Grampian Success at 2010 Nationals

Grampian once again performed well at the Junior National Squash Championships with Shell’s Mhairi Charlton in the girls U19 tournament leading the squad home with her 4^th national title. The Scotland no1 had it far from easy and had to draw on all her experience to see off Morgan McGuire from the West with a disciplined performance in their 5^th game decider.

In the boys U19 event no1 seed Sam Allan from ASRC took the early initiative by winning the first game in the final against Greg Lobban from Inverness. Greg, however, was to make less mistakes than Sam as the match progressed, and the Inverness player won in 4 games. PNC’s Chris Shinnie had to settle for 4^th being edged out in a 5 game thriller to Ewen Urquart, also from Inverness.

Shell’s Chris Leiper pulled off the performance of the tournament against the East’s no1 seed Douglas Kempsell in a 4 game semi final classic in the under 17’s. Both players undoubtedly played to the best of their ability leaving the audience spellbound with the quality and the variety of shots played, with few errors. Unfortunately for the Grampian player, after winning the first game he was edged out in the next three games to lose 3/1 to the wiley Kempsell. Following a tight first game Chris lost a mere 3 points in his last 2 games of the 3^rd /4^th play off position, winning through 3/0 against a much improved Perth’s Callum Johnston.

The Shell duo of Robbie Paterson & Andrew Forbes had a very credible 7^th and 9^th finish respectively in the same event. Robbie lost out in 5 to Kyle Gribben from Inverness, which deprived him of an even better finish. Andrew agonisingly went down 11/9 in the 5^th to Newlands' Ross Andrew in the first round before going on to win the remainder of his matches with the most consistent and disciplined performances he has ever produced.

Rosie Allan from ASRC was the runner up in the girls U17 event and was able to put in some excellent performances, with particular note being the 3/0 victory against Central's much improved Gillian Crawford.

It was the eleven year old inspiration from Macduff, Richard Hollins, who attracted interest from most of the players and parents at the younger end of the age groups. Ricky incredibly came 3^rd in the U13’s being edged out in the quarters by the National Champion and Scotland no1 Harry Anderson from West. Richard is hoping that he has done enough to put himself into a position where he will be considered for possible selection to play for Scotland at the forthcoming Home Internationals to be held in Edinburgh.