Second in the 2025 Nationals, Ella Walsh of Sutton Lawn Tennis Club is one of four entries from Ireland in the 100-player start list for the women’s event at the World Squash Junior Championships.
She will start in Cairo against Leelou Laporte of France, with the prize of a match against Charlotte Sze of the USA (17/32 seed) awaiting.
Walsh will also represent Ireland in the team event in Egypt, linking up with Riley Slade, Zoe Yeomans and the America-based Ella Erickson.
First Squash Memory: Probably starting with my little sister.
Racket Type: The Tecnifibre.
Best Career Moment: Probably getting to the semi-final of the Danish.
Pre-Match Meal: Weetabix with honey.
Early Or Late Game: Early game.
Favourite Shot: Backhand kill.
Biggest Influence: Probably Nour El Sherbini.
What Does Representing Ireland Mean: Just very proud to represent my country.
Danny Lynch from Galway Lawn Tennis Club is heading to his third World Squash Junior Championships, having featured in Nancy in 2022 and Houston last year.
The reigning Ireland BU19 champion was to begin his tournament in Cairo in the individual section against Brazilian Bernardo Jorge Guimaraes in round two, with the winner playing Pakistan’s Anas Ali Shah (17/32 seed) or Canadian Luke Yang in round three.
A complete redraw has instead paired him with New Zealand’s Oliver Dunbar (9/16 seed), with Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed Alnasfan or South Africa’s Judah Phillips next up for the winner in the round of 64.
Lynch is also part of the four-strong Ireland selection for the BU19 team competition, along with Conal Jackson, Christian Dromgoole and Aaron Knox.
First Squash Memory: Probably my dad bringing me down to play when I was nine years old.
Racket Type: The Harrow.
Best Career Moment: Probably playing for Ireland for the first time in the U13s in the Five Nations.
Pre-Match Meal: Probably chicken and pasta, rice and chicken, something simple like that.
Early Or Late Game: I prefer late games.
Favourite Shot: Probably the backhand drop.
Biggest Influence: Probably my coach. I also look up to maybe Nick Matthew a lot as well.
What Does Playing For Ireland Mean: I’m very proud to represent my country and very excited. I just hope I do my best.
Ireland’s Marcelino Cronin has claimed a ninth-place BU13 finish at the European Junior Open in Hamburg following an encouraging run to the round of 16.
Fresh from his 18th place the previous week at the Dutch Junior Open, where he won four of his six matches, the teenager got off to a flyer in Germany with two 3-0 wins to ease through the rounds of 64 and 32.
Cronin then agonisingly lost 2-3 to Graeson Smith of the USA, but he responded with three placings victories to bank an excellent finish at the four-day tournament.
There was a total of 347 entries across the eight categories, and Ireland had two other representatives, Ailong Chen in the BU13 and Shriya Drawid in the GU17.
Chen, who came 16th in Amsterdam the week before, placed 26th in Hamburg with a W2 L3 record. Drawid, meanwhile, finished 11th in her category with three wins in five matches.
BOYS SECTION
Marcelino Cronin (BU13 – W5 L1): Finished 9th with a 3-0 (11-6, 11-9, 11-5) win over American Zachary Yu. Began with 3-0 wins (11-3, 11-7, 11-1 and 11-7, 11-4, 11-3) over Sebastian Bakker of the USA and Ukrainian Andrey Hutsailiuk, but lost quarter-final 2-3 (11-2, 6-11, 6-11, 11-7, 8-11) to American Graeson Smith. Rebounded to beat American Lukas Daly 3-0 (11-9, 11-3, 11-6) and Alper Gulmez of Turkey 3-0 (11-3, 11-4, 11-3) in placings matches.
Ailong Chen (BU13 – W2 L3): Finished 26th with a 2-3 (10-12, 8-11, 11-5, 11-7, 5-11) loss to Russia’s Savelii Muzychuk. Beaten 0-3 (10-12, 9-11, 9-11) by Maciej Dziech of Poland in the round of 32 and 0-3 (0-11, 0-11, 3-11) by England’s Noah Selby in 17/32 match before beating Qatar’s Mohammed Essa Al Tamini 3-0 (12-10, 14-12, 11-1) and England’s George Mcgurk 3-2 (7-11, 11-8, 10-12, 11-9, 11-8) in two other play-off matches.
GIRLS SECTION
Shriya Drawid (GU17 – W3 L2): Finished 11th with a walkover against Bulgaria’s Sofia Georgieva. Started with a 3-0 (11-3, 11-2, 11-1) round of 32 win over Malaysian Sadie Kolodner but lost 0-3 (9-11, 9-11, 3-11) to Elcke Mole of the Netherlands in the round of 16. A 3-2 (11-6, 9-11, 11-6, 8-11, 11-3) placings win over Spain’s Siena Hall Rogers and a 2-3 (11-7, 11-1, 6-11, 1-11, 14-16) loss to Ciara Boulanger followed.
Nine Ireland U19 players have learned their fate in the individual events at the World Squash Junior Championships in Cairo – including Nathan Hann, who is primed for a round of 128 match against the men’s No2 seed, Korea’s Joo Young Na, who was the runner-up last year in Houston.
Six Irish players will participate in the boys’ individual section, which attracted 134 entries, but Hann will be the only one of coach David Noone and Breanne Flynn’s team drawn to start his campaign on July 21 in the round of 256.
He will face Hungary’s Benjamin Vida in the first round at the Black Ball Sporting Club, hoping to win his way through to a glamour clash against the Korean Na, who, if the seedings work out to plan, is in line to face the defending champion, Egypt’s Mohamad Zakaria, in the July 26 final.
Four of the five Irish players who received first-round byes, Frank O’Flynn, Conal Jackson, Christian Dromgoole and Aaron Knox, were pitted against seeded opposition in round two.
O’Flynn will face Malaysia’s Low Wa-Sern, a 5/8 seed with a third-round fixture up for grabs versus Switzerland’s Fabian Seitz or Australia’s Kasper Cheung.
Jackson faces the 9/16 seed Jack Elriani of the USA, with a third-round tie versus Canadian Arham Izhar or Macau’s Ka Hei Lei up for grabs.
Dromgoole will face Hart Robinson of the USA (17/32 seed) in the second round, with the winner set to take on either England’s Ronnie Hickling or Macau’s Wu Cheok Io.
Knox has been paired against another 17/32 seed, Canadian Youssef Sarhan, with New Zealand’s Maximus Mathews or Japan’s Shunsaku Kariyazono the prospective third-round opponent.
Lynch, the fifth and final Irish player to get an opening-round bye, will play Brazilian Bernardo Jorge Guimaraes. The winner will then play Pakistan’s Anas Ali Shah (17/32 seed) or Canadian Luke Yang in round three.
After the individual tournament ends, Jackson, Dromgoole, Knox and Lynch will join together for the team event from July 27 to August 1.
Switching to the girls’ individual championship, which attracted an entry list of 100, all three Irish players will face seeded opposition in the round of 64 if they progress from the opening round of 128.
Riley Slade, who placed 23rd at last weekend’s Dutch Junior Open, will begin in Cairo against Hana Al Nayal of the Netherlands, with a match against Hong Kong China’s Helen Tang (9/16 seed) the reward if she wins.
Ella Walsh will start against Leelou Laporte of France, with the prize of a match against Charlotte Sze of the USA (17/32 seed) awaiting.
Meanwhile, Zeo Yeomans will be up against the Russian Anna Musikhina, with a fixture versus Poland’s Sofiia Zrazhevska (17/32 seed) the reward for the winner.
After the individual tournament, Slade, Walsh and Yeomans will be joined by Ella Erickson for the girls’ team event.
Ireland’s contingent of 14 players rounded off the four-day Dutch Junior Open with 32 wins in 75 matches – a 42.6 per cent win rate.
Eleven of the 14 Irish participants were part of the new Junior Performance Academy set up by Squash Ireland, and there were plenty of impressive performances at the highly competitive tournament in Amsterdam.
In the girls’ section, Daisy Morrissey stood out with three wins in her five matches to finish 13th in the GU13.
Over in the boys’ section, two players ended with more wins than losses. Jamie Morrissey had four victories in his six games to clinch 13th in the BU13, while Marcelino Cronin also had a W4 L2 record in the same age grade to secure 18th.
GIRLS SECTION
Riley Slade (GU19 – W2 L3): Finished 23rd with a 3-1 win (11-9, 12-10, 8-11, 12-10) over England’s Renitha Srindran. This was after a 0-3 (2-11, 5-11, 4-11) loss to American Elinor Feldman, a 0-3 defeat (3-11, 2-11, 1-11) to Austrian Kristina Begeba and a 3-0 win (11-9, 11-9, 11-3) over Iranian Armiti Ghoroghchian in placings matches following a 0-3 loss (2-11, 0-11, 0-11) to Dutch player Renske Huntelaar in the round of 32.
Lucy Lynch (GU15 – W0 L4): Finished 47th. Bowed out in the round of 64 with a 0-3 defeat to American Laura Techar (1-11, 2-11, 2-11). Then lost play-off matches to Canada’s Isha Saraf (0-3: 10-12, 3-11, 5-11), Russia’s Julia Kozlova (0-3: 10-12, 3-11, 5-11) and Lara Berntsen of the Netherlands (1-3: 3-11, 11-8, 4-11, 6-11).
Zoe Nyhan (GU15 – W3 L3): Finished 27th with a 3-1 win (7-11, 11-8, 13-11, 11-6) versus American Samaira Athalye. After losing 0-3 (2-11, 6-11, 6-11) to England’s Maya Goel in the round of 32, she lost 0-3 (1-11, 4-11, 0-11) to American Arushi Saha, beat American Lilly Lake 3-0 (11-6, 11-6, 11-9) and lost to Canada’s Fin Ryding 0-3 (6-11, 2-11, 5-11) in placing matches. Began with a round of 64 walkover against South African Nhlamulo Masingi.
Daisy Morrissey (GU13 – W3 L2): A 3-0 success (11-5, 11-4, 11-7) versus Belgium’s Lime Hendrickx secured 13th place. Began with a 3-0 qualification round of 16 win over Dutch player Sophie Verhulst (11-6, 11-7, 11-3) but beaten 0-3 (5-11, 4-11, 3-11) in the round of 16 by top seed Kadija Bondok of Egypt. A 0-3 (5-11, 6-11, 5-11) play-off loss to American Asha Ponnuru was next before a 3-0 (11-7, 11-5, 11-4) win over Egypt’s Shaden Elsayed.
Caoimhe English (GU11 – W1 L3): Finished eighth with a 0-3 loss (10-12, 7-11, 11-13) to American Noelle Rabaa. Started with a 3-1 round of 16 win over Angela Cao of the USA. A 0-3 quarter-final loss (2-11, 5-11, 5-11) to America’s Loretta Pochoda-Nowell was followed by a 0-3 play-off defeat (3-11, 4-11, 2-11) to Queenie Zhang of the USA.
Maia Morrissey (GU11 – W1 L4): Finished 16th after a 0-3 loss (5-11, 2-11, 9-11) to England’s Lyla Blumberg. Began with a 3-1 win over England’s Maebh Lovely 3-1 (4-11, 11-8, 13-11, 13-11) in a qualification quarter-final before losing 0-3 (0-11, 0-11, 2-11) to another English player, Abigail Zeng, in the round of 16. The play-offs then featured a 0-3 loss to American Paige Smith (0-11, 2-11, 0-11) and another 0-3 defeat to Colombian Veronica Martinez (9-11, 4-11, 7-11).
BOYS SECTION
Ben Lynch (BU15 – W2 L4): Finished 40th with a 0-3 loss (4-11, 6-11, 7-11) to Argentina’s Mirko Rigotti Dominquez. Began with a 0-3 loss to Denmark’s Mathias Berliner in the round of 64 (6-11, 5-11, 9-11) before winning two placings matches, defeating Dutch opponent Milan Wiersma 3-0 (11-5, 11-4, 11-4) and Switzerland’s Benedikt Ammann 3-0 (11-7, 11-7, 11-4). Then came a 0-3 loss to American Leon Solinhac (6-11, 3-11, 8-11) and another 0-3 defeat to Hong Kong China’s Jules Achouch (7-11, 7-11, 7-11).
Josh Archer (BU13 – W3 L3): Finished 29th with a 3-0 win (11-5, 11-7, 11-1) win over Dutch player Jenson Meijer. Defeated American Colin Dimarino 3-0 (11-6, 11-6, 11-5) in the round of 64 and lost to Zachary Yu, another American, 2-3 (11-8, 4-11, 13-11, 8-11, 3-11) in the round of 32. Then came 0-3 play-off losses to England’s Xavier Rowe (6-11, 6-11, 7-11) and France’s Gabriel Martini (3-11, 9-11, 6-11).
Ailong Chen (BU13 – W1 L4): Finished 16th after a 1-3 loss (3-11, 11-9, 11-13, 7-11) to Harry Knox, his fellow Irish player. Began in the round of 32 with a 3-0 win (11-4, 11-1, 11-2) over Joris Willems of the Netherlands, but lost 0-3 (3-11, 4-11, 3-11) to American Carter Macdougall in the round of 16. Further play-off losses followed, 0-3 (5-11, 5-11, 4-11) to Canadian Nolan Ryding and 0-3 (3-11, 5-11, 6-11) to Jamie Morrissey, another Irish teammate.
Marcelino Cronin (BU13 – W4 L2): Finished 18th after a 0-3 defeat (10-12, 10-12, 5-11) to Egyptian Mohamed Ghait. Started with a 3-0 (11-5, 11-4, 11-4) round of 64 win over Qatar’s Alian Hassan, but lost 2-3 in the round of 32 to England’s Logan Willstrop (11-8, 9-11, 11-8, 6-11, 12-14). The play-offs then featured a hat-trick of 3-0 wins over France’s Gabriel Martini (11-4, 11-4, 11-3), England’s Xavier Rowe (11-6, 11-4, 11-8) and Louis Lavergne of France (11-1, 11-3, 11-6).
Harry Knox (BU13 – W3 L3): Finished 15th with a 3-1 win (11-3, 9-11, 13-11, 11-7) over Irish teammate Ailong Chen. Began with wins over American Sebastian Bakker 3-0 (11-2, 11-5, 11-4) in the round of 64 and then France’s Louis Lavergne 3-1 (13-11, 11-7, 5-11, 11-5) in the round of 32. Beaten 0-3 by American Lars Daly in the round of 16 (5-11, 4-11, 4-11). The play-offs started with a 1-3 loss (7-11, 3-11, 12-10, 4-11) to American Anderson Morgan and another 1-3 defeat (8-11, 11-5, 9-11, 8-11) to Zachary Yu, another USA player.
Jamie Morrissey (BU13 – W4 L2): Finished 13th with a 3-1 win (11-13, 11-6, 11-7, 11-0) over American Zachary Yu. Began with a round of 64 win over Croatia’s Viktor Jankovic 3-0 (11-2, 11-4, 11-5) and another 3-0 (15-13, 11-8, 11-6) win over Switzerland’s Livio Ferrarini. Beaten in the round of 16 clash by American Graeson Smith 0-3 (4-11, 7-11, 1-11) and then lost to Hungary’s Alex Kosztyu 0-3 (7-11, 7-11, 6-11) in the play-offs before beating Ailon Chen, his Irish teammate, 3-0 (11-3, 11-5, 11-6).
Alfie Knox (BU11 – W2 L3): Finished 15th with a 3-2 win (8-11, 11-7, 4-11, 11-5, 11-8) over Egypt’s Youssef Mohamed Osman. Defeated Pakistan’s Azhar Noman 3-0 (11-0, 11-1, 11-1) in the round of 32 but lost 1-3 to Gavriel Azoulay of Israel in the round of 16 (2-11, 11-9, 5-11, 2-11). Then lost play-off matches, 2-3 to Poland’s Antoni Urbanski (11-6, 11-6, 9-11, 15-17, 6-11) and 0-3 (6-11, 8-11, 11-13) to Jack Liu of the USA.
Liam Mahony (BU11 – W3 L3): Finished 20th following a 1-3 loss (12-14, 8-11, 11-8, 6-11) to Qatar’s Maaz Bin Fahad. Began with a 3-0 (11-2, 11-4, 11-4) qualification round of 16 win over Raff van Altena of the Netherlands but was beaten 0-3 (2-11, 4-11, 2-11) by American Lukas Daly in the round of 32. Then beat Israel’s Ido Lavian 3-0 (11-3, 11-6, 11-5) and Canada’s Jasper Che 3-0 (11-3, 11-4, 11-0) before losing 2-3 to Egypt’s Seif El Sadat (11-7, 11-4, 11-13, 4-11, 2-11).
Ireland players have battled hard at the Dutch Junior Open in Amsterdam, with several in line for high placings in the 11-event tournament that attracted 593 entries.
Fifteen entries were Irish, and 14 made it to the start line on Thursday at the four-day competition. Here is how they have fared so far:
GIRLS SECTION
Caoimhe English (GU11): Defeated Angela Cao of the USA 3-1 (11-13, 11-8, 11-3, 11-7) in the round of 16. Now faces another American, Loretta Pochoda-Nowell, in Friday’s quarter-final.
Lucy Lynch (GU15): Bowed out in the round of 64 with a 0-3 defeat to American Laura Techar (1-11, 2-11, 2-11). Now has a 33rd-48th place play-off against Canada’s Isha Saraf.
Daisy Morrissey (GU13): Got off to a fantastic start with a 3-0 qualification round of 16 win over Dutch player Sophie Verhulst (11-6, 11-7, 11-3), but came unstuck 0-3 (5-11, 4-11, 3-11) in the round of 16 against the high ranked Kadija Bondok of Egypt. The next step is a ninth/16th place play-off against American Asha Ponnuru.
Maia Morrissey (GU11): Defeated England’s Maebh Lovely 3-1 (4-11, 11-8, 13-11, 13-11) in qualification quarter-final but lost out 0-3 (0-11, 0-11, 2-11) to another English player, Abigail Zeng. Now has a ninth/16th place play-off with American Paige Smith.
Zoe Nyhan (GU15): Had a round of 64 walkover against South African Nhlamulo Masingi but lost 0-3 (2-11, 6-11, 6-11) to England’s Maya Goel in the round of 32. Arushi Saha, an American, now awaits in the 17th/32nd place play-off.
Riley Slade (GU19): Went down 0-3 (2-11, 0-11, 0-11) to Dutch player Renske Huntelaar in the round of 32 and now faces Iranian Armiti Ghoroghchian in the 17th/32nd place play-off.
BOYS SECTION
Josh Archer (BU13 – W3 L3): Defeated American Colin DiMarino 3-0 (11-6, 11-6, 11-5) in the round of 64 and lost to Zachary Yu, another American, 2-3 (11-8, 4-11, 13-11, 8-11, 3-11) in the round of 32.
Ailon Chen (BU13): Began with a brisk round of 32 win over Joris Willems, winning 3-0 (11-4, 11-1, 11-2), but lost 0-3 (3-11, 4-11, 3-11) to American Carter Macdougall in the round of 16. Now take on Canadian Nolan Ryding in the ninth/16th place play-off.
Marcelino Cronin (BU13): Started with a 3-0 (11-5, 11-4, 11-4) round of 64 win over Qatar’s Alian Hassan, but agonisingly lost 2-3 in the round of 32 to England’s Logan Willstrop (11-8, 9-11, 11-8, 6-11, 12-14). Started Friday with a 3-0 (11-4, 11-4, 11-3) win against France’s Gabriel Martini in the 17th/32nd place play-off. Now takes on England’s Xavier Rowe in the 17th/24th place match.
Alfie Knox (BU11): Comfortably defeated Pakistan’s Azhar Noman 3-0 (11-0, 11-1, 11-1) in the round of 32 but lost 1-3 to Gavriel Azoulay of Israel in the round of 16 (2-11, 11-9, 5-11, 2-11). Now faces Poland’s Antoni Urbanski in the ninth/16th place play-off.
Harry Knox (BU13): Won his two Thursday matches, defeating American Sebastian Bakker 3-0 (11-2, 11-5, 11-4) in the round of 64 and then France’s Louis Lavergne 3-1 (13-11, 11-7, 5-11, 11-5) in the round of 32. Beaten 0-3 by American Lars Daly in Friday’s round of 16 (5-11, 4-11, 4-11) and now faces another American, Anderson Morgan, in a ninth/16th place play-off.
Ben Lynch (BU15): Lost 0-3 to Denmark’s Mathias Berliner in the round of 64 (6-11, 5-11, 9-11) but has since won two placings matches, defeating Dutch opponent Milan Wiersma 3-0 (11-5, 11-4, 11-4) and Switzerland’s Benedikt Ammann 3-0 (11-7, 11-7, 11-4).
Liam Mahony (BU11): Began with a 3-0 (11-2, 11-4, 11-4) qualification round of 16 win over Raff van Altena of the Netherlands but was beaten 0-3 (2-11, 4-11, 2-11) by American Lukas Daly in the round of 32. Has since beaten Israel’s Ido Lavian 3-0 (11-3, 11-6, 11-5) and now faces Canada’s Jasper Che in a 17th-24th place play-off.
Jamie Morrissey (BU13): Enjoyed an excellent Thursday with a round of 64 win over Croatia’s Viktor Jankovic 3-0 (11-2, 11-4, 11-5) and followed it with another 3-0 (15-13, 11-8, 11-6) win over Switzerland’s Livio Ferrarini. Beaten in Friday’s round of 16 clash with American Graeson Smith 0-3 (4-11, 7-11, 1-11) and next plays Hungary’s Alex Kosztyu in the ninth/16th place play-off.
Several members of the new Junior Performance Academy are competing in this week’s Dutch Junior Open.
A total of 15 players from Ireland are registered for the four-day tournament in Amsterdam, which gets underway on Thursday and runs until Sunday.
They will be supported by Squash Ireland’s junior development coach, Michael Conroy, in what is the first targeted event for the JPA.
Registered to compete in the girls section are: Raghad Aboelela (GU13), Caoimhe English (GU11), Lucy Lynch (GU15), Daisy Morrissey (GU13), Maia Morrissey (GU11), Zoe Nyhan (GU15) and Riley Slade (GU19).
Josh Archer (BU13), Ailon Chen (BU13), Marcelino Cronin (BU13), Alfie Knox (BU11), Harry Knox (BU13), Ben Lynch (BU15), Liam Mahony (BU11) and Jamie Morrissey (BU13) are listed in the boys section.
Squash Ireland CEO Scott Graham said: “The JPA allows a wider group of players to compete as part of an Ireland team. The longer we keep them in the game, the more chance they have of progressing to an elite senior level.”
Lydia McQuillan blasted her way to the Girls U19 Italian Junior Open title on Sunday, completing her three-match campaign with a convincing 3-1 win in the final at the National Technical Centre in Riccione.
McQuillan, who had a bye in the round of 16, began her title charge on Friday with a 3-1 quarter-final win over Luxembourg’s Elisenda Ruiz-Kaiser (4-11, 11-7, 11-8, 11-8).
The Lisburn club player then defeated Hungary’s Nora Juhasz 3-1 on Saturday in the semi-finals (10-12, 11-8, 11-8, 11-5) before wrapping up her tournament title win with another 3-1 success in Sunday’s final, beating Romania’s Timeea Maria Dumitrascu (6-11, 11-6, 11-8, 11-8).
There was also a podium finish for Sutton’s Zoe Yeomans in the Girls U17s. She saw off Poland’s Zuzanna Gora 3-2 in her third/fourth place play-off on Sunday (11-9, 8-11, 9-11, 11-4, 12-10).
In the Boys U15 event, Sutton’s Harry Yeomans’ tournament ended with his 0-3 defeat to Konstantinos Christos Papatheodorou (8-11, 4-11, 7-11). His 23rd/24th place match with Hungary’s Lorant Szijarto was cancelled.
In his earlier matches, Yeomans lost 1-3 to Switzerland’s Kuba Wesolowski in the round of 32, defeated Italy’s Orlando Silvio Rustighi 3-0 in the 17th/32nd place play-off and lost to Poland’s Beniamin Morzyc 0-3 in the 17th/24th place play-off.
Meanwhile, Ridit Thapar – another Sutton club player – finished his six-match Boys U13 programme with a 3-2 win on Sunday over Poland’s Nicolas Lanza 3-2 (11-7, 7-11, 11-5, 11-13, 12-10) in the 19th/20th place play-off.
He began with a 3-0 round of 64 win over Italy’s Vincent Cusumano and then lost 0-3 to Poland’s Maciej Dziech in the round of 32.
Two play-off wins followed, 3-0 against Italy’s Paolo Ficorella and 3-1 versus Romania’s Radu Andrei Petrescu before he was beaten 1-3 by Bulgaria’s Boris Braykov in the 17th/20th place match.
We’re raising funds to support the Irish U19 Squash Team as they prepare to compete at the World Championships in Egypt this summer.
This is an incredible chance for these young athletes to represent Ireland internationally — but we need your help to get them there!
Whether you can donate or simply share our GoFundMe, every bit of support makes a difference.
The team event is always where passion runs highest and tension reaches its peak—and this year was no different. Our #TeamIreland – featuring Danny Lynch, Conal Jackson, Christian Dromgoole, Ella Erickson, Lydia McQuillan, and Ella Walsh – was eagerly anticipating it.
For the past few decades the team format was two boys and one girl, this year was the first with gender parity, two boys and two girls matches per tie. All matches were played on the same court and in the event of a tie, it would go to game count and then points count, if necessary then the tie would be separated by the winner of the first match played in the tie. The pool stages allowed for draws—but not so in the knockouts, a detail that, as it turned out, didn’t work in our favour.
Prague did a phenomenal job hosting—this is the only event in Europe that has this amount of squash fitted into 10 days. It’s a mammoth effort from all teams, players, and organisers.
Our Irish squad can be incredibly proud of their journey. The passion, resilience, and heart they showed was something special.
All results can be found at esf.tournamentsoftware.com .
Ireland’s pool included defending champions and tournament favourites, France, alongside strong squads from the Netherlands, Italy, and Denmark. While other pools had four teams, ours had five.
Ireland opened against France and, despite showing some strong squash, the result went as expected: a 4–0 loss.
We bounced back with a determined 4–0 win over Denmark, needing to dig deep for that one.
Next came the Dutch—a seriously tough contest. Danny Lynch reached his highest performing level of the week against a strong Robert Linder, pushing hard but falling just short. Lydia also put up a fight but couldn’t get the result. Ella Erickson’s opponent was ruthlessly impressive, consistently hammering left-handed forehand winners. Christian’s match was a fiery and entertaining battle—a common occurrence for the charismatic young Irishman—but he too came up short, with the Dutch taking it 4–0.
Ireland then faced Italy. After splitting the matches 2–2, our team won on games countback, which felt like a huge moment. But heartbreak followed: since the Italians had taken a match off the Dutch and Ireland hadn’t, they finished ahead of us in the group. Gutting for our players not to get the chance to battle for a top-10 finish as per their expectation, but the numbers didn’t agree.
Ireland’s first knockout match was against Wales—a team with real depth. Danny played Oliver Jones in a marathon five-setter lasting 1 hour and 26 minutes. He gave everything but lost a gruelling battle. Conal also fell to a stronger opponent in three games. On the girls’ side, Ella won a five-set thriller, and Lydia took a best-of-three. But it wasn’t enough. On countback, Ireland came up one game short. Every point counts, and this one was another tough pill to swallow.
Our wounded players took the court against Norway, and delivered a solid 3–1 win thanks to strong performances by Lydia, Christian, and Ella Walsh.
Later that same day, Ireland faced Scotland. After ten days surrounded by squash for 12 hours a day, the team put in a heroic effort. Danny produced the most entertaining squash of his campaign, thrilling the crowd in an hour-plus of amazing rallies, eventually losing in four after a marathon effort. Ella Erickson faced Robyn McAlpine in a clash of two talented young players, and Robyn came out on top. That left it to Lydia and Conal, who both needed to win 3–0 for us to take the tie. They delivered with immense mental strength, giving us a huge team win to close our campaign on a high.
To celebrate, the players enjoyed a well-earned BBQ complete with a DJ and a few games of padel.
