Saturday 23rd of November at Christchurch Football was the date set for our final junior girl’s tournament for 2020. We had twenty girls register across three divisions. It was great to have a draw of six girls who are currently ungraded registering to give the tournament a go. Three of these girls attend a Squash Canterbury afterschool coaching programme, two played squash at the Koru games and another girl was encouraged by a friend to enter, as great opportunity to get back into the sport; she played squash a few years ago and had been a member of Christchurch Football Squash Club.
A massive thank you to Christchurch Football for hosting the final tournament in the series, and Caitlin Millard for running it on the day. It was great for the girls to meet Caitlin, hear her story about when she started playing squash and the opportunities that have since been made available to her as she progresses her game.
Division 3 – Ungraded players; All these girls have developed a game that would allow them to play in our local interclub competition when they are ready. Alternatively, they might continue to enjoy squash by entering our Junior tournaments in 2020. Hopefully this division will continue to attract new girls eager to try a competitive game in a fun and friendly atmosphere! There won’t always be birthday cake, it just happened to be Georgie van Herel’s birthday and with a band setting up for an evening function it made sense to stop all games and sing “Happy Birthday”.
1st Maria Evans who is enjoying the afterschool squash coaching with Chris Jarrett in Rangiora, 2nd Jessie Skilling & 3rd Kiera Siddal
Division 2 ; All the girls in this division are now becoming regular players in our Junior tournaments, my highlight was the match between Sarah and Arihia, a wonderful 5 setter game, where both girls kept their concentration, and fought hard for each point with Sarah taking the win (this time) 9/11, 11/4, 8/11, 11/9,11/9. I am sure these two girls will meet on the court and enjoy a rematch in 2020.
1st Annemarie le Grelle (Rangiora Squash Club), 2nd Sarah McDougall (Canterbury Secondary Schools) & 3rd Arihia O’Driscoll (Christchurch Football Squash Club)
Open Division; Fantastic to see all the girls enjoying the Open final between Anastasia and Olivia it is not often we have full attendance at a Junior prize giving but we did on Saturday. Olivia got off to a strong start winning the first two games 11/9, 14/12 but Anastasia stayed focused and won the match in 5 winning 11/5, 11/9 and 11/5. As with many girls in this Division we are seeing these players develop a strong game and are beginning to bridge the gap on the grading list from our more developed Junior B grade girls as they work their way up the grading list.
1st Anastasia Lim (Rangiora), 2nd Olivia McCoy (Christchurch) & 3rd Georgie van Herel (Christchurch Football) & 5th Tanisha Butt (Rangiora)
Dates and venues for the 2020 Girls Tournament Series has been confirmed; #1- Saturday 21st March @ Oxford, #2 – Sunday 3rd May @Burnside, #3-Sunday 30th August @Christchurch & #4 -Saturday 17th October @Sumner
