Grampian Success at the Nationals

It was yet another successful National campaign for Grampian’s players with the region producing no fewer than 3 National Champions with another four players being runners up - and all this on home courts, with the competition coming north for the first time and being held at ASRC.

Lyall Paterson won his sixth National title in an enthralling final. He came back from 2/1 down and 8/7 down in the fourth, to secure victory. In that fourth game, with “match ball” against him, he watched with baited breath, as his opponent, Chris Ferguson, hit a fierce shot that just clipped the top of the tin, before rolling to Lyall's feet. Lyall picked up the ball and looked agonisingly at the referee, pleading that the ball was down and waiting in silence for what seemed like an eternity, before getting a favourable decision. The reprieve was sufficient for the youngster to gain in confidence and ultimately win the match, but not before another bit of high drama on his first match ball. With an excellent lob starting to rise from the front wall, a spectator dropped a hanky onto the court and the referee called a let, only for the ball to fly over Lyall’s opponent and land as a roller nick out of the back corner. With the call having been made the point was replayed with Lyall eventually winning the rally and the title.

Lisa Aitken continues to dominate the Junior ladies scene and had a straight 3/0 victory over Perth’s Claire Gray in the girls U19 final. Lisa was also awarded with the Scottish Squash Junior Player of the Year trophy for her efforts throughout the season. At age 17 Lisa has made a great impact on the adult scene and is challenging the nation’s top players for that coveted No1 position. Robyn Hodgson had to fight hard in her first game in an all Grampian U17 final, against Mhairi Charlton, before going on to secure victory by 3/0.

Sam Allan put up a valiant effort in the boys U17 final going down 3/1, having looked fairly solid throughout the rest of his matches. His sister Rosie was also to be a runner up in the U15 girls age group, going down to a very strong Morgan McGuire from Glasgow.

In the U15 boys competition Chris Leiper produced without a doubt, his best performance to date, to put out the second seed, Douglas Kempsell, in the semi-finals with an incredible 3/2 win, edging home 10/8 in the fifth. With such a sterling performance it was always going to be difficult against the relatively fresh, Perth’s David Jones in the final. Chris started well and was competitive throughout the first game only for tiredness to eventually take over, as he went down 3/0 to the Scottish No2.

Congratulations goes out to all the other players from Grampian who competed and a special thanks goes to ASRC for hosting the event and all the helpers and organisers of what was an extremely well run tournament.