U15 County Report from Liza Holliday.

On Sunday 9th October the U15 Cumbria team travelled to Stockport for stage 1 of the competition. We were under no illusion that this was going to be tough in Group A against Cheshire, Merseyside and Lancashire. We started off against Lancashire who were unable to complete 5 players and only had 4 in their team. Daniel Askew at no 4 played Carleton Oldham and had a very close first game 12-10 to Daniel, in the second the more experienced player Carleton won 11-8 then Daniel came to life and won the next two 11-8 and 11-4 giving Cumbria a 3-1 win. Daniel Harrison played Lewis Rigby and won 3-0 (11-7 11-8 11-6) Bradley Frain at no 2 played Dan Zhadi and won the first game 11-9 but the stronger Dan came back to win the next three (11-4 11-6 11-7). Last up was no 1 Jackson Holliday who played Charlie Cowie, whom he has never beaten before. Jackson took the first game 14-12 with some great squash, he lost the second game 6-11 won the third 11-7 lost the forth 2-11 and the fifth 6-11. All in all a great effort from all the boys. Up next was Merseyside our no 5 Jake Twentyman beat Jon Fell easily 3-0 (11-2 11-5 11-2) Daniel Askew followed by beating Ricky Langlands 3 -0 (11-9 11-2 11-2) followed by Daniel Harrison who gave Cumbria another 3 – 0 win (11-1 11-1 11-7) Bradley at no 2 played Matty Powell and lost 0-3 (9-11 7-11 8-11) and Jackson played Ben Doyle and lost 0-3 (10-12 5-11 8-11). To finish the day we had Cheshire which had a strong team Jake started and despite being two games down came back to make it 2-2 then lost in the 5th by a very narrow margin (9-11 6-11 11-9 11-9 11-13). Daniel Askew played Matt Oakes but lost 0-3 (6-11 2-11 8-11) next up was Daniel Harrison who had a tight game with Robbie Conduit – Daniel won 3-2 but it was very close in the five set match (4-11 11-9 12-10 13-15 11-5) finally our no 1 played Olly Harris although he managed to secure one game it wasn’t enough and lost 1-3 (9-11 11-7 4-11 4-11) The final result was that the boys took second place and are through to the next stage in January.

Photo L to R - Dan Askew (Wigton), Brad Frain (Whitehaven), Jackson Holliday (Windscale), Dan Harrison (Whitehaven) and Jake Twentyman (Wigton)

Cumbria Girls under 19 Inter County Stage 1

As in previous seasons the Inter County competition threw together the Northern 4 counties Cumbria, Lancashire, Northumbria, and Yorkshire, to contest the stage 1 group at Carlisle; and as in previous seasons Cumbria's lack of strength in depth, and general lack in numbers of girl players meant that 3 tough games were in store for our 5 girls throughout the day. First match up for Cumbria was against Northumbria and with Victoria Watson (Penrith) taking the opening 2 games off her opponent things looked bright, however in the remaining three games she lost narrowly to go down 2-3. At the same time on another court Sarah Frain (Whitehaven) was finding her opponent too strong all over the court, and no matter what she tried the Northumbrian had the answer, and Sarah lost 0-3. With the match in the balance next on court were Luisa Mc Gregor (Windscale) and Jessica Winder (Windscale), Luisa also took her opening game, but the wheels came off thereafter as her scores progressively deteriorated and she lost 1-3, but on the other court Jessica was having a great tussle with the Northumbrian number 1. Jessica took the first 2 games, before losing her way in the next 2 to see the games tied, however she dug deepest in the last to record Cumbria's first win, 3-2. Hannah Crichton (Windscale) lost to her opponent (the national under 15 number 1 player) 0-3, to round off a disappointing start for our girls losing by 4 ties to 1. After the lunch-break it was back to business with Victoria and Sarah back on to make amends, however it wasn't to be as Lancashire opened up with two 3-0 wins, Victoria got into all her games but couldn't make headway against her more skilled opponent, and Sarah playing her best squash of the day only just lost the opener having pushed it into sudden death, got a bit lost in her second, but rallied well in the third to only just lose it, a commendable effort with nothing to show for it. So Cumbria were 2 ties down again. Luisa threatened to win her first game but fell away at the end, and then fell away in the match as the second and third games were lost for less points each time; fitness? As before it was Jessica flying the Cumbrian flag with a good win over her Lancastrian opponent 3-1, only just losing the opener in sudden death, but taking the next 3 games with a sudden death winner in the fourth game to seal it. Hannah as before completed the match and after losing the opener in sudden death and the second closely, sneaked the third, only to lose the fourth again to sudden death, once more nothing to show for a gutsy display. Cumbria again losing the match 4 ties to 1. Last up were Yorkshire for our girls, and as reigning under 19 champions we were up against it, and so the results went. Victoria and Sarah had similar games, both getting into their first 2 games but not scoring heavily, only to play better in their third each getting to nine points but losing 0-3, Cumbria were two ties down. Luisa and Jessica fared no better in their games both also losing, Luisa struggled to make any headway at all and fell away again losing 0-3, however Jessica did win the third game of her tie and could have taken the fourth in sudden death, but didn't, a 1-3 reverse. Hannah with only pride to play for and looking for her first win of the day, pushed her opponent all the way to lose in 5 games having taken the first and third, but her legs let her down (hard training and three games in a day don't match) and she too lost 2-3, and therefore the tie was lost 0-5. Cumbria finished 4th (last), but played some good squash with little return on the day for it, there's always Stage 2 to look forward to, all the same teams again, away though next time, looks like our County coach is going to have to crack the whip!

Full results (download)