Three Durham and Cleveland juniors took the Under-11s, Under-15s and Under-17 titles at the Chapel Allerton Junior Open in Leeds last weekend.

Some stiff competition is always represented at this end of season prestigious competition and this year's entries were no exception.

Budding squash players from all over the Country were to take part for the silverware, prizes and money on offer.

Squash was played at the highest level in this championships and the trio of talented Teesside County Juniors, Daniel Hockborn Under-11s Boys, Simon Robinson Under-15s Boys and Laura Setterfield Under-17 Girls stood up to the test admirably.

Norton's Daniel Hockborn has had an excellent season and has played some mature squash considering he is still only ten years of age.

As always Daniel plays his Squash with one hundred percent commitment and was to prove so in this competition. Daniel played his semi-final against a very good runner Robert Able but was never really in trouble and swept his opponent to one side to set up what looked on paper a mouthwatering final.

Daniel was to meet Jacob Robinson who he met two weeks ago in the Northern Open at Jesmond and defeated in a thrilling final. Disaster struck for the first six points ,he was putting every shot either onto his opponents racket or into the tin Daniel just could not do anything right and Jacob was full of confidence until Daniel found his composure and frustrated his opponent with his short sharp game. Daniel ran and ran and fought back to even the score at 8/8. It could have gone either way and stayed 8/8 all for a little until the marker made a strange comment at Daniel and warned him about his language ,what for we really didn't know but It worked as he fired in two low drives to take the game 10/8The second game was to and fro for the first half a dozen rallies, after that it was a one sided affair and Daniel was always in control and had his Cheshire opponent under constant pressure taking the sap out of his legs and the Under-11s title in a comfortable 3/0 win to add to his best season ever and is without doubt a major prospect not only for the Durham and Cleveland County but also for the prospect of Junior Squash as a whole.

Next on was Darlington's Simon Robinson who was on fire all weekend displaying accurate shots which actually astonished his Dad and his opponents to leave his mark in the U15 Junior World of Squash and has been a long time coming.

Only two weeks age Simon competed in the Northern Open in Jesmond, played reasonably well but gave his opponent more points than he was scoring. This weekend was not to be the same. Simon took out Andrew Widdison in the Quarters to meet Simon Haige in the semis on his own turf in Yorkshire .Haige was Nationally Ranked and has just stepped up from U13 to U15, Simon had it all to do. Robinson went on court with all the confidence in the world and pressurised his Yorkshire opponent to make mistake after mistake ,Simon was taking the ball very early and keeping the ball away from his opponent not allowing him any time on the ball at all ,frustration showed on Haige's face, after seven minutes Robinson found himself opening the door to his opponent hardly troubling the score card 9/1.The second game was much of the same except Robinson gave his opponent five mistakes to win 9/5 but never the less was still playing some excellent squash. Simon's dad then advised Simon to keep the ball wide and volley to pressurise Haige as he did in the first to frustrate his opponent and what a game he played. It was all over in less than five minutes and Simon caused a major upset to breeze in to his first open final and to leave Haige crumpled in the corner, head in hands wondering what went wrong.

Simon was to meet Yorkshire 's Eddy McGuire who he had beaten twice before in County matches but it was always by the skin of his teeth. Simon set off like a train and put his competitor under immense pressure and did not put a foot wrong hitting nicks from all angles taking the first 9/1.The second was not all his own way but he fired in some fantastic backhand drop shots and perfect lengths to the back to take the second 9/6.Simon played squash like he never played before but he squandered match ball and lost the third 8/10 Was this to be the turning point in the match for his opponent. Simon's dad then quietly whispered what to do if he wanted to take his first Open title and went on to take the fourth game and match what can only be described as a fantastic and controlled game of squash and make it the best win of his career.

It was all up to Norton's Laura Setterfield in the Under-17 Girls to make it a memorable weekend for the Junior trio and she was to make her mark in the Semi finals against Yorkshire's Lucy Milner. Laura was suffering from a bad cold but went on with all the confidence in the world, this showed as the score line recorded a 9/0, 9/0, 9/0 ruthless demolition in less than 15 minutes.

Laura was to meet Cheshire's star for the future Under-15 and Under-17 County Champion and second seed for the competition Kirsty West.

Laura got off to a bad start and within minutes found herself 8/0 down, her Dad ran down stairs to get her water between games to find himself standing alone for a while ,he then went back upstairs to watch Laura cover every corner of the court frustrating her opponent and running her into submission to make a remarkable recovery taking the first game10/8.In the second game she played a little better and managed to keep on running to take the second game 9/3. Laura's cold was now having a part to play and she was not feeling well between games, she was 0/7 down in the third but managed to claw her way back again to 6/8 only to be robbed of a chance to take the third game and match as the marker gave a no let at game ball down for her opponent to take the game 6/9. Feeling jelly-legged Laura was now suffering on court and it showed in the fourth ,she was out of rhythm and miss hitting the ball losing the game 4/9. What the crowd saw next was sheer guts and determination, her legs had gone she had a cold and was now feeling sick, but she chased the ball from corner to corner and got her game together playing some nice shots which took the sting out of her Cheshire rival and found her self blowing very hard and tired rapidly to record a 9/1 victory and make it a hat-trick for one of the most successful Junior Championships for the Durham and Cleveland Juniors.

Durham and Cleveland SRA

2003/2004 Roll Of Honour

The recent presentation evening at Norton SC included the following awards:

County: Men's Over 35 Team: National title in the Inter County Championships; Yawar Abbas, Andy Cross, Tim Clark, Neil Harrison, Leon Kirton, Peter Lonsdale and Ian Williams. Ian Hilton (Sunderland H&RC): Peart Trophy (men's county team performance); Faith Sinclair (Durham Ladies): Smith Cup (women's county team performance). Norton SC: Club of the Year; Redcar SC: Small Club of the Year. Michael Amer: Endeavour Trophy (for services to the senior county team since 1990). Whitfield's Building Services League: Norton I - men's champions; Chester-le-Street I, women's champions; Aycliffe I, Norton III - men's divisions two and three champions; Nunthorpe I - women's division two champions; Bannatyne's HC II, Sunderland I - winners of men's division 4A & 4B; Darlington VI, Norton IV - winners of divisions 5A & 5B; Hild and Bede I - division six winners. Phil Davidson (Norton III) - men's player of the year; Micaela Harris (Darlington I) - women's player of the year. Gareth Lumsdon (Norton), Jonathan Slee (Aykley Heads), Phil Davidson, Steve Toas (Sedgefield), Gavin Doherty (Thornaby Pavilion), Jeff Graham (Nunthorpe), John Mullender (Norton) and John Broomhall (Hild and Bede) - men's divisional players of the year in order of divisions; Micaela Harris and Jane Wilkinson - women's divisional players of the year. Principia Cups: Redcar - men's league cup winners; Sunderland - women's league cup winners. Presentations by Kevin Whitfield, of Whitfield's Building Services.