Durham and Cleveland Junior County Closed Tournament:

Almost 80 children aged between eight and 18 from all over Durham and Cleveland entered this year's County Closed squash tournament held at Nunthorpe squash club last weekend.

The standard of squash was exceptionally high with many close games particularly with the younger competitors and tournament sponsors Unsquashable must have been very pleased with both the standard of play and the excellent sportsmanship that prevailed throughout the weekend. Four players from Newton Aycliffe's Oak Leaf Sports Complex entered the competition for the first time and acquitted themselves very well. Sarah Dowson lost a competitive under-13 girls semi-final to competition winner, Sarah Setterfield from Norton and sister Helen Dowson won the girls under-11 plate competition. The Dowson sisters as well as Alex and Kate Vallis, who both played well, are products of the Bill West production line of squash excellence from the Oak Leaf club. Coach West also has the Counties 2 top juniors boys, Lee Skinner and Graham Johnson in his stable with a large number of other talented juniors all based at the Aycliffe club.

Norton's Laura Setterfield, who looks a real star of the future, dominated the older girl's events. Laura won both the under 15 and 17 girls finals and was in a fine form all weekend, dispatching Chester-le-Street's Sheryl Cardy in the under-17 semi-final without troubling the score card and only dropping two points in the final to Sedgefield's Emma Larcombe. The under-11 girls final between Louise Mawson of Redcar and Jennifer McKay of Chester-le-Street was the match of the weekend with the taller Louise taking a 2/0 lead and looking odds on a winner, but the Chester-le-Street player proved to be a real fighter and stormed back to level at 2/2. As the Redcar player wilted under unrelenting pressure the Chester-le-Street pixie won the 5th game to clinch a well deserved final win.

Norton's Danny Hockborn won the boys under 11 final before being knocked out of the under 13 semi-final by club and County team mate Chris Hall. Hall played a controlled game, exploiting Hockbourn's sometimes explosive temperament, to set up the under-13 final with Nunthorpes Alex Collins. Collins started the final in business like fashion, showing exceptional speed around the court and quickly raced to a 2/0 lead. Pride saw Hall claw his way back into the third game but it was not enough to stop the Nunthorpe teenager claiming a 3/0 final win. The under-15 boys final saw Darlington's Simon Robinson shock the nationally ranked Chris Ailinson from Guisborough with his speed and power and it looked like the balance of power was shifting towards the Darlington club, but Allinson managed to force his opponent into a number of unforced errors allowing a Guisborough recovery. Both players showed off a variety shots with Robinson never quite being able to tame his County teammate. Lapses in concentration always allowed Allinson back into the game and his final 3/0 victory was a lot closer then it looked on paper.

The boys under-17 and under-19 events were both dominated by Aycliffe's Lee Skinner, who was in a merciless mood all weekend. Nicknamed 'the mean machine' by organiser Laura Hall, Lee was relentless in the destruction of the Counties other top juniors. Playing a semi-final and both finals on the same day Skinner quickly despatched Darlington's Andrew Scott to set up an under-17 final with fellow Oak Leaf player Graham Johnson. A weary looking Johnson had been battling a cold most of the week and had already had a tough semi-final with Nunthorpe's Richard Collins, so could only offer token resistance against his nationally ranked opponent. The 3/0 final victory set up a mouth-watering under 19 final with No. 1 seed Nick Pugsly from Redcar. Pugsly has been away from the County scene for the last year and had previously always had the better of his younger Aycliffe opponent and with both players starting well the large crowd looked forward to the long and tight match. Losing the first match 9/2, Pugsly looked shocked by Skinner's speed and power and came out all gun's blazing in the second game but could not stop Skinner's steamroller run to a 3/0 final victory.

The weekend event was run superbly by Junior County chairperson, Laura Hall who represented sponsors Unsquashable whose generosity meant that all competitors received an Unsquashable t-shirt. With so many talented boys and girls now playing squash throughout the region the future looks bright for Durham and Cleveland for many years to come.