March 2009 - More Gloucestershire Success at U13 and U17 Inter-County Championships
March 2009 - At the Under 13 & 17 Inter County Championships in Wellingborough, Gloucestershire had three teams into the final four positions.
The Gloucestershire teams of under 17 boys, under 13 girls under 13 boys all won their semi’s to go through to contest their finals. Both the
under 13 teams came a very creditable second, but the under 17 boys were in a determined frame of mind as both they, and their opponents
Yorkshire had won their semi finals 5-0 so everyone knew it was going to be tough. First on was the number 3 Tom Ford who won routinely 3-0,
followed by the number 5 Rory Birtwistle who went 8 match balls down in the fourth game before winning the fifth, this was followed by the
number 4 Mark Broekman, who was 2-0 up when his opponent was injured and had to take time out, allowing the number one’s to go on,
Gloucestershire’s Nathan Lake (England No. 3) and Yorkshire’s James Earle (England No. 1). Nathan raced to a 2-0 lead, James fought
back strongly in the third but he couldn’t stop Nathan from winning the game 12-10 for his first win over the England No. 1, and
clinching the title for Gloucestershire, Mark’s opponent then retired without resuming play before Sam Davidson (Welsh No. 2)
beat the England No. 8 George Wileman for a total white wash. Another great weekend for Gloucestershire!
Gloucestershire Boys are British U19 Champions:
March 2009 - Gloucestershire Success at Harris Inter-County Championships
National Champion Anthony Graham has led the Gloucestershire U19 team to victory in the Harris Inter-County Championships
2009 at the National Squash Centre in Manchester.
After a 4-1 win over Yorkshire in the Semi-final the Gloucestershire’s opponents in the final were Surrey.
First up was Mark Broekman who beat Surrey’s Peter Fozard 3/0, then Sam Davidson lost to Michael Robinson 3/1, as Surrey levelled
the tie. Sam Cantle restored the Glos lead as he beat Matthew Costain 3/2. Next, on the all-glass show court came the best games of
the day, seeing Nathan Lake defeat Laurence Bruggeman 3/1, and then Anthony Graham played excellently to beat David Wardle, a
prominent member of the English Under 17 team, also 3 games to 1, thus taking the Championship for Gloucestershire 4 games to 1.
Gloucestershire were also represented at the Finals by their U19 Girls team. A tough opener saw Gloucestershire slip to a 4-1 defeat
against Northumbria but the girls bounced back with an excellent performance on Sunday beating Surrey 3-2 to clinch 3rd place.
Surry got off to a strong start with Claire Wright and Rhian Skinner winning against Sammy Blundell and Hattie Crawford, but then
Gloucestershire powered back with three great wins by Emily Penkett, Rebecca Quiney and Julianne Courtice to turn the tie on its head.
Ant Graham Wins British U19 Championship:
Feb 2009 - Anthony Graham, a former pupil at Wycliffe College, was crowned British Under 19 Junior Squash Champion
at the weekend, effectively making him the best junior in Britain.
Anthony started playing squash in September 2001 after attending a taster day at Stratford Park leisure centre.
Howard Smith took this session and afterwards he suggested that Anthony join the Wycliffe Junior Club. He spent
a year under the wing of Howard Smith and Nick Smolinski before joining Wycliffe on a squash scholarship. Anthony
was at Wycliffe for 6 years and during that time it was clear that he had a special talent.
After leaving Wycliffe in July 2008 he decided to play full time in the hope of playing for England in the forthcoming
European junior team championships which are in Germany. Destiny appears to be on his side as he turns 19 the day
after the championships finish!
Winning the British Closed was always a goal and his training and tournament planning was carefully planned around this.
He spent most of his time from September to December at Wycliffe and in Oxford where he plays national league, and
since January he has been mainly based at the Edgbaston Priory club where Mike Edwards is the resident professional.
There he was able to get on court with a host of professional players.
Anthony arrived in Manchester for the British Championships in excellent form. He was as fit as he had ever been and
in his own words “playing the best squash of my life”.
Anthony has a reputation of not killing his opponents off as quickly as possible and often drops unnecessary games.
He managed to polish off his first 3 opponents without dropping a game and this proved to be a major factor in his
triumph. His semi final was against the England number 2 and former 2 times British Champion Chris Fuller. Anthony
won the first game with a display of accurate and disciplined squash. The second game saw Anthony stray from his
game plan and resulted in him losing the game. He scraped the 3rd game and lost the 4th taking the match into a
decider. Anthony worked his way to 10-8 match ball but Chris drew level at 10-10. Anthony dug deep and won the
next 2 points to take his place in the final after 98 minutes of gruelling squash.
His opponent in the final was Welsh number 1, and close friend Hywel Robinson. Anthony had beaten him on the
3 previous occasions that they had played this season so the odds were in his favour. He started off well and won
the first 2 games with a very dominant display. He led 10-9 match point in the 3rd only to give it away with a risky
error. Hywel went on to take the 3rd game. Anthony came out strong in the 4th and led 8-4 only to lose the next 7 points and the game to take it into yet another decider. Again Anthony had a good lead of 9-5 but yet again he could
not seem to close it out and Hywel brought the game back to 9-9. A fortunate decision from the referee gave
Anthony championship point at 10-9 but Hywel won the next point to take the match into another decider. It
looked like Anthony had blown his chances but fortune favours the brave, and brave he was, he won the next
2 points and with it the title of British Junior Champion 2009!
His coach Dave Morrish said this was one of the proudest moments of his squash coaching career and believes
he has the potential follow in Alister Walker’s footsteps.
Anthony’s success has been rewarded with a place in the England team which will contest the European Under 19
team championships in Germany from 4-12 April.
Kip Quiney and Matthew Bedwell have also been selected to represent England in the forthcoming Home
Internationals in Ireland.
This is the 3rd British Squash Champion Gloucestershire has produced this season (Julianne Courtice under
17 girls champion and Ellie Lake under 13 girls champion).
British Title Wins In Girls U17 And U13 Events:
Nov 2008 - The last Gloucestershire player to win a national junior title was Chris Tasker Grindley
back in 2004. Before that one would need to go back to the mid 80’s when Fiona Geaves and
Lucy Souter were winning national titles.
At the recent National junior championships held in Wimbledon, Julianne Courtice and
Ellie Lake were crowned British Junior Champions.
Julianne started off the Under 17 girls tournament as number 2 seed and brushed aside
all her opposition in reaching the final where she faced Emily Whitlock, who had
caused the biggest upset of the tournament by beating the top seed in the last 8.
Julianne started off like a steam train and quickly went 2 games up. She was leading
in the 3rd game and the title looked like it was in the bag. Emily had other ideas
and dug deep to take the 3rd game. Julianne managed to re-compose herself and took
the 4th game very convincingly, and the title with it.
Ellie Lake was the favourite for the under 13 girls title but recent results had
indicated that any of the top 6 players were capable on their day of taking the title.
This was no more evident in the quarter finals where Ellie played Rhianne O’Donnell
from Somerset, number 5 in England. This game went all the way with Ellie snatching
victory in the 5th game. She didn't look back after that and won the semi finals in
convincing form beating Ellie Epke of Bristol 3-0 having lost to her in her previous
tournament. She rounded off a great tournament by winning the final 3-1 and making it
2 national titles for Gloucestershire.
This was not the only Gloucestershire success at the weekend. Ellie’s brother Nathan
came 3rd in the boys under 17 event after taking out the British number 1 in the quarters.
He was outplayed in the semi finals by a very talented player from Yorkshire but re-grouped
to win the 3rd place match. This performance puts him in great stead to represent England
in the forthcoming European championships in April.
To round off a great Gloucestershire performance at the national championships, Rebecca
Quiney finished 7th in the girls under 17 event; Kyran Young came 7th in the boys under
13 event and Kip Quiney came 8th in the girls under 13 event.
Gloucestershire squash is probably the healthiest it has ever been and the future looks
incredibly bright with 22 Gloucestershire players ranked in the top 20 in England in various age groups.
