Squash youngsters put on a fine show
The Bulter & Mulhern Shetland squash under-19, under-17 and under-15 championships were held last weekend.
In the boys’ under-15s, under-19s and girls’ under-19s it was a story of retained titles with Lorne McNiven, Hannah Garrick and David Thomson playing some excellent squash, although they did have to work very hard for their victories with each final going to four sets.
The runners up Patrick Nicol, Lauren Hogg and Calvin Leask took early leads and played a high level of squash but were unable to sustain it.
Two new faces Michael Thomson and Callum MacFarlane contested the under-19 plate final. Both players are more used to playing adults than juniors and this made it a great to watch with long rallies and a lot of corner shots. Michael edged ahead to win.
The under-17 trophy was won by the highest finish under 17 this year, the winner of the third and fourth place play-off between Kevin Moar and Ellis Robb. Both players are incredibly fast around court and no normal paced game was ever an option. Kevin won 37-32.
Sam Maver and Stuart Ferguson did well, competing against boys two years their senior and with good technical squash managed to score 37 and 25 points against them. That left Sam and Stuart to play off for third place with one of the tightest matches with Sam just managing to win 11-10 in the deciding game.
Sean, for the second year in a row, had to play the number one seed in his first two matches. However, he did not let this faze him. After getting to grips with David’s shots he managed to take him all the way in the second game and David only just closed it out 11-10. Unfortunately after the game he picked up an injury and was unable to move further up the rankings.
Hannah, Lauren Hogg and Leanne Jamieson took up the challenge of playing the boys and did not disappoint. They won some matches and scored a lot of points in the matches they did not win even with the increased number of games they needed to play.
The longest match was a repeat of last year’s plate final between Frank Garrick and Jack Howarth, both players hitting the ball hard and wide – not a game for the light hearted. After what seemed like an eternity Jack won the deciding game 11-10.
Sophie Kelman was struggling with a bug and was unable to compete in the boys’ event but showed a lot of courage and determination to compete in the girls’ event, scoring a respectable 34 points.
In the under-15 girls’ event Anna Macaulay met Karis Burns in the final. Anna won 3-2 in sets (7-11, 11-9, 7-11, 11-7, 11-5) in what was a very close match.
Under-19 rankings: 1 David Thomson; 2 Calvin Leask; 3 Kevin Moar; 4 Ellis Robb; 5 Michael Thomson; 6 Callum MacFarlane; 7 Hannah Garrick; 8 Sean Maver; 9 Jack Howarth; 10 Lorne McNiven; 11 Lauren Hogg; 12 Frank Garrick; 13 Patrick Nicol; 14 Leanne Jamieson.
Girls’ under-17 rankings: 1 Hannah Garrick; 2 Lauren Hogg; 3 Leanne Jamieson; 4 Sophie Kelman.
Boys’ under-15 rankings: 1 Lorne Mcniven; 2 Patrick Nicol; 3 Sam Maver; 4 Stuart Ferguson.
A spokesman thanked the SIC sports and leisure service for funding to support coaching and sponsors Bulter & Mulhern for the tournament prizes.
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Copland shot power too much for oppositon
The Bulter & Mulhern Shetland squash under-13 and under-11 championships was held at the weekend.
After 25 matches the under- 13 champion was Stuart Copland whose shot power was just to strong for the rest. Josie Wishart did run him a close second place with a great short game.
The plate winner was Cameron Garrick who recovered well with some solid squash. The plate runner up and under-11 winner was Andrew Bain who kept his focus well after some tough matches early on. Emma Niven took the girls’ under-13 title while also finishing eighth in the boys’ draw and adapted well against the boys in her first tournament.
There were seven matches which went against the seeding and of these three went the full three games. The first had only four points separating the two as Liam came back from behind to beat Omar 33-29 after some promising squash from both players.
The longest game of the tournament was between Ryan and Cameron. This match contained a lot of deep driving and clean shots and in the end only four points separated the pair as Ryan won 32-28.
The third three-setter saw Drew come back with some high serving to beat Kyle by two games to one. The match was so close that they both finished on 27 points.
Both Mark and Joe adapted well to the Lerwick courts and played nice squash in their first Shetland tournament. Joseph, Kyle and Omar managed to score a good number of points in all their games. Final ranks: 1 Stuart Copland; 2 Josie Wishart; 3 Mark Ferguson; 4 Ryan Kirk; 5 Cameron Garrick; 6 Andrew Bain; 7 Craig Smith; 8 Emma Niven; 9 Joe Niven; 10 Drew Cooper; 11 Liam Thomson; 12 Joseph Morgan; 13 Kyle Disbury; 14 Omar Ali.
A spokesman thanked the SIC sports and leisure service for funding to support coaching the youngsters and sponsors Bulter & Mulhern for the tournament prizes.
