County Tournaments

Around 60 players gathered at Abingdon Squash Club on Saturday, May 31^st to contest the various grades in the annual Oxfordshire County Closed/Open.

Play began at 9am on all four courts and there was barely a gap in proceedings on any of them until the last rites around 10pm.

By that time, a new name was to appear on the Men’s A Grade Roll of Honour but a rather more familiar one on the Ladies equivalent. There had also been the privilege of watching the Match of the Day between Master and Apprentice as well as bearing witness to the rise of a new, (very) young star.

The Men’s A Grade provided the ‘Closed’ part of the tournament but sadly the previous two champions (Messers Hedger and Brooke) were unable to commit. Competition organiser and County Coach Jason Varrie was installed as favourite and Number One Seed and he eased his way into the final without dropping a game.

In the semis, he benefited from the retirement through injury of Kacper Kwiecinski (the Apprentice) who overcame the Master, Ben Rosec (his coach), in an enthralling cliff-hanger of a quarter-final, prevailing 14-12 in the fifth.

Almost equalling this for suspense was the spirited comeback by second seed James McCouat, recovering from losing the opening two games to defeat his County team-mate James Hempstead and book a date with Varrie to decide the spoils.

Sadly for the University player, this proved a match too far and Jason was crowned the new County Champion following a 3-1 victory.

For the Ladies A comp, a slightly different format with 5 players contesting a round robin set up. After a year blighted by injury and fears as to whether she may be able to even get on court again, it was great to have Michelle Knight back to defend the trophy and she did so quite emphatically defeating all four of her rivals including fellow England International, Caroline Hazlewood.

Elsewhere, a 13 year old was seeded 2 in the C Grade. Quite an achievement to have attained a 1500+ squash level at such a tender age, bettered more so by the fact that Toby Rider also represents his country. He got through his last 8 match defeating the much improved James Taylor of Abingdon 3-0 but William Stewart (one of the Spiceball Platypuses) cut short the fairytale, defeating the youngster in four to advance to the final. William though was to pay for his ‘misdemeanour’ and succumbed 3-2 to Jon Pratt, the RAF man from Carterton, who had to his great delight (and doubtless that of his entire military branch) defeated a representative of the Royal Engineers in his semi final!

In another remarkable reversal of fortune, that tricky left-hander Patrick Middleton overturned a 2-0 deficit against fellow Abingdon team-mate, Donovan Eastes, to progress to the B Grade Final. Delays on the Show-Court (glass-backed and with a video link to the bar!), principally down to the Rosec/Kwiecinski classic, resulted in a very late start to this encounter and a very short turnaround for the leftie victor. His opponent from Hithercroft, Chris Lewis-Brown, might argue though, with some validity, that his exceptionally long wait to take his place alongside Middleton had led to the onset of rigor mortis. Either way, the Abingdon man won a very tight affair 11-8 in the fifth.

Alex Bozon, a teenager who hits the ball almost as hard as former Aussie pro Cameron Pilley (look up his world record!), abandoned his other predilection for boasting and duly won the D Grade with victory over the extremely colourful and enthusiastic Jack Taylor, a man who really loves the game!

In the various plate competitions, the fast progressing Charlie Naylor took the A Grade, James Hicks the B, Martin Packman, he of the flowing locks, the C and that wily old fox, Richard Kellagher, the D.

Also featuring a round robin format, the Ladies B Grade was won by Jane Robinson who had to overcome a number of young guns to succeed, most notably perhaps, future county stars Sophie Coles and Maja Kwiecinski.

A long but most enjoyable day and a great deal of gratitude is due to Jason Varrie for his administrative prowess. Big thanks too to Alan Horton and his team at Abingdon S/C for hosting us and to Mike Beck for dealing expertly with the various award ceremonies.

For a full set of results, follow this link – https://www.sportyhq.com/tournament/view/Oxfordshire-County-Tournament-2

6.40pm but still engrossed with the action! The Master (Ben Rosec – with water bottle) perhaps contemplating what might have been!

Nigel Rowe advising Paddy Middleton, but not all attendees found the squash so engrossing!