Category: News

A total of 83 juniors across Wiltshire descended onto Marlborough College on September 25th 2017 for the annual Junior Wiltshire County Closed.  Chippenham was represented by Marcus Wales (U15) and Josh Bailey (U13).

The U13 for boys had the largest representation (24) of juniors across all age groups and Josh Bailey was amongst the thick of it. Albeit Josh had turned 11 just a few weeks before and therefore the youngest U13 entrant he came through the qualifying round unscathed.   The final 16 qualified for the main round which meant Josh coming up against some very experienced player in the 1st round. After some closely fought games he came up just short to lose 0-2.  Undeterred Josh entered the plate and with renewed energy came through the plate quarter final a comfortable 2-0.  The semi-final was neck and neck with some good long rallies from both players. Josh narrowly winning 2-1.  In the final Josh started to play more straight with some deceptive boasts thrown in, which his opponent found hard to counter.  Josh eventually went onto win the final 2-0 with energy to spare and deservedly was crowned U13 plate winner in his first county closed.

For Marcus Wales this was his 3rd county closed and after winning the U15 title last year he was seeded 1.  After relatively comfortable rounds early on he had his first tough match in the semi-final. His opponent was last year’s U13 champion who was very quick and strong and made Marcus work for his shots.  Marcus eventually came through 2-0 winner to enter the final for the second year running. His opponent, James Rance, came through the early rounds and semi-final with relative ease and we all knew this would be a good final to watch.  Both players had played each other before with note the Chippenham Grand Prix when Marcus just pipped James 11-10.  Marcus was nervous in the first game and made some unforced errors, which were duly punished by James with some solid drop shots.  James won the first game 11-7.  The second game started like the first with both playing some delightful squash. Although Marcus was making less errors he couldn’t pull ahead as James was picking up every ball that Marcus threw at him.  After some nail biting rallies Marcus did enough to win the second game 11-9.  In the final game Marcus seem to be on fire and started to attack every shot with more vigour, variety and purpose.  James was more on the back foot then and started to make more mistakes.  Marcus sailed through the final game 11-1 to win 2-1 and was crowned U15 county champion for the 2nd time.

Well done to both Marcus and Josh!

We’ve lost more players again this month, mainly due to busy lives 

Congratulations to Simon Gardner who came top of box 1.

Tim Jones and Mike Sotirakos have won the free courts this month after being picked from a large list of players to play all their games last month. Please ask at the reception for your vouchers.

Welcome to the new and returning players this month!

We’ve lost a number of players this month due to injury, job relocation and Christmas!

Rhys Merriman and Andy Smith have won the free courts this month after being picked from a large list of players to play all their games last month. Please ask the reception for your vouchers.

Welcome to the new and returning players this month!

Congratulations to Steve Wakefield for coming top of box 1. I’ll be updating the website with last month’s scores in the next couple of days.

Tim Jones and Sebastian Ingham have won the free courts this month after being picked from a fairly small list of players to play all their games last month. Please ask the reception for your vouchers.

Welcome to the new and returning players this month!

Once again we’ve had lots of new and returning players join the leagues so I’m afraid some of you won’t have ended up where you expected. We now have 12 leagues though, which is fantastic!

James Morgan and Dave Hicks have won the free courts this month after being drawn from a long list of players who played all their games last month. Please ask at the Olympiad reception for your vouchers.

Chris Chard and Andy Kersey have won the free courts after being picked from a list of players who played all their games last month. Please ask at the Olympiad reception for your vouchers.

Well done to Simon Gardner who came top of box 1 last month.

We’ve had a couple of players join/re-join so not all promotions are as expected I’m afraid. I’ve had to temporarily increase box 5 to 6 players as well.

Michael Graham and Nicki Mingay have won the free courts after being picked from a list of players who played all their games last month. Please ask at the Olympiad reception for your vouchers.

Well done to Andy Smith who came top of box 1 last month.

I’ve recently updated the rules to better cover failure to turn up or accept a game. I’ve attached the full rules but here are the bits that have changed (basically, please remember to write W/O on the score sheet so I know what’s happened):

Failure of an opponent to turn up for an arranged match will result in the full 5 points being awarded to the attending player and zero to the non-attendee. Please write W/O in the score box next to the zero to claim a walk-over.

If a player cancels a game within 48 hours of an arranged match, they forfeit the game (5 – 0) unless another game can be arranged by the cancelling player.

If a player fails to accept an invitation to play after 3 reasonable court times have been offered, they forfeit the game and the 5 points are taken by the invitee. Please write W/O in the score box next to the zero to claim a walk-over.

There were lots of games played in most boxes last month which is great! We’ve had a number of people re-join again this month so I’ve increased the top 3 boxes to 6 players so as to minimise disruption to promotions.

Adam Slater and Lisa Kellet have won the free courts this month as they were picked from a list of players to play all their games last month. Please ask at the Olympiad reception for your vouchers.

Congratulations to Charlie Galton for coming top of box 1!

I’ve managed to reduce all but box 3 back to 5 players (sorry box 3!).

Andy Kersey and Neil Richardson have won the free courts this month as they were picked from a list of players to play all their games last month. Please ask at the Olympiad reception for your vouchers.

We’re back to 5 players per box again J

Guy Cox and Elliot Jones have won the free courts this month as they were picked from a list of players who played all their games last month. Please ask at the Olympiad reception for your vouchers.