World Class Squash in Hampshire!

Guernsey Senior Report

For the first time squash was introduced into the Island Games in the Shetland. For those who don't know, the island games are for those Islands who have a population of less than 100,000. The games proved to be a great success. There were 6 different categories and 9 Islands competed for the medals.

Guernsey's team (pictured below left to right Chris Simpson, Karen Dunk, Alison Strobridge, Peter Bridgeman team manager, The Viking, Dave Merrien and Sam Shields) was very successful winning medals in 5 out of the 6 events. Chris Simpson won gold in the mens singles, Karen Dunk & Alison Strobridge won gold in the ladies doubles, we won team silver and Alison won silver in the ladies singles while Karen won bronze and we own a bronze in the mixed doubles with Chris and Karen.

In the Mens event, Chris was seeded 3 and was always in control in his earlier matches beating our very own Dave Merrien and Rob Hickling, Jersey. In the semi-finals he beat James Stout (world ranked 94), the number 2 seed, from Bermuda 9/1 9/0 9/4. In the final he met old enemy Mike Hopkins, Jersey who beat the number 1 seed in the semi-finals 3-2, after 2 hr 5 mins. Chris was way too strong for Mike winning the final 3-0 only dropping 4 points. Dave Merrien finished 14th and Sam Shields 17th out of 24 players in the competition.

In the Ladies event, our two players, Karen Dunk and Alison Strobridge, cruised to the semi-final. Karen beating Denise Kyme, Bermuda and Kirsty Clark of the Shetland Islands 3/0 and 3/0 and Alison beating Maryke Burger, IoM and Kerry Pottinger, Shetland Islands 3/0 and 3/0. In the semi-finals the two girls were drawn against each other and after a very strange game, which was 9/1 1/9 0/9 9/2 Alison for the first time in competition beat Karen 9/4 in the final game to reach the final. In the final, unfortunately Alison was unable to put in a performance like her semi-final match and was overpowered by Jersey’s Ronnie Jubb 9/5 9/5 9/1.

Before the games we planned a mini tour of Hampshire as part of our preparation. We visited The Rose Bowl, Winchester SC, Abshot SC, Chichester SC and Petersfield SC and I d like to thank all those team for hosting us. We would like to invite sides of any standard to visit Guernsey and we can arrange everything for you

“This was an excellent performance by all the team members and they have achieved more than what was expected of them and a great bunch of players to work with and I am proud that I was chosen to be their Team Manager” said Peter Bridgeman.

Peter Bridgeman

Guernsey Junior Report

Last season 17 of Guernsey juniors took part in the Hampshire junior closed held in Winchester and I am please d to say that they all performed well with some players winning the County Championship and others going on to represent their County. Unfortunately this season our participation will be smaller due to a hughe increase in flights off the island, but we still hope to do as well.

Our junior strength is growing thanks to our Schools Programme, Youth Games and many other activities, which gives juniors the chance to play squash.

Our players last season travelled to Cardiff, Belfast, Redwood Lodge and Lee on Solent. Many other players travelled to other tournaments throughout the UK during to gain the experience necessary to play competitive squash. This season we hope to do all the home nations Junior Opens as well as some European events. These tournaments are more popular with us because they use the monrad system, which means all of our juniors will play 3/5 matches over the course of the weekend. For our up and coming players, and players who enjoy the game but are not as good as the ones at the top I would like clubs who have a junior section to contact us. Maybe we can arrange a friendly with players of a similar standard over the course of a weekend.

The Guernsey Junior Open sponsor by Credit Suisse Trust had its biggest entry this year with a total of 80 competitors. Only 10 players were from overseas and the under 11's had 24 competitors. It would be great to see some junior s from Hampshire as they use to travel in the past and in most cases we can host juniors or arrange competitive hotel rates. Finally Chris Simpson who is still a junior (I know it's hard to believe) finished the season as European Junior No.1 and has recently just turned Pro. We the GSRA and I hope Hampshire squash wish him all the best for the future and if you would like to see how he is getting on or want to know anything more about Guernsey Squash why don’t you visit our website at www.gsra.co.uk

Peter Bridgeman