Our New Year Rehearsal Tournament, our final event of 2024 was one to remember!
Four Divisions were contested, with the full range of Squash Tigers experience represented! At the top we had Coach Jamie showing the way, through to our JCT boys and girls and on to our learners who are preparing for their future charge into the US Squash Tour! Truly the full gambit! To catch up on some of the highlights check out our Insta Story and for the big photo dump of the day, our Squash Tigers FACEBOOK page.
Our usual preamble, for those of you new to the Squash Tigers world, as background, Rehearsal Tournaments are:
“ … in-house events conducted at SQUASHTIGERS! For the 2023-24 season (Sep 2023 thru May 2024), the Rehearsal Tournament Series comprises 9 tournament events. The Rehearsal Tournament Circuit attracts entries from top juniors. It also provides a great home for beginners to gain rehearsal before they step out into the US Squash ranking world. Players play a minimum of three and a maximum of four matches on a Saturday, commencing first thing and concluding early afternoon. The event does not count towards rating or ranking, so players may be relaxed enough to develop their games in a friendly environment, yet serious enough so that they will be ready for the wider world when they get out there!
Let's start with the future... so to speak!
D3 was truly the Future Stars bracket with Dean bouncing back from a qualifying loss to Ansh to push Vincent into the Silver Medal place! The standout match of D4 was almost certainly Audrina and Vincent who ground out a five gamer on the glass courts that had everyone enthralled! Shout out to Claire who is home from school through the Winter and has been one of our most diligent camp participants!
D2 was won by the ever improving Chloe who has settled well into her position as a Nationally ranked top 24 at GU13 and showed good composure in her driving game throughout. Chloe defeated Evan in the final, and similarly, Evan is settling well into his season as a top 24 BU11 player! Dev defeated Tony (another top 32 BU11) in the third place playoff and continues to show his improvement through hard work! The five through eight positions had solid matches, with Matthew, Ansh, Ethan and Dennis rounding out the placings.
D1 was a high standard bracket and Sid deserves credit for bouncing back from his qualifying defeat to Lily to take the title. Sid defeated the resurgent Erika in the final, Erika showing signs of coming back to full fitness and looking good before the UVA JCT next month. Anika defeated Angela to take third, with both young ladies looking in exceptional form throughout the day. In the five eights, Madeleine showed good form in preparation for the January JCT, Henry never fails to give his all and showed the benefit of a hard working winter camp, Caroline was delightful in her debut in the club and Jayden rounded out the draw after his solid qualifying win. All in all, D1 was on fire!
The Premier Division was won by Coach Jamie, who entertained the crowd and gave the players some valuable high tempo experience. Coach defeated Parth in a final in which Parth had solid moments and made into a contest (you can see game 3 here). Arman had a good day also, defeating Henry, JJ and Will on his way to 3rd - nothing to be sneezed at there! Jonathan, Lily and Eric were our remaining D1’ers and truly “looked the goods” - bigger things ahead!
We have another few days of our Winter Camp before normal squads resume on Wednesday! On a US Squash front, next weekend sees the EA Gold and not long after the Big Dogs are off to the first JCT of 2024. School squash resumes also, with January being a bulk of clutch matches garnering seeding positions for the February Nationals. Big things ahead, much work on the courts and it’s all to be played for... see you all at training!
