GB Vets Finals Weekend 16/17th April at Colets

Another year has passed and another tournament finished. Some players have moved up an age group, some were missing through injury but over the weekend of 16/17th April at Colets the Vets Club showed why we exist.

Again the tournament produced some superb squash with both Nigel Stiles and Dermot Hurford being pushed hard to win the O'50 and O'55 titles. Andy Normile had an easier ride in the O'45 age group as did Stuart Hardy in the O'60. With Philip Ayton picking up an injury in a close semi-final with Howard Cherlin, Ian Graham had a walk-over in the final. Newcomer to the Club John Odell surprised Chris Ansell in the O'70 by taking the first 2 games. Chris did what he always does and dug deep to survive to win 3-2. Both Brian Philips and Lance Kinder moved up an age group and won the O'75 and O'80 respectively.

The women were mixed into one draw this year and new member Rachel Woolford was successful, beating Sam Mueller in the final.

There were new categories for Non-County or International players introduced this year to encourage those who might not enter as the felt they had no chance of winning to join in.

This proved a small success so hopefully we may get more entrants next year. The 55-64 age group was won by Tariq Mushtaq and the 65+ by Philip Courtenay-Luck.

There were plate events in most categories for the first match losers.

The Burrell Trophy was awarded jointly to Jacqui Kinder and Terry Woodliffe for all the work they have done for the club over many years.

All result can be found on the Championship Web Site.

As usual we welcomed many non-playing members who turned up to support and enjoy meeting up with old friends .

With so much Masters Squash now available it's good to see that our own Championship can still attract a strong field. However without an increase in participation the Tournament will become far less of an event on the squash calendar. I therefore hope that many of you who have not entered this year for whatever reason will be able to enter next season and so increase the participation up to numbers we had a few years ago.