2026 County Closed/Open

On Saturday, May 30^th, Abingdon Squash Club together with Radley College played host to the 2026 County Closed/Open Championships.

Trumpeted widely from early March, 93 players eventually subscribed to take part across seven graded categories. This represented a near 40% increase in uptake since this tournament was properly revived in 2023.

Assiduously organised by the County Coach, Mrs Varrie was duly despatched to control events at Radley in the morning whilst Jason remained at HQ (Abingdon) to oversee the matches there.

Contrary to the overall trend, a sadly small field competed for the title of overall County Champion (the one pision that was closed). In a repeat of the previous year’s denouement, Jason Varrie (Hithercroft) successfully defended the title defeating James McCouat (University) 3-0. The latter was doubtless suffering from a 45 minute battle in the semis with top County junior, Kacper Kwiecinski (Abingdon) but this was a great achievement by the victor some 15 years his senior.

In the A Grade Ladies and a week before she was to become the over 45’s Champion at the British Open Masters, Caroline Hazlewood (Wheatley Park) recovered from going a set behind to Leah Beglan (University) to lift the crown 2-11, 11-9, 12-10, 11-7.

Top seedings also went to plan in the B Grade (2500+ squash levels) where David Ridgeway (Defence Academy) justified his number one status with victory over Charlie Cunningham (University) in a gritty five setter, taking the decider 11-8 after more than three quarters of an hour combat.

In a draw comprising 32 participants, Tom Riley (Hithercroft) provided somewhat of an upset by seeing off the favourite and top seed Sarah Parr in the last four of the C Grade (1500+). Perhaps this marathon contest allied to a gruelling last 16 encounter with Tom Poole (Abingdon) contributed to a little fatigue but typically, no excuses from this popular chap on the County circuit as he was beaten by second seed Oleksii Matiunin in the Final. Three of the four semi-finalists in this category play outside of Oxfordshire but they are very welcome indeed and have helped to set a far higher bar.

Indeed, it was another from beyond the county lines who bagged the D Grade (500+) title with Edward Hughes-Byrne eking out an 11-5 win in the decider to eventually resist the determined challenge of University’s Brian Chan.

Completing matters in the main sections, Tim Tolerton landed the E Grade beating Richard Hindley three straight, whilst Emma Gordon became Ladies B Grade Champ after a comparatively easy 11-4 11-4 11-2 win in the Final over Jackie Zambon. She had earlier survived an arduous ordeal with top seed Sarah Peddle.

All in all, a great day for playing and viewing squash – a chance to get yourself on the Honours Board or take the opportunity to cheer along your friends and/or teammates.

At Oxfordshire Squash, we are very grateful once again to Alan Horton and his committee at Abingdon for hosting as well as to Radley College for becoming part of what we hope may become a long association.

Thanks also to Geoff Walton for helping to fund the awards, to AllSports who provided and inscribed them and to Jon Pratt of Carterton and Witney who presented most of them!

A special mention must go to Trade Transfers who supplied the beloved tournament T Shirts and at a great discount. Click on http://www.tradetransfers.com/ to view their website – they thoroughly deserve this unashamed plug!

Finally, Jason (and Mrs V) – brilliant, this event would not happen without you (but we do need someone to perhaps prevent the hat trick next year!).

Pictures of the various gong recipients are below and full results can be found at https://www.sportyhq.com/tournament/view/Oxfordshire-County-Championships