Irish Junior Open – Three titles and more…
Scottish players returned from the Irish Junior Open in Dublin with 3 titles and 8 podium finishes this past weekend. Elspeth Young (GU19), Richard Hollins (BU17) and Georgia Adderley (GU15) were the winners, ensuring the Scottish squad claimed 3 titles at an ESF junior circuit event for the first time in history.
Kirsty beat Carrie 3-1 in a high quality 3/4 play-off where 3 of the 4 games went to a tie-break. It was a welcome return to international squash for Kirsty after taking a year out from the sport last season and was a clear demonstration that this quartet is more than capable of filling the void that currently exists in the Scottish senior women’s team.
Perhaps the biggest improvement over the past 12 months, at least on the evidence of this weekend, belonged to Georgia Adderley. After comfortably progressing to the semi-finals, Georgia faced Sophie O’Rourke, who had beaten her 3-0 at the U15 Five Nations back in March. A tight opening saw the first 2 games shared (both on tie-breaks) before Georgia recovered from losing the third to win 15/13 10/12 2/11 11/4 11/2. The final was a repeat of the Under 13 final last year,
Rory Stewart was another player to avenge a recent defeat in the Boys U19. After finishing 6th at the British Junior Championships at the start of the month, Rory was looking for his best finish at an ESF event for a number of years. In the quarter-finals he faced Belgian No.1, Tiago Goriely, who had beaten him 12/10 in the fifth at the European Championships back in April. The match went to a fifth once more but this time it was Rory who emerged victorious with a 11/9 8/11 11/8 1/11 11/5 win. The semi-final saw him win 3-1 in a scrappy match with Dan Bergin (Wal). In the final he found the steady play and clinical finishing of Michael Craig too much to handle. Despite the rallies being well contested, Michael always had the upper-hand and secured a comfortable 3-0 win.
Emma Fitzsimmons did enough to suggest that she is another player with a bright future ahead, adding even more depth to our current crop of junior girls. She was unlucky not to force a decider against eventual champion, Maria Gonzalez Velazquez (Spa), in the semi-finals but recovered well to win the 3/4 play-off to ensure that Scotland had at least one player in the top 3 of all the Girls events.
Jack Orr and James Dougan were the only members of the National Talent Squad who were selected to travel to Dublin – the remaining members all being HWU Academy players – and both acquitted themselves admirably. James lost to Scott (Gillanders) in Round 1, while Jack went out 3-1 against Todd Gowdy (who Chris beat in the 5/6 play-off). After this they progressed to the “plate final” (9/10 play-off) where James was able to get the better of 2 close games to win 11/7 12/10 12/10.
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