Junior Nationals 2015

Irish Squash Federation Ltd, Dublin, Ireland

This weekend saw the biggest weekend for Ireland’s junior squash players. With finals in both girls and boys from U11’s to U19’s, with nearly 100 players competing at Belfast Boat Club.

For the full results click HERE

The 2015 Junior Nationals see a special new trophy up for play. David Corbet was a fine young man and a very enthusiastic squash player. He was prematurely taken away from his family last year, at a very young age. Popular with everyone who met him, the
squash community mourned his passing greatly and the board of Irish Squash wanted to honour David in some small way. To put up a new trophy for the Boys U17 in the Nationals; a tournament David won some years ago;  felt like the right thing to do.

Tournament days

Saturday, February 7, 2015 to Sunday, February 8, 2015

• SAT07FEB
• SUN08FEB

Ulster Masters Open

13th & 14th February

Tournament days

Friday, February 13, 2015 to Saturday, February 14, 2015

• FRI13FEB
• SAT14FEB

MOUNT PLEASANT OPEN

The weekend of 23rd – 25th of January saw the Mount Pleasant Open 2015 take place. There were 88 entries in 6 events with 4 mens sections and 2 womens. There was some super squash over the weekend with the highlight being the men’s semi’s on Saturday evening with Derek Ryan overcoming Keith Moran and Michael Craig beating Steve Richardson. Michael was 9-2 down in the 3rd but came back to reel of 9 points in a row to win the match 3-0.

In the Womens final Ciara Moloney had a good win over Griffin Gillanders winning 3-0 and in the men’s final we had a super match. Derek went 1 up winning the first game 11-8, Michael came back to win the next 2 games 11-2 & 11-7. When it looked as if Derek was gone he came storming back to win the 4th, 11-9 in a cracking game. Michael won the 5th 11-4 to close out a great final between the young pretender and the maestro.

In the other sections Michael Conroy and Conor O’Shea came through the A/B play offs. A recent resident to Dublin from Hong Kong Julie Savoie won the women’s B section. Julie has just moved to Dublin and this was her first experience of Irish Squash.

In the Men’s C section Old Belvedere’s Colm Dolan beat Peter birch from Mt. Pleasant 3-0. But in the D section we saw a super match with little and large. The 6′ 2″ Shane O’Brien played the 10 year old Denis Gilevskiy in a classic. Denis won 10-12, 11-8, 11-9, 7-11 & 12-10. The 5th game was nip and tuck where either player could have won.

All results below

All the finals can be seen along with other selected matches on Sportslive here

The Czech Junior Open Super Series took place in Prague on the weekend of 16th 18th of January.There were 17 Irish players who played in the Open with a mixture of experienced players and players in development.

List of All Players

Buckley, Sam Creaven, JakeCreaven, Michael Dunne, Oisin Gillanders, Scott Kelly, ElliotKelly, Ryan Lavin, GraceL’Estrange, GavinLogan, Luke Moran, ConorMoran, Dylan O Flynn, JackOsborne, Alessia Maria Ryan, Stephanie Smith, Alex David Tobin, Hugh

The highest result was a super 3rd place for Stephanie Ryan in the U17’s event. She lost only 1 match on the way to 3rd. She lost
only one of five matches, losing only to the No:1 seed Nadiya Usenko from Ukraine. She won her 3 / 4 play-off in an epic five game match that finished 14/12 in the fifth against Czech’s Kristýna Fialová. Kristýna was playing to a home crowd but was drowned out by the support of the Irish Squash players who rallied around to cheer her on.

The other high place finishes were Scott Gillanders who came 4th in the boys U/15, he lost a tight semi final to the eventual winner Viktor Byrtus. Oisin Dunne came 5^th in the Boys U/17, where again he lost to the eventual winner Roman Allinckx. He then won the 5-8th place play off.

Conor Moran came 7th in the U15’s which is a super result as Conor is still only 13yrs.  Other top 10  results were: Luke Logan came 10th in the U17’s, Sam Buckley 9th in the U13,s again only 13yrs. All the other players had a good tournament with much experience gained.

You can find all results HERE

For Video and pictures click below 

VIDEO STREAM

VIDEO FLASHBACK

 PHOTO GALLERY

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The Spanish masters would like to invite you and all masters players to enter the Spanish Masters Open.
There is a low cost Ryanair flight from Dublin to Valencia, so travel is easy and competitive.
Here you have all information about the Spanish Open Masters 2015, in Valencia, Spain.

www.openmasters2015valencia.com

              10th – 11th January 2015

              10th – 11th January 2015

Michael Craig finishes in 6th place in the British Junior Open. 

 Michael gave a walkover in the 5/6th place play off due to injury. vs Youssef Abo Elmakarem, another Egyptian, to finish in 6th place. This is a super finishing position for Michael after some superb squash in the tournament.

Earlier in the event in the play off for 5-8th place Michael beat another Egyptian, Amr Arafa 11-0,11-2 Rtd. There were 5 boys from Egypt in the draw and Michael played 3 of them. 4 of them reached the quarters showing their very high standard, so a real test for Michael which he has stood up to superbly.

In the quarters, Michael played the number 2 seed Omar El Atmas but lost out 3-1, (13-11, 11-6, 11-7, 11-6} to this very tough opponent, who is in the final. Michael played really well taking a tight first game but unfortunatly it was one Egyptian too many having beaten Abdel Rahman Zaher in round 3.

Round 1-3

After two straightforward first and second round matches Michael met Egypt’s  Abdel Rahman Zaher, ( who earlier beat the European number 1), with a place in the quarter-finals at stake.

Michael cruised to a 10-1 lead in the first, winning 11-4. It looked so simple, however it all changed in the second with the Egyptian taking control of proceedings going ahead 2-1 in games. Michael played some amazing squash to go through 3-2 comfortably in the last game. The match was not without controversy with the Egyptian using a persistent blocking strategy. Michael, between constant appealing to the referee to do something about it and doing a bit of, (less than graceful),  blocking himself – to make his point, gave as good as he got and won out!

Other Irish Players

Other Irish players who played in the tournament were Sophie O’Rourke from Highfield, Cork who had 2 wins from 4 matches. Ellie McVeigh from Belfast had 3 wins from 6 matches, winning her last match to finish strongly. In th girls U17 Hannah Craig had 2 wins from 4 matches.

In the Boys U15’s Scott Gillanders from Dublin had a very tight 1st round mach vs 9/16th seed Yannick Wilhelmi (Sui) which went 3-2 against him, very close. Scott then had 4 wins from 5 matches beating 4 English boys along the way to finish very strongly.

In the boys U 17s Stephan Hearst from Belfast had a very tough match to start vs a 3/4th seed, Mohammad Alsarraj (Jor) which he lost 3-1, 11/3, 11/6, 8/11, 11/3. In the remaining matches he had close matches and then winning his last match.

GOODBODY OLD BELVEDERE OPEN HANDICAP

Tournament Report

It happens every year without fail, an email encouraging you to get off the couch, and back onto the squash court. The time has come to get rid of those mince pie induced kilos and do battle.

It all started fifty years ago and the chaps down atAnglesea Roadnever give up. Even if you have no intention of entering the Handicap Tournament they’ll put you down anyway. There is no better start to the New Year than a heady dose of adrenalin and as you give away point after point to some young whippersnapper, it’s only that adrenalin and the fear for your reputation that keeps you battling on.

A Handicap Tournament is fantastic. It gives lower ranked players the opportunity to play against people they never play and when they get a few points and even win a few games it’s a great boost to the confidence. But what happens when you find yourself in a tournament where your fifteen year old son is also competing? Could you bear it if you had to play him? And what if you lost?

Well it didn’t quite come to that, but darned close in the case of Donal Kelly and his son Ryan. Luckily for Donal he was narrowly beaten in the semi-final thus avoiding a face off against his son in the final.

But what if he had been in the final? With his wife and other son present, who would they have been cheering for? Talk about excitement. In the event the fifteen year old Ryan beat everyone, winning the Perpetual Cup and had so much energy left he stayed on the court to play his little brother. That’s youth for you.

As always Sandycove Squash Club turned out in force, this time bringing along a squad of new players. In the final of the Vet’s Handicap Brian Hickey wearing his signature headband put on his usual performance, flying around the court entertaining the crowd and beating David Dumigan 3 -1.

There is nothing like a bit of new blood to give life to a competition and this year two new young women players – Gillian Ryan and Catriona Fitzgerald took on the old hands. Congratulations must go to Catriona who only started playing two years ago, yet managed to carry off The Plate. Watch this space!

Bernie Geoghegan a regular entrant to The Handicap Tournament beat off an old rival Gay Grant to win 3 -1 in the final of the Women’s Competition taking home the Perpetual Cup beautifully polished by the last winner, no other than the mother of the aforementioned Ryan.

As might have been expected in the Men’s Championship the final battle was fought between the Number 1 and Number 2 seeds – Rory Byrne and Dara O’Flynn respectively. In a closely fought five setter Rory emerged as the winner and was presented with the huge silver cup.

Meanwhile over on the other court The Plate match between the fifth and sixth seeds – Tom Crowe and Stephen Fasenfeld kept the spectators on their toes, trying to watch two matches at the same time. Again it was a five setter and only a matter of two points 14 -12 separated Stephen from the prize.

Sixty-six players turned out this year and all are very appreciative of the generous sponsorship of Goodbody Stockbrokers which makes it possible. 

Details of all matches in the tournament can be HERE:  

A Handicap Tournament every year for fifty years. What an achievement.

Deirdre Davys

IRISH TIMES SPORTSWOMEN OF THE YEAR AWARDS

The awards ceremony took place Friday 19th December in the Shelbourne Hotel, Dublin. Madeline Perry got the December 2013 award having won her 14th National title. This was Madeline’s 9th award in this event, which has only been running for 10 years. This is a record in the event and a testament to her superb achievements and consistency over the last decade.

As Madeline was in Egypt playing in the Women’s World Championships, she could not collect her award, so Irish Squash President Ed Dunne received it on her behalf.

Katie Taylor won the overall Sportswoman of the Year for her amazing record of a 5th World title a couple of months ago. She is unbeaten in 10 years across the world and has twice been voted, best athlete in the world across all weight divisions.

It was a great event, heralding the best Sportswomen in Ireland and giving them deserved recognition for their achievements.

For a short video of the event see HERE