The men’s final, between defending champion Rob Hickling and Mike Hopkins, drew a capacity crowd and they were treated to some fantastic squash before Hopkins edged home.
Hopkins was very much in charge in the first two games and was playing squash not too dissimilar from his professional days, giving Hickling no room and forcing errors regularly.
Hickling, however, was not finished off that easily and came back in the third to level the score at 7-7 before Hopkins found enough in the tank to edge the game and the match 9-7.
A cracking culmination to good week of squash.
Said tournament director John Wood: ?the overall standard of squash right through the championship was high and all winners were worthy of their titles.
We have had fantastic support from the Bedell Group which will continue to allow the club to build from the junior levels right through to the elite senior members – a positive outlook for the future of the sport.?
The Ladies final was between current Channel Islands champion and title holder Kate Cadigan and rising star Rowena Hockey.
Cadigan was in no mood to lose her crown and was quickly into the swing of the game and gave Hockey no room to manoeuvre in taking the title 3-0.
The under-13 final was contested by brothers Paul and Mark Hickling, with the honours this time going to the older brother Mark.
Paul acquitted himself well and will only be a matter of time before he starts upsetting a few of the older boys’ with his determination.
It was a busy day for Mark as he then had to play Max Tupper in the final of the under 15 boys, where, obviously with plenty of energy still in the tank, he grafted to a 3-0 win in 35 minutes.
Tupper, though playing fluently, was unable to match the court speed and recovery shots by Hickling.
In the under -17 final Allan Magee’s pace proved decisive against George McLeod.
Both played good length, with Magee first to force the pace.
That paid dividends initially, but once McLeod was able to counter with clever boasts and slow the game down the match was always going to be in the balance.
But at 1-1 Magee resorted to more pace and ultimately went on to win the title 3-1.
In the senior competitions the men’s Vintage was cleaned up by the evergreen John Farley with a hard fought 3-0 win over the current CI Vintage champion Martyn Scriven.
Scriven, having played a semi final earlier in the day against Ray Hockey, looked to be a touch jaded in the final but it was always going Farley’s way with clever racquet work and subtle changes of pace.
In the men’s veterans it was a battle between defending champion Hugh Jones and top seed John Wood.
In what turned out to be another epic battle it was Jones capitalising on Woods’ errors that gave him a 2-1 lead after about 40 minutes.
Fortunately, for Wood, Jones had had a tough semi-final in the morning against old rival Steve Law which had taken some of the edge off his game and as the match wore on Wood’s speed and fitness became a telling factor.
He closed out the fourth and then went on to take a hard-fought fifth 9-7 and bag the title.
