Happy New Year to the Squash Tigers World! We closed out the calendar year in style, taking Gold in the CT Gold and yet more trophies in a PA Silver. Read on for the highlights!
The catchily entitled “K-Team Gold” (sounds a little like an Ed Sheeran song title) was conducted in Connecticut this past weekend in the salubrious multi-disciplinary luxury building that is Chelsea Piers CT. If you haven’t been to CP, you’ve missed out, a dozen courts, high spec finishes and a well run mega-facility… quite the venue indeed.
As is often the case, Claire and Lily stole the show, winning out in the GU17 after arriving in the final without dropping a game. Claire won her second gold in a row, Lily made her first U17 final despite playing up and both demonstrated masterful squash. Claire in particular had a somewhat tricky draw and defeated a very handy young Egyptian girl in the quarters in a summary three games… enough to put a big smile on the coaches faces!
Shrikar, who has been in excellent form of late, made a quarter final, losing out in a close match to ST visitor Kunal and then recovered well to finish 5th. Arjun also repped us in the draw, making a run in the consolation to finish 11/12. Well done boys!
Chloe and Mimi, our younger phenoms, continued to, well, phenom along! Chloe made up for an early disappointment by winning through the consols into a satisfying 5th place. Mimi played up in the GU13 and finished a creditable 10th place against, well, much bigger little girls!
The GU15 was a real example of hard work, with three of our most diligent campaigners, Angela, Kayla and Jasmine winning their way through a difficult and quite good level draw. Angela won the “local derby”, finishing in 9th, with Kayla and Jasmine sharing 11/12 - not a bad weekends work for the girls and some reward for their strong work ethic.
Not to be forgotten, what feels like the 123rd edition of the Berwyn Silver took place on the 29th and 30th in the Philadelphia suburbs. Berwyn has been a stalwart of club squash in not just Philly, but the whole of the USA, being one, if not the first established commercial clubs and home to multiple National Champions and US Representatives (despite not exactly being Chelsea Piers) - much respect indeed!
Our Squash Tigers headlines were with Sriya and Jonathan, winning the GU11 and BU15 respectively. Additionally, Ayan won a solid 3rd in the BU17, defeating ST visitor Albert in a big, big five game playoff!
Finally, at the club we closed out two weeks of Winter Camp. I best expressed Winter Camp as being a great time for the kids to “top up” their squash and fitness after a stressful December academic period, and thusly, it was... The players worked wonderfully hard, the coaches were diligent and the poor weather was forgotten as sleds were pushed, burpees done, shots honed and hydration stressed. What a great couple of weeks it was in the club!
Now, the New Year begins. We resume our normal squad schedule, our first Rehearsal Tournament is this Saturday for many of us to get the match play we need, Zoom coaching for the PA Gold and final prep for the first JCT of the year in Washington. Not to forget some of our best and brightest away at the BJO (stay tuned for a post on their journey) It’s all go and we’re up and ready to roll it out!
See you all at the club soon!