Archive News
Right royal squash performances on court
William, Harry and Sophie put in royal court performances at this year's Norfolk Junior Squash County Closed Championships, which saw over 70 entries in ten age groups at the East Anglia club in Norwich last weekend (September 26 and 27).
Harry Taylor stepped up to win the Boys Under 17 and U19 titles, Eastern Regional champion, William Henden secured both the boys U11 and U13 titles and Sophie Hodges went one better by winning the girls U15, U17 and U19 titles.
In the girls events, Bonnie Butler gained a close 3-1 victory in the U11 age group over Katie Cox, and last year's U11 champion, Ailish Reeson, moved up to U13 and proved too strong for Alice Heffer with a comfortable 3-0 win.
In the well attended boys events, current Norfolk and East Region U11 Champion Will Henden had to resist a superb effort from Milo Butler in a match full of great rallies, before coming out on top 13/11,8/11,12/10,5/11,11/6, to retain the Trophy. Daniel Heffer gained a well deserved plate win over Charlie Simpson 3-0.
The Boys U15 competition saw a full entry of 16 players take part, and produced several great 4 and 5 game matches. The top two seeds, Lasith Ranasinghe and Adam Crafer, met in the final with Lasith easing to the first game. Hard-hitting Adam then started to produce errors from Lasith and Adam ran out the winner 3-1. Tom Snowling recorded three straight 3-0 wins to clinch the Boys U15 Plate over Martin Jolly.
The Boys U13 Final threw together the U11 and U15 champions, Will Henden and Adam Crafer. William moved into an early lead and crucially saved several game points in the second to go 2-0 up. Although Adam came back to 1-2 William was able to clinch the fourth game with some well placed shots to win 3-1. William's brother Samuel defeated Kieran Dodman 3-0 to win the Boys U13 Plate.
The Boys U17 event saw 16 entries with notable quarter final wins in five sets for battling No 3 seed Tom Morris over Adam Sinkins and equally combative No 4 seed Alex Williams over Alex Oliver.
Jordan Creed and Harry Taylor proved too strong in the semis and a consistent and measured performance from Harry showed his greater experience and court know-how to win the title 3-0 over Jordan. Oli Bacon-Hilton beat Jamie Foyster 3-2 in a very close Plate final.
In the U19 Boys, Jordan and Harry again met in the final, this time in a much closer affair. Harry's controlled game continued to stretch a very hard-running opponent and both produced some thrilling rallies and astounding returns, with Harry securing a narrower 3-1 double title win. Connor Doy upset the odds and came back from 2-0 down to beat Jack Bell 3-2 in the Plate final.
The older girls events had fewer entries. In the U15 final Sophie Hodges comfortably beat Jade Spalding 3-0.
The U17 Girls final was a family affair with Sophie proving too strong for older sister Jenny Hodges. It was the same in the U19 final with Sophie again producing the more consistent game and killer shots to do the double over Jenny.
Pictured are all the winners from the Norfolk Junior Closed Championship.
