National and International players attracted to Squash Tournament

THE RACQUETS’ Open Squash Doubles Tournament held in Thame this week, April 23/25, 2010, attracted entries from all over the UK and even included one from Australia. As it was a graded event, the tournement also attracted a number of social players, junior and senior, and was sub-divided into mens, ladies and mixed Categories.

The ladies event was won by the Ealing pairing of Helen Creak and Stacey Sephton (Australian Sydney province champion) with a good effort from Anne Terry (Racquets ladies 1st team) and emerging Racquets Junior, Aisling Guerzoni, as runners up.

In the mixed event the Ealing pairing of James Tewson and Stacy Sephton proved too strong for the Somerset pair of Martin and Tessa (ex England under 19s international) Healey. The mens tournament was a great affair with several new pairings put together in an effort to try and beat last year’s champions and the professional pairing from Birmingham.

Local players, Simon Martin and Tom Power, were beaten 11/10 in the final game after a very close match in which, with the score at 2 games all, they were leading 10/5 to the eventual losing finalists, Guy Tupper & Jo Brooke (recently selected to represent England at junior level).

Another local pairing of Will John (Welsh junior international) and Dave Herron did well to overcome Mark Webster and Clive Johnstone but went on to lose in the semi finals to the pro?s who proved too strong for them.

Surely after an amazing and tiring semi final Tupper and Brooke would not be able to defeat the Berks doubles champions Paul Johnston and Simon Rodwell? However, they dug deep and produced yet another classic 11/10 victory on the 5th game to reach the final. But, with a combination of tiredness and the superb touches and movement of the pros, they went down 3/0 to Chris Truswell and Jamie Haycocks in the final.

Racquets are indebted to the tournament sponsors, Terry Bradon, Eddy Smythe and Brian Cummings for their generosity in putting up the