There were 85 players playing in 9 events from U11 to U19’s.
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The first senior tour event for this season with The Curragh Senior Open 2014 took place from Friday 12th September to the 14th September.
The top seeds were Brian Byrne at no. 1 and no. 2 Michael Craig who has had a very busy summer, having played the Commonwealth games in July and then being part of the successful U19 Ireland team that came 7th in the World Championships in August which took place in Namibia.
Again we had -a young player and a very experienced player at no. 3 & 4 seeds in Ballymena’s Steve Richardson and Michael Convoy. There are 76 players entered in 1 women’s with Ciara Moloney as no. 1 seed and 4 men’s sections. Ciara won her 1st senior cap at the Europeans last May where she played in the 3/4th place match vs the Czech Republic where she played superbly in her debut.
Report on Results by Brendan Murphy
The third running of this first senior tournament of the new squash season took place last weekend at The Curragh Squash Club at The Curragh Camp in Kildare.
It featured a good mixture of seasoned seniors and high-ranked juniors.
In the men’s A event Michael Craig of Ulster returned to defend his title won last year in a hard-fought final against Sean Conroy. This year Michael and Sean had to be content with third and fourth places respectively. Michael met in-form fellow Ulster man Steve Richardson in his semi-final where the much older man showed all of his experience and great fitness and stamina to come through against Michael who is still a junior and played on the Irish junior team in the recent World Junior Championship in Namibia. Sean Conroy was beaten by Brian Byrne in their semi-final. The final went to 4 games but in the end the super-fit and agile Byrne proved too much for Richardson.
In the ladies event Ciara Moloney successfully defended her title coming through against fellow Carlow player and top junior Casey Luther in the final.
A notable return to Irish tournaments was Ulster man Gordon Harpur who played in the men’s B section. He just failed to qualify for the A/B playoff by losing a marathon 2-3 battle to Curragh player Neal Murphy.
The men’s C section was won by 13-year-old Sutton junior Conor Moran in defeating Mark Furlong, who plays for Celtic in Waterford, in the final by 3-1.
Veteran Donal Kelly of Mount Pleasant won the men’s D final in a close 3-2 final versus Noel Walsh of Freshford.
For the full draw and results Click here
Entries are now open
Please click on the link below for the invite and entry form.
http://www.europeansquash.com/calendarevent/21549/British-Junior-Open-2015-SS
Please find attached the entry form for the Belgian Junior Open 2014 (http://www.belgianjunioropen.be) that will be held in Brussels from the 31st October – 2nd November 2014.
Please click on the link blow for the invitation and entry form.
http://www.europeansquash.com/calendarevent/21545/Belgian-Dunlop-Junior-Open-2014-SS
The tournament will be a :
– European Junior Super Series Tournament
– Part of the World Junior Circuit Tournament
– PSA Closed Satellite
– WSA Rising Star
See full results for the Mount Pleasant Junior Mixed Open here
The winners photographed below right are from left to right.
Nominate your Coach for the Irish Squash Coach of the Year Award.
Irish Squash will this year run a number of coaching seminars – open to all coaches as well as Mentor coaches and to those interested in learning more about Squash development. Seminars at weekends will be delivered by experts in a particular areas of coaching.The venue will be posted in the calendar once confirmed. If you are interested in attending please e-mail [email protected]
Can you help grow your club and get more players enjoying Squash? If so we’d love to hear from you. Irish Squash will select one club in each province to assist in growing the sport and improving the conditions of the club. We have a limited budget but we are looking for a sustainable and ongoing committment from any club interested in spreading the word about the fantastic sport of Squash.
IF you feel that you and your club could benefit from:
Please e-mail [email protected] and outline your plans for the club and how you feel we can help – deadline is October 31st.
The 2014 European Club Championships for Women & Men take place in Nottingham, England from Wed 3rd Sept to Saturday 6th.
Ireland is represented by a women’s and men’s team from the same club – Fitzwilliam Lawn Tennis Club. In the women’s draw there are 8 teams in 2 groups from 7 countries. In the men’s draw there are 4 groups of 3 teams in each from 10 countries.
After a good final day Fitzwilliam men’s finished 9th overall and the women’s team finished 7th.
For photos and results got to: www.eccsquash.com
For Draw & results go here
The Fitzwilliam LTC teams were:
| Byrne, Rory | |
| O’Flynn, Dara | |
| O’Hare, Conor Michael | |
| Peyton, Nigel | |
| Rooney, Niall | |
| Ryan, Derek |
| Barrie, Rosie | |
| Blake, Aisling | |
| Byrne, Deirdre | |
| Gillanders, Griffin | |
| Menzies, Vicky |
| Points | Played | Won | Draws | Lost | Rubbers | Games | Points | ||||||||
| 1 | BW Worms | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 6 | – | 2 | 21 | – | 7 | 277 | – | 198 |
| 2 | Nottingham | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 6 | – | 2 | 18 | – | 11 | 289 | – | 240 |
| 3 | Fitzwilliam Lawn Tennis Club | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | – | 8 | 3 | – | 24 | 165 | – | 293 |
| Time | Home | – | Away | Score | Court | |
| Wed 03/09/2014 09:00 | BW Worms [1] | – | Nottingham [8] | 2-2 | Main Location – CT 9-10 | |
| Wed 03/09/2014 15:00 | BW Worms [1] | – | Fitzwilliam Lawn Tennis Club [9] | 4-0 | Main Location – CT 7-8 | |
| Thu 04/09/2014 10:00 | Nottingham [8] | – | Fitzwilliam Lawn Tennis Club [9] | 4-0 | Main Location – CT 7-8 |
| Points | Played | Won | Draws | Lost | Rubbers | Games | Points | ||||||||
| 1 | Newlands | 6 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 8 | – | 1 | 24 | – | 3 | 283 | – | 137 |
| 2 | Espoo Squash Rackets Club | 4 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 | – | 5 | 12 | – | 17 | 223 | – | 246 |
| 3 | Malaka Squash Team | 2 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | – | 6 | 11 | – | 18 | 222 | – | 269 |
| 4 | Fitzwilliam Lawn Tennis Club | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 3 | – | 6 | 9 | – | 18 | 164 | – | 240 |
| Time | Home | – | Away | Score | Court | |
| Wed 03/09/2014 13:00 | Newlands [2] | – | Espoo Squash Rackets Club [7] | 3-0 | Main Location – CT 8 | |
| Wed 03/09/2014 13:00 | Fitzwilliam Lawn Tennis Club [3/4] | – | Malaka Squash Team [6] | 1-2 | Main Location – CT 7 | |
| Wed 03/09/2014 19:00 | Newlands [2] | – | Fitzwilliam Lawn Tennis Club [3/4] | 2-1 | Main Location – CT 10 | |
| Wed 03/09/2014 19:00 | Malaka Squash Team [6] | – | Espoo Squash Rackets Club [7] | 1-2 | Main Location – CT 9 | |
| Thu 04/09/2014 14:00 | Newlands [2] | – | Malaka Squash Team [6] | 3-0 | Main Location – CT 8 | |
| Thu 04/09/2014 14:00 | Fitzwilliam Lawn Tennis Club [3/4] | – | Espoo Squash Rackets Club [7] | 1-2 | Main Location – CT 7 |
DAY 4 – Saturday 6th September
| Time: | Sat 06/09/2014 09:00 |
|---|---|
| Draw: | Men’s Team |
| Score: | 3-1 |
| Order | Event | Fitzwilliam Lawn Tennis Club | – | Simple Kahuna Team | Score | Points | Duration | ||||
| 1 | MS1 |
|
– |
|
11-5 10-12 6-11 6-11 | 0-1 | 0:26 | ||||
| 2 | MS2 |
|
– |
|
11-5 11-1 11-4 | 1-0 | 0:15 | ||||
| 3 | MS3 |
|
– |
|
11-6 11-4 11-2 | 1-0 | 0:16 |
| Time: | Sat 06/09/2014 11:00 |
|---|---|
| Draw: | Women’s Team |
| Score: | 2-1 |
| Order | Event | Fitzwilliam Lawn Tennis Club | – | MeerSquash | Score | Points | Duration | ||||
| 1 | WS1 |
|
– |
|
11-5 11-3 11-2 | 1-0 | 0:16 | ||||
| 2 | WS2 |
|
– |
|
4-11 11-6 9-11 7-11 | 0-1 | |||||
| 3 | WS3 |
|
– |
|
11-2 11-4 11-7 | 1-0 | 0:17 |
he final day at the ECC 2014 brought a much awaited win for the Fitzwilliam ladies team. We played a Dutch team, MeerSquash, and although Griffin put up a good fight in the first match of the day she lost 3-1. I went on next and brought the tie level by winning my match 3-0. So it was down to Vicky in the decider. She won in a convincing three games thus securing Fitzwilliam a seventh place finish.
DAY 3 – Friday 5th September
Fitzwilliam Lawn Tennis Club – Hafrsfjord: 4-0
| Time: | Fri 05/09/2014 16:00 |
|---|---|
| Draw: | Men’s Team |
| Score: | 4-0 |
| Order | Event | Fitzwilliam Lawn Tennis Club | – | Hafrsfjord | Score | Points | Duration | ||||
| 1 | MS1 |
|
– |
|
11-5 11-6 11-4 | 1-0 | 0:25 | ||||
| 2 | MS2 |
|
– |
|
11-7 11-1 11-2 | 1-0 | 0:23 | ||||
| 3 | MS3 |
|
– |
|
11-6 11-3 11-9 | 1-0 | 0:24 | ||||
| 4 | MS4 |
|
– |
|
11-9 11-4 11-6 | 1-0 | 0:23 |
| Time: | Fri 05/09/2014 12:00 |
|---|---|
| Draw: | Women’s Team |
| Score: | 2-1 |
| Order | Event | Nottingham | – | Fitzwilliam Lawn Tennis Club | Score | Points | Duration | ||||
| 1 | WS1 |
|
– |
|
7-11 3-11 3-11 | 0-1 | 0:17 | ||||
| 2 | WS2 |
|
– |
|
12-10 9-11 11-6 11-6 | 1-0 | 0:24 | ||||
| 3 | WS3 |
|
– |
|
11-9 11-3 11-4 | 1-0 | 0:18 |
We were down to the play-off positions today and we were drawn against the host club, Nottingham SRC, as they had finished 3rd in their pool.
Griffin was back in the team at no. 2 after sitting out yesterday due to a slight muscle strain.
I started the tie with a 3-0 win against the local club champion. Vicky was on next and led for the majority of the first game but unfortunately it ended 11-9 in Nottingham’s favour. The local girl had the momentum then and stayed ahead in the next two games despite some great retrieving by Vicky.
In the deciding match Griffin started very well against a similar style of player. They traded points for most of the first two games. Griffin narrowly lost the first 12-10 and when she won the second 11-9 we knew we were in for a close match. However, Laura Helm of NSRC started to play tighter length to take control of the next two games and win the match 3-1.
Tomorrow we face Dutch side Meersquash in our final match and we hope we end with a win!
| Time: | Fri 05/09/2014 10:00 |
|---|---|
| Draw: | Men’s Team |
| Score: | 0-1 |
| Order | Event | Fitzwilliam Lawn Tennis Club | – | Helsinki Senators | Score | Points | Duration | ||||
| 1 | MS1 |
|
– |
|
12-10 7-11 11-6 11-7 | 1-0 | 0:46 | ||||
| 2 | MS2 |
|
– |
|
6-11 7-11 4-11 | 0-1 | 0:31 | ||||
| 3 | MS3 |
|
– |
|
11-9 11-7 11-5 | 1-0 | 0:22 | ||||
| 4 | MS4 |
|
– |
|
11-5 8-11 4-11 12-10 11-6 | 1-0 |
DAY 2 – Thursday 4th September
| Time: | Thu 04/09/2014 10:00 |
|---|---|
| Draw: | Men’s Team – Group A |
| Score: | 4-0 |
| Order | Event | Nottingham | – | Fitzwilliam Lawn Tennis Club | Score | Points | Duration | ||
| 1 | MS1 |
|
