East Senior Ranking and Junior B Report

East Junior B/Senior Ranking Event

Hosted by Colinton Castle

29^th & 30^th August

Sponsored by Technifibre

This year’s event saw 56 entrants from across Scotland come together for 2 days of competition. The event was split into 7 divisions.

All players arrived on Saturday for a 9:30am eager to get the competition started. The event started off with Qualifying 5 & 6 producing 3 early morning 5 set matches which all ended in wins for the lower seeded player. Qualifying 3 & 4 all went with seeding’s apart from Hugo MacPherson producing an upset by defeating Fraser Laing 3-0 in a high quality match. The next 5 matches in qualifying 2 and qualifying 1 all ended in wins for the lower seeded player. Straightforward 3-0 wins for Martin Ross and James Singh rounded off the morning’s qualification.

The afternoon commenced with all (bar one) of the matches in division 4,5,6 & 7 going to seeding’s. Special mention goes to Adam Hunter & Sandy Niven who played an exceptional match against each other. Both players showed fantastic competitive spirit while both remaining courteous to the referee and each other. The match ended in a 3-2 win to Adam. Division 3 saw all the players who had only qualified for the division after their wins in the morning beat their higher ranked opponents. The days competition was rounded off by Ross Mowat beating his higher ranked opponent Ian Prott in division 2 and Martin Ross coming from 2-0 down to beat Colinton Local Jonathan McBride 3-2.

The start of day 2 again saw players arrive eager to get started with the competition. Court 8 turned into the 5 setter court with the 1^st 3 matches all going the distance. A special mention again goes to Christopher Horsburgh & Catherine Edwards who both played their part in a very competitive yet sporting match. The result saw Catherine come out on top 3-2. The rest of the mornings matches saw most of them going to seedings. The match of the morning award goes to Georgia Adderley and Daniel O’Sullivan which saw Georgia defeat Daniel 3-2 after 40 minutes. Both players kept their cool and played high quality squash throughout the match.

The afternoon saw the finals commence which all took place on court 5 under the watchful eye of Scottish Referee Mike Halpin. The first final saw Hamish Buchanan over power Steven Hill but the second final on court was a very hard fought 3-2 match between East rivals Anna Hallam & Adam Young. This encounter saw Anna end victorious. The next 2 finals saw Central players Maddie Orr & Christopher Martin beat their opponents 3-0. In other news there were some very close 5 set matches between some of Scotland’s girls. Jennifer Riches overcame Catherine Edwards in Division 7 while in Division 6 Beth Moglia gained her first win over Lucy Murchie. Both matches showed Scotland’s has a good future ahead of it in terms of Junior Girls Squash. Moving on to Division 3 which saw Georgia Adderley win another highly competitive match to become Champion of the division. In Division 2 Alasdair Prott won another long match 3-1 against Stuart Pitt while in Division 1 top seed Rory Stewart see off Michael Ross 3-0

A variety of thanks goes to the following people……

• Archie McCue, George Purves & Bill Brown from Colinton for hosting the event & providing refreshments throughout both days
• Mike Halpin, Adam Hill, Christy Looby, Iain Clark & Mark Adderley for providing refereeing throughout the weekend
• All players involved in the event for taking their turns refereeing when required & being ready for their match on time. It helps the event to run smoothly
• All parents for supporting the event & bringing the players
• Guest stars Alan Clyne & Jamie Henderson for presenting prizes

Prize Winners

Special Prizes were given out to a number of young players who were involved in some tough 5 set matches. During these matches the players managed to remain calm & respectful to both each other & the referee. They were rewarded for their exceptional behaviour, sportsmanship & competitiveness.

The players were…..

Christopher Horsburgh
Catherine Edwards
Jennifer Riches
Beth Moglia
Lucy Murchie
Adam Hunter
Sandy Niven

Well done to all.

A final thank you from myself to everyone who attended the event as a player, parent or just as a spectator. Thank you for making the event so easy to run and I hope to see everyone again next year.

Claire Gray, East Junior Convenor