ON Sunday May 17 eight Juniors from the Bude Squash Club travelled to Exeter to compete in various squash events.

The U-11s team (Jago Saxton, Tremaine Fry and Emily Fanson) and the U-13s team (Sam Fanson, Aron Auty and Nicola Hardwick) were destined to play two of their Devon Junior League fixtures at Exeter Golf and Country Club against the Golf and Country Club and a very strong St Peters School while Tony Pepperell and Ben Fairclough had entered the Devon Junior Graded Tournament at the Devon and Exeter Squash and Racketball Club.

The U-13s first match was the return fixture against St Peters, boasting several Devon County players in their team, who were too strong for Bude. Each player lost their match 3-0 but showed good determination and obviously gained from this experience because in their second match against Exeter G&CC they reversed the result.

Sam Fanson, playing at No 1, played some long games winning his first then dropping his second game but going onto win the 3rd and 4th with the narrowest of margins. (12-10, 13-11).

Aron Auty (No 2) also had two close games winning 11-9, but with some encouraging words from his mum stepped up his game to win his match 3-0 beating his opponent 11-1 in the 3rd.

Nicola Hardwick (No 3) was in no mood to let her games go on longer than necessary and dispatched her opponent in three games 11-4, 11-3 and 11-5. With St Peters also beating Exeter G&CC, Bude's U-13 team finished 2nd in this trio of teams and gained some important league points.

The U-11 team faired the same as the U-13s winning one match and losing one but this time they were victorious over St Peters with Jago Saxton (playing at No 1) and Emily Fanson (No 3) having to take their matches to five games, Jago winning his 3-2 and Emily losing her's 2-3.

This meant No 2 Tremaine Fry had to win to take the match, he did not disappoint, with his usual 100% commitment Tremaine wore his opponent down to win 3-0 (11-8, 11-9, 11-4).

Next up it was the Exeter G&CC U-11s. Emily did not fare so well this time losing 3-0 After losing his first game 11-9 Tremaine completed his match winning the next three easily 11-3,11-6,11-4. This time the pressure was on Jago to win and it looked like he might do it, coming back from two games down Jago took the third but his opponent edged the result 11-9 in the fourth and with it the match.

As always these matches prove very good experience for all the young players giving them the opportunity to compete against other clubs and prove to themselves that they have the ability to do well in the future – keep up the practice.

Meanwhile at the Devon Junior Graded Tournament Tony Pepperell and Ben Fairclough were seeded at No 2 and No 3 respectively and were in a draw of 16 players, the rest being from Devon clubs (Bude must thank the Devon SRA to allow our juniors to compete in the Devon events, it allows Bude to play a higher standard of squash against a higher standard of opponents).

In the first two rounds both Tony and Ben won comfortably but as luck would have it they were drawn against each other in one of the semi-finals. Tony showed his superior pace and power taking a considerable lead, Ben pegged several points back battling hard but Tony went on to take his place in the final.

In the final Tony was pitted against Connor Andrews from Crediton. Tony tried to beat Connor with his pace but this high risk tactic allowed errors to creep into his game and with the Point-A-Rally scoring proved very costly allowing Connor to dominate the first game and win 11-6. In the second game Connor was allowed to ease to a 10-3 lead giving him 8 match points. Tony did not give up, he managed to find form and his targets bringing the score to 10-8 but it proved too little too late as Conner took his time and waited for a mistake by Tony to win the match with a simple winning shot.

In the 3rd/4th place play-off Ben was against a young mobile player but struggled with Ben's domination of the court and Ben took the match 2-0 to be placed 3rd overall. Well Done.

Bude Squash Club is supporting England Squash and Racketball's bid for inclusion in the 2016 Olympic Games.