Junior Intercounties – report by Gavin Stephenson

Cumbria entered 3 teams into the first stage of the England Squash junior inter county competition, boys under 11, boys under 15 and boys under 17, held in Sheffield on November the 13th 2022.

The boys under 11 team, based at Hallamshire, played (best of 5),
Yorkshire,
Northumbria,
Lancashire.
Our team (3 players per team, we took a spare player and rotated the order) consisted of (in ranking order),
Connor Ward,
Zabian Grearson,
Oscar Rubacs,
Stan Carroll

The boys under 15 team, based at Abbeydale, played (best of 5),
Yorkshire,
Northumbria,
Lancashire.
Our team (5 players per team), in ranking order, as follows,
Sam Dalton
Milan Agnew
Frank Carroll
Finlay Gordon
*we were one player short, following a late illness*

The boys under 17 team, based at Hallamshire, played (best of 3),
Yorkshire
Yorkshire B
Northumbria
Cheshire
Our team (5 players per team), in ranking order,
Alex Cunningham,
Alfie Wells,
Joseph Morris,
Harry Ewbank,
Callum Ward.


Cumbria lost all matches. Highlights included Callum Ward winning against Cheshire to avoid the whitewash and his younger brother Connor Ward taking a game to lose 3-1 against Lancashire’s number one.

I’m proud to say our boys never gave up and kept fighting. Not having the boys under 15 county champion and boys under 17 county champion in our teams was a blow to our chances. Our under 15 team, in particular, was a very young team.  The day was invaluable experience for our juniors and one that will stand them in good stead in the future as we aim to build on our first junior county involvement in this competition for a number of years.

Special thanks to Ben Dalton, parent and team manager, for the boys under 15 team. He did a great job looking after the team on the day.