Racquets boys top national squash ranking tournament

RISING young squash player, Ben Hedger took his first Under 17s, Open tournament title last weekend on his home turf of Racquets Fitness Centre, in Thame.

Nick Harbour (Oxon) and Marcus Connor (Bucks)

A total of 60 players of high national rankings and aged 8 through to 16 came from all over the country to compete in one of the England Squash national ranking tournaments.

There were concerns before the tournament as Ben had been suffering from an injury that was stopping him from training and meant that he had to take a month off. He started playing again just three weeks before the tournament. Despite this, Ben played extremely well throughout the tournament, particularly having to dig deep in the semi-final against Wycliffe, England International, Nathan Mead, after being 2 games to 0 down.

The final was a very close fought game where Ben overcame Cameron Haddow from Suffolk in an exciting match, 3 games to 2. Ben’s coach, Simon Martin, said: “Ben really showed he has the talent to win Under 17 open tournaments and we hope he will take this win with him to the next one and make winning them standard practice. Ben plays for the Racquets men’s 1st team in the Oxfordshire leagues which provides plenty of tough match experience to ensure tournament wins in the future.”

Another one of Racquets’ juniors also did extremely well. Nick Harbour didn’t meet his local rival and Number One seed, Marcus Tranter in the final, as Marcus had been knocked out by Marcus Connor, from Aylesbury Grammar School. Marcus’s technique was excellent but Nick was too clever at the front with great touch and deception. Nick will now hope to move into the top 20 in the country in the Under 15 rankings as a result of this, his first Under 15 Junior Open tournament win.

Simon Martin, one of Nick’s coaches said: “Nick has shown great guts and determination in recent weeks as well as being immensely talented and a particularly polite lad. His parents were very proud, and both myself and Nick’s other coach, club Professional, Will John, have been very impressed with his improvement over the last six months maintaining a regular spot in the men’s teams playing in the Oxfordshire Inter-club league.”

The third Racquets’ players in the tournament this year was Ollie Coulcher-Porter. The Under 11s representation was extremely strong and despite losing the first round, Ollie went through to win the final of the plate.

Racquets coach, Sue Martin-Downhill, said: “Ben, Nick and Ollie are great ambassadors for squash and we are extremely proud of all of them. Their behaviour on court was impeccable; they helped run the tournament and marked games whenever asked. Winning the age groups was just the icing on the cake!

“We’d like to thank the sponsors of the tournament Technifibre and Meritus International Hotels for their prizes for the winners.”

Racquets is fast becoming a proving ground for great squash players, providing top class coaching here in Thame. Anyone interested in taking up a sport which is fun, but one that can also be taken up seriously, need look no further than just behind Thame’s famous Cattle Market in North Street.