This past Saturday the Fourth Rehearsal Tournament of the year was by far the best and brightest with our best and brightest! We saw 4 fantastic divisions contested on a Saturday full of sportsmanship, good squash, hard work and a boatload of fun. If you’d like a very quick informal look at the event, we have our dedicated YOUTUBE STREAM - additionally you can join in the Rehearsal Tournament Experience SIGNING UP OUR TOURNAMENT PAGE.
Our Premier Division was won by Jamie, defeating Parth in an entertaining final. Jamie’s route to the final included Edward and Will, and all three boys will benefit from the exposure of being on court with a PSA Pro. Watching Jamie on court reminded me how lucky we are as a program to have the likes of Jamie still training hard every day, competing frequently on the professional tour and bringing that cutting edge competitive experience back to the club. A role model on and off the court in his work ethic, enthusiasm for the sport and of course his skill and athleticism.
The Premier Division was also notable for a plethora (hoping that’s the correct collective noun?) of talented juniors, with three players who have made at least a semi-final of a JCT this season, in addition to Jamie, in addition to Parth… not a bad draw at all! In the absence of Lils who was off with school squash adventures Isabella and Claire both took on the role of dominant girls and played a great standard of squash. JJ was upset in the quarters by Eric, who is one of our most improved players this season and Edward rounded out the top 8. Shout out to Edward, who has put in some of the hardest work in the program and moved his rating from 3.42 to 4.18 in less than a year… remarkable success and all a credit to his work ethic.
D1 was just so much darn fun and saw Humzah beating Eric in the final. Eric, who is obviously an U11 JCT Champ, looked like it! Humzah recovered from his qualifying defeat to JJ and sped through the draw, looking neat and controlled in his squash and should be proud of a good day's work! Many notable matches in the draw, Tyler’s 3rd was nothing if not solid, as was Jonathan, Leo and Mimi’s day. We welcomed Rishaan from the wilds of Northern NJ to the Rehearsal Series and it’s always great to see first timers enjoying the Rehearsal Tournament Experience!
The D2 final saw a clash of titans with Andrew and Allen in the best and closest final of the day. 3/2 to Andrew and a very impressed Coach Colin who witnessed two of his pupils in such a solid battle! Welcome back to Varish, who finished out the top four with Chloe. The five eights had Evan and Sriya showing some new skills and everyone's favorite players, Jesse and Tony in a big five game battle for 7th!
D3 saw a clash of titans and Julian prevailing over Neil with Dean in 3rd place. Shout outs to Dev and Ronnie who are unambiguously getting better each and every week. Coach Colin was vociferous with his praise of our D3 crew, who earned the right to play on our glass courts and were brilliant in their energy and effort. In terms of preparing for a big future and US Squash tournaments, the series is looking a tremendous success thus far, with the kids showing great growth in competitive experience and demeanor, virtually unrecognizable from the somewhat shy little guys we had in September!
A reminder that Rehearsal Tournaments are one of the planks of the Squash Tigers program. These in-house events are conducted at SQUASHTIGERS on the first Saturday of every month. For the 2022-23, the Rehearsal Tournament Series commenced in September and extends through until June – a total of 10 events. The events attract 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! Watch this past weekend via our YOUTUBE STREAM and SIGN UP VIA OUR WEBSITE.