East Glos Junior Squash Mavericks kick it up a notch

by Julian Wellings | 23 March 2022 | juniors, squash, tournaments

By Mark Toseland, East Glos Squash Manager

Two recent junior bronze tournaments in Bristol and Bath with the Surrey Gold in between provided plenty of tournament play for the East Glos Junior Mavericks to continue learning their craft and test those they come up against.

6th March saw a group head to the University of Bristol to compete in their inaugural event.

That provided some excellent quality match play. This time, a smaller number of us got stuck in with some great performances again from everyone taking part.

As the organiser of the event, watching matches is nigh on impossible. However, I get to watch the interactions between people and see them support each other while sitting on the main balcony in the venue. It’s always great to witness.

There’s certainly a great connection developing between players beyond just the East Glos contingent. Seeing fellow county representative players support each other is fantastic.

Matthew Leung (pictured with Mark) also stepped it up a notch for a challenge and entered his first Bu15 event. He finished up as runner up with a great battle. he narrowly lost out in the final to an opponent whose leg is the same size as him!

Harry Wallace is keeping up the consistency and nailed another third-place finish. Some influential onlookers were impressed with his squash nous and could see his potential.

Rosa Gray recorded her first win while winning a music performance event in Bristol during the same day. She played squash and then went off to perform her piano recital at the Bristol Festival of Music, Drama and Dance in between each match. There’s multi-tasking, and then there’s multi performing. Huge respect from the coaching team on that one, Rosa.

Furthermore, there were some great performances for our elders of the Jamie and Joe Show and Santiago Castromil playing in his first tournament and coming home with a win in his final match.

There were big smiles all around, and everyone enjoyed having fun playing and being with each other. A great environment to be a part of.

Final results

• Bu11: Johan Harmer – 3rd (also Mixed u9 winner)
• Bu13: Harry Wallace – 3rd; Santiago Castromil – 13th (first tournament)
• Bu15: Matthew Leung – 2nd (First Bu15 event); Will Franklin – 4th (Gloucestershire player); Toby Nock – 6th (Gloucestershire Player); Seamus Parker – 7th
• Bu17: Owen Miessner – 6th (Gloucestershire player); Sacha Cooper – 7th (Gloucestershire Player); Jamie Mazzocchi – 8th
• Bu19: Joseph Tyler – 11th
• Gu15: Sophie Rowley – 6th (Gloucestershire Player); Rosa Gray – 7th
• Gu19: Hannah Rowley – 2nd (Gloucestershire player); Daisy Hartson – 5th and runner up for Gu17 (Gloucestershire player)

20th March saw a trip down to Bath to revisit the first event we all went to as a group before lockdown.

This time, a smaller number of us got stuck in with some great performances again from everyone taking part.

Harry Wallace made his first final in a Bu13 bronze event with some fantastic performances throughout the day. There were further comments from influential coaches who were really impressed about his squash awareness and decision making on court.

Rosa Gray took a first-round win in the Gu15, which cements her in the top half of the draw. She finished seventh out of 16 after taking a win over county teammate Sophie Rowley in their final match of the evening.

It was great to be back in the corner of the bar area where we had gathered two years previously and keep the community spirit alive as we did then. I think next time, we’ll take our camping gear and pitch up properly as we seem to be making a home for ourselves during the event.

Final standings

• Bu13: Harry Wallace – 2nd
• Bu15: Toby Nock – 6th (Gloucestershire Player); Joseph Price – 9th (Gloucestershire Player); Olly Beardsall – 10th (Gloucestershire Player)
• Gu15: Rosa Gray – 7th; Sophie Rowley – 8th (Gloucestershire Player)