Beds County Closed 2013
Successful County Champs relaunch Beds
It’s been 3 years since the last Beds Closed took place in a very cold set of courts on the site that is now Lewsey Sports Park and no one can remember clearly the last time a Junior Closed was held.
So it was on the weekend of the 21st September at the much warmer (Ed: very much) courts in Lewsey that the Beds Closed was contested once again. For the first time the adults were split into grades ensuring that all matches were meaningful and lesser players than those of County standard were encouraged to enter. Additionally, two levels of junior completion were held reflecting the entries with an under 17 category and an Under 11 category, both mixed.
As part of the relaunch England Squash and Racketball’s East Region assisted enormously by providing free courts and by the end of Sunday, Steve Davies had emerged victorious in the elite category, with Paul Main in the B category, whilst in the juniors Arjun Vaingankar emerged as winner in the older juniors and 7 year old Natalie Main took the under 11s by the tightest of margins on the previous day.
Whilst the entry level was modest at 9 in each of the adult categories and U17, and 3 under 11s, the aim was to create a festival atmosphere, especially on the Saturday when both adults and juniors played side-by-side. The format was set at 3 groups of 3 with winners subsequently creating a division to sort out rankings 1-3, the seconds places 4-6 and thirds 7-9.
The B category got proceedings underway as Philip Hales from Mowsbury quickly beat brave newcomer Andrew Patrick, also from Mowsbury, whilst Steve McCoy of Flitwick beat LDS’s Mohammed Azam despite not having been able to play for several years due to a long-standing hip injury, for which he awaits an operation. Paul Main from LDS then beat a very nervous Qaier Malik, also from LDS. Philip was clearly keen to get away and watch some rugby and volunteered to play local player and coach John Stevens and it paid dividends as he breezed through 3-0, securing his first place in the group in very quick time.
Then it was time for the big guns as Steve Davies, the number one seed was largely untroubled by Ivan Schimanski of Bunyan. At the same time, young Nathan Derrick of Silsoe despatched the more experienced Trevor Keddo of Flitwick. Multi times winner Steve Barlow of Bunyan carried an injury into the tournament and it showed as he went down to Joe Elfasi and subsequently withdrew.
With the older juniors playing best of 3 to 11 PAR it was a quick fire session from which Mowsbury’s Arjun Vaingankar and his fellow club member Manu Ratnayake joined Biggleswade’s Ross MacKenzie in the top group to decide places 1-3. Ultimately Vaingankar triumphed without dropping a game.
At under 11 it was best of 5 to give them value for money and LDS’s Natalie Main sprung a surprise by beating Fred Steer, 3 years her senior, with comparative ease. LDS’s Sophia John felt the full force of his revenge as she was toppled by the same margin. John then regrouped to despatch Natalie by the same scoreline leading to a frantic search for a calculator! Ultimately, John had garnered a total of 51 points, whilst Steer had won 52 and Main 55!
Back at the main event, LDS youngster Sam McCoy, still playing U15 generally, impressively beat Ivan Schimanski 3-1 to consign Schimanski to third place in the group, whilst Nathan Derrick was too good for the new slimline Matt Mulara of LDS to ensure he would be contesting the top prize on Sunday. On court 5 David Lankester’s lack of recent match practice told as Joe Elfasi ensured he would join Derrick in the top division.
When the B players returned Mohammed Azam lost a titantic struggle against Flitwick veteran David Hare 3-2, consigning him to the bottom group, whilst Qaiser Malik lost to fellow club member Glenn Bush meaning that he joined Azam along with Andrew Patrick who was defeated by John Stevens.
As the first day of competition drew to a close all that was required was to sort out some final places for Sundays ties.
In the main group master, Steve Davies, saw off student Sam McCoy, despite some heroic efforts by young McCoy, whilst Matt Mulara beat Trevor Keddo 3-0, to initially consign Keddo to the bottom rung. (A quick tally of the walking wounded meant that outside the top group only 4 remained so it was agreed to play a knock-out competition for the lower places) The B Grade the match between Glenn Bush and Paul Main could have gone either way with Main prevailing 3-1, but with two games going to tie-breaks and the others to 13, both knew they had been in a battle, with Main joining Steve McCoy and Philip Hales to contest the title.
There weren’t too many bright eyes or bushy tails as contestants arrived at 10am on Sunday morning to complete the tournaments and neither Steve McCoy, nor Paul Main welcomed a 5 game thriller to start, with Main fighting back from 2-0 down to scrape home against an increasingly immobile McCoy, whilst on the other court John Stevens beat Glenn Bush somewhat surprisingly, given Stevens confession that he was battling a hangover, 3-1.
Ivan Schimanski, had clearly picked up an injury from Saturdays play and surrendered rather tamely to Matt Mulara 3-0. On the other court a bad-tempered affair raged which at one point included a court invasion by a parent! After much argument though, Nathan Derrick emerged victorious. In the final early morning match Sam McCoy also picked up an injury and lost 3-1 to Trevor Keddo.
Keddo and Mulara decided to play-off straight away, rather than rest and recover and then proceeded to serve up arguably the game of the tournament with Mulara battling from 2-0 down to triumph and claim 4th spot overall.
The lunchtime matches were comparatively uneventful Philip Hales beating an increasingly uncomfortable Steve McCoy 3-0 to set up a decider against Paul Main and Glenn Bush despatched David Hare with comparative ease. Steve Davies also won with little alarm to set-up a fitting decider between himself and Nathan Derrick. Whilst injuries meant the declaration of a draw between Sam McCoy and Ivan Schimanski.
So onto the final round of matches which started with an upset in the form book with David Hare beating John Stevens 3-0, gifting Glenn Bush 4th place. Next up was the final of the B grade which started off looking like it would be a classic given the players contrasting styles, Hales with his power and touch and Main with his speed, fitness and stamina. Hales took the first 15-12, but midway through the second it was clear that Hales had picked up an injury that severely hampered his movement, spoiling the match as a contest. Despite Hale’s best efforts, Main showed no mercy as he mixed up short shots with wide to move Hales around the court to take the title with a 3-1 win.
The main grade was fittingly decided in a match between the two best players in the tournament, local hero Steve Davies and Nathan Derrick. Whilst Derrick did put Davies under pressure on several occasions Davies held all the cards and eventually emerged victorious, without having dropped a game all tournament.
Winner Steve Davies said afterwards, “"The county championship has always been one of the highlights of the season for me and an event that carries a lot of history. It's great to see it back on the calendar after a couple of years where it was not held. Having the juniors competing again is also so important. As county coach it really gives you a chance to evaluate the pool of talent in a competitive environment."
Steve McCoy, County competitions officer added, “ It was a fantastic tournament! A huge thank you to ESR, LDSC and the local team led by Paul Main, Matt Carey and John Stevens without whom this tournament would not have been such a resounding success
On a personal note, it was great to see old friends competing with such vigour determined for glory and most importantly all of the juniors competing and having fun who will be the future of squash in Bedfordshire.”
All in all a great weekend for Beds squash with Saturday in particular being an excellent day with a fantastic atmosphere on site with juniors and seniors all mixed in. The aim is to have the tournament at a similar time each year and grow the age bands and the adult categories.
Paul Main, tournament organiser, said, “Whilst the entry level was comparatively modest, people have to realise that in Beds we are starting from a very low base and we have to start building from somewhere. I recently learned that in the first ever British Open golf championship there were only 8 entrants and 12 in year 2 – maybe in 150 years time we will be that big, perhaps my grand children will be competing!!!!
Thanks go to East Region of England Squash and Racketball for their invaluable support and Just Rackets for providing the prizes.”
It’s been 3 years since the last Beds Closed took place in a very cold set of courts on the site that is now Lewsey Sports Park and no one can remember clearly the last time a Junior Closed was held.
So it was on the weekend of the 21st September at the much warmer (Ed: very much) courts in Lewsey that the Beds Closed was contested once again. For the first time the adults were split into grades ensuring that all matches were meaningful and lesser players than those of County standard were encouraged to enter. Additionally, two levels of junior completion were held reflecting the entries with an under 17 category and an Under 11 category, both mixed.
As part of the relaunch England Squash and Racketball’s East Region assisted enormously by providing free courts and by the end of Sunday, Steve Davies had emerged victorious in the elite category, with Paul Main in the B category, whilst in the juniors Arjun Vaingankar emerged as winner in the older juniors and 7 year old Natalie Main took the under 11s by the tightest of margins on the previous day.
Whilst the entry level was modest at 9 in each of the adult categories and U17, and 3 under 11s, the aim was to create a festival atmosphere, especially on the Saturday when both adults and juniors played side-by-side. The format was set at 3 groups of 3 with winners subsequently creating a division to sort out rankings 1-3, the seconds places 4-6 and thirds 7-9.
The B category got proceedings underway as Philip Hales from Mowsbury quickly beat brave newcomer Andrew Patrick, also from Mowsbury, whilst Steve McCoy of Flitwick beat LDS’s Mohammed Azam despite not having been able to play for several years due to a long-standing hip injury, for which he awaits an operation. Paul Main from LDS then beat a very nervous Qaier Malik, also from LDS. Philip was clearly keen to get away and watch some rugby and volunteered to play local player and coach John Stevens and it paid dividends as he breezed through 3-0, securing his first place in the group in very quick time.
Then it was time for the big guns as Steve Davies, the number one seed was largely untroubled by Ivan Schimanski of Bunyan. At the same time, young Nathan Derrick of Silsoe despatched the more experienced Trevor Keddo of Flitwick. Multi times winner Steve Barlow of Bunyan carried an injury into the tournament and it showed as he went down to Joe Elfasi and subsequently withdrew.
With the older juniors playing best of 3 to 11 PAR it was a quick fire session from which Mowsbury’s Arjun Vaingankar and his fellow club member Manu Ratnayake joined Biggleswade’s Ross MacKenzie in the top group to decide places 1-3. Ultimately Vaingankar triumphed without dropping a game.
At under 11 it was best of 5 to give them value for money and LDS’s Natalie Main sprung a surprise by beating Fred Steer, 3 years her senior, with comparative ease. LDS’s Sophia John felt the full force of his revenge as she was toppled by the same margin. John then regrouped to despatch Natalie by the same scoreline leading to a frantic search for a calculator! Ultimately, John had garnered a total of 51 points, whilst Steer had won 52 and Main 55!
Back at the main event, LDS youngster Sam McCoy, still playing U15 generally, impressively beat Ivan Schimanski 3-1 to consign Schimanski to third place in the group, whilst Nathan Derrick was too good for the new slimline Matt Mulara of LDS to ensure he would be contesting the top prize on Sunday. On court 5 David Lankester’s lack of recent match practice told as Joe Elfasi ensured he would join Derrick in the top division.
When the B players returned Mohammed Azam lost a titantic struggle against Flitwick veteran David Hare 3-2, consigning him to the bottom group, whilst Qaiser Malik lost to fellow club member Glenn Bush meaning that he joined Azam along with Andrew Patrick who was defeated by John Stevens.
As the first day of competition drew to a close all that was required was to sort out some final places for Sundays ties.
In the main group master, Steve Davies, saw off student Sam McCoy, despite some heroic efforts by young McCoy, whilst Matt Mulara beat Trevor Keddo 3-0, to initially consign Keddo to the bottom rung. (A quick tally of the walking wounded meant that outside the top group only 4 remained so it was agreed to play a knock-out competition for the lower places) The B Grade the match between Glenn Bush and Paul Main could have gone either way with Main prevailing 3-1, but with two games going to tie-breaks and the others to 13, both knew they had been in a battle, with Main joining Steve McCoy and Philip Hales to contest the title.
There weren’t too many bright eyes or bushy tails as contestants arrived at 10am on Sunday morning to complete the tournaments and neither Steve McCoy, nor Paul Main welcomed a 5 game thriller to start, with Main fighting back from 2-0 down to scrape home against an increasingly immobile McCoy, whilst on the other court John Stevens beat Glenn Bush somewhat surprisingly, given Stevens confession that he was battling a hangover, 3-1.
Ivan Schimanski, had clearly picked up an injury from Saturdays play and surrendered rather tamely to Matt Mulara 3-0. On the other court a bad-tempered affair raged which at one point included a court invasion by a parent! After much argument though, Nathan Derrick emerged victorious. In the final early morning match Sam McCoy also picked up an injury and lost 3-1 to Trevor Keddo.
Keddo and Mulara decided to play-off straight away, rather than rest and recover and then proceeded to serve up arguably the game of the tournament with Mulara battling from 2-0 down to triumph and claim 4th spot overall.
The lunchtime matches were comparatively uneventful Philip Hales beating an increasingly uncomfortable Steve McCoy 3-0 to set up a decider against Paul Main and Glenn Bush despatched David Hare with comparative ease. Steve Davies also won with little alarm to set-up a fitting decider between himself and Nathan Derrick. Whilst injuries meant the declaration of a draw between Sam McCoy and Ivan Schimanski.
So onto the final round of matches which started with an upset in the form book with David Hare beating John Stevens 3-0, gifting Glenn Bush 4th place. Next up was the final of the B grade which started off looking like it would be a classic given the players contrasting styles, Hales with his power and touch and Main with his speed, fitness and stamina. Hales took the first 15-12, but midway through the second it was clear that Hales had picked up an injury that severely hampered his movement, spoiling the match as a contest. Despite Hale’s best efforts, Main showed no mercy as he mixed up short shots with wide to move Hales around the court to take the title with a 3-1 win.
The main grade was fittingly decided in a match between the two best players in the tournament, local hero Steve Davies and Nathan Derrick. Whilst Derrick did put Davies under pressure on several occasions Davies held all the cards and eventually emerged victorious, without having dropped a game all tournament.
Winner Steve Davies said afterwards, “"The county championship has always been one of the highlights of the season for me and an event that carries a lot of history. It's great to see it back on the calendar after a couple of years where it was not held. Having the juniors competing again is also so important. As county coach it really gives you a chance to evaluate the pool of talent in a competitive environment."
Steve McCoy, County competitions officer added, “ It was a fantastic tournament! A huge thank you to ESR, LDSC and the local team led by Paul Main, Matt Carey and John Stevens without whom this tournament would not have been such a resounding success
On a personal note, it was great to see old friends competing with such vigour determined for glory and most importantly all of the juniors competing and having fun who will be the future of squash in Bedfordshire.”
All in all a great weekend for Beds squash with Saturday in particular being an excellent day with a fantastic atmosphere on site with juniors and seniors all mixed in. The aim is to have the tournament at a similar time each year and grow the age bands and the adult categories.
Paul Main, tournament organiser, said, “Whilst the entry level was comparatively modest, people have to realise that in Beds we are starting from a very low base and we have to start building from somewhere. I recently learned that in the first ever British Open golf championship there were only 8 entrants and 12 in year 2 – maybe in 150 years time we will be that big, perhaps my grand children will be competing!!!!
Thanks go to East Region of England Squash and Racketball for their invaluable support and Just Rackets for providing the prizes.”
