke Perry struggled at times to maintain his focus in some tense rallies and never gave up winning eventually 3-2. Meanwhile Jordan Creed's opponent played good accurate shots quickly to keep Jordan on the back foot. Jordan fought hard and never gave up to win a game before losing 3-1.
Harry Taylor had to concentrate hard to get a game against Bucks No 1 losing eventually 3-1. It was now down to Tom Morris and Joe Bolt to win, however, Tom's opponent proved too strong forcing many errors to win 3-0. Joe Bolt, now playing for Norfolk pride, went down 2-0 but came back to win 3-2. Final score: Norfolk 8 - Bucks 18.
Final Scores: Bucks 35, Norfolk 24, Cambridgeshire 13
Report by Andy Trim
Norfolk Boys U13
With Norfolk's U13 Boys playing Inter Counties for the first time, there was great anticipation among the team.
In the first match against Worcestershire, Norfolk got off to a great start with Alex Coburn winning 3-0 at 3rd string, and Adam Crafer recovered superbly from 0-2 to record a 3-2 win. With Worcestershire being unable to field a full team, the 5th string match was conceded, and Norfolk claimed the match win. With the difficult task of playing at No 1, Lasith Ranasinghe nevertheless put in another good performance and looked set to consolidate the win before his opponent recovered to take a 3-2 victory. Ezekiel Perry playing at No 4, was unable to trouble his opponent going down 3-0.
Final Match Result Norfolk 16 Worcestershire 8
Against host county Leicestershire, Alex Coburn took the first two games with some consistent and accurate straight drives before tiring to allow his opponent to take a 3-2 win. Samuel Henden, stepping in at No 5 was slow to start but upped his game and matching his opponent stroke for stroke. Unfortunately crucial errors cost him dearly, and he narrowly lost the last games to go down 3-0. Younger brother William followed at 4th String, and again looked set for a win when taking the fourth game comfortably to level his match at 2-2 with both players playing some great angles and drops. The gritty Leicester opponent however had other ideas and fought hard for the 3-2 match win to put Leicester in a 3-0 winning position. At the top of the order both Lasith Ranasinghe and Adam Crafer ran their opponents close but went down 3-0 and 3-1 respectively.
Final Match Result Norfolk 5 Leicestershire 20
In the final match against North Wales, each of the Welsh opponents proved slightly too strong for the Norfolk players and they took the match without dropping a game. Ezekiel Perry however showed great improvement from his first match, and both Adam Crafer and William Henden were very unlucky not to win at least one game.
Final Match Result Norfolk 0 North Wales 20
| 1st | North Wales | 56pts |
| 2nd | Leicestershire | 45pts |
| 3rd | Norfolk | 21pts |
| 4th | Worcestershire | 14pts |
Report by Tony Henden
Norfolk Girls U13
Playing at Lime Tree Road in Norwich, Lauren Eves, Emma Lines and Ailish Reeson were playing together as a team for the first time, against Hertfordshire and Essex.
Although they lost all their games, the girls played extremely well some of them were very close, the enthusiasm was fantastic.
Some of the game play deserved a better result but the line between success and failure is very fine, especially with the American scoring system of a point per rally. Hertfordshire came out top winning all their matches except one, against Essex.
Alongside this there was a friendly under 11 girls competition against Herts as well to give them some experience. Alice Fuller, Olivia Boyce and Katie Cox represented Norfolk, putting in a lot of effort and gaining some valuable experience.
Special thanks to Sian Eves who took control of this competition and organised all the matches and scoring.
| Final Score: | Norfolk 0 | Herts 3 |
| Essex 1 | Herts 2 | |
| Norfolk 0 | Essex 3 |
Report by Carl Eves
Pictured is the Norfolk Under13 Boys squash team.
