The second annual Finsbury Leisure Centre Ladies Squash Tournament was held at Finsbury Leisure Centre on Saturday 30th July 2016.
Report by Martin Shippey, Squash Coach
The tournament received entries from all areas of London, mainly consisting of regular female members of the Finsbury Leisure Friday night mixed social evening and the Saturday morning ladies sessions, with a few competitors from as far afield as Radlett, Canterbury, Rochester and even Cambridge. The entry sheet was filled to the capacity of 26 spaces well before the cut off date for entry.
The competitors were divided into four grades, A, B, C and D, catering for skill levels ranging from recreational / social players (D), lower club league players (C), higher club league players (B) and strong team players (A), to make sure that a wide range of players would be able to enjoy competing at their own level. This would be the first real competitive squash playing experience for many of the C and D graded players, some of whom had not only never competed in, but never even attended a competition before.
Each of the players would play every other player in their grade in a round-robin format, with the player with the most points having played all matches being declared the winner in each grade.
Registration being completed by 9.30, play began promptly at 10am, with 66 matches of best of three games up to 15 points to be played by 5.20. By lunchtime play was falling behind the carefully worked out schedule, so the remaining matches were played up to 11 points – to the relief of many players, who were beginning to find the prospect of playing another six or eight games up to 15 points slightly daunting.
In the end, all matches were completed in good time, including an unexpected playoff in the A grade, with Jillian Lilico having just lost to Stepanie Walton in a fiercely fought battle for first place having to go straight up against visitor from Cambridge Reka Burmeister in a tie for second place.
So after many exciting hard fought matches, and all players having immensely enjoyed an exhausting but exciting day of squash, the results were:
Grade A
Winner: Stephanie Walton
Runner-up: Jillian Lilico
Grade B
Winner: Jacqueline Ho
Runner-up: Daniela Aramu
Grade C
Winner: Lisa Tyrrell
Runner-up: Joanna Norman
Grade D
Winner: Natalie Malupa
Runner-up: Alison Tsang
Thanks to: Arkin Mert, FLC, for providing facilities, Jelena Hajdukovic, Tournament co-ordinator.
Overseen by: Chand Channa, Squash Coach, Martin Shippey, Squash Coach.
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