TS&LC U19 Juniors Represent Cornwall in Inter-County Finals
Posted on 20th Jan 2022, 12:00am
TS&LC would like to say a big well done to the BU19 Cornwall Counter Team on their achievements over the weekend. Juniors Luis Murray, Owen London, Benjamin Thorpe, and Fin Irish (who played in a previous round) - will be known as our older up-and-coming TS&LC Junior stars - battled to get Cornwall into the finals and have done our club and county proud.
See the full write up by Allen Murray Bellow
Cornwall U19s Inter-County Finals
Nottingham University and Nottingham Squash Club (The Park) staged the finals of the Inter-County U19s tournament. Cornwall was seeded 8th and faced the favorites (and eventual winners) Yorkshire in the 1st round. But Cornwall gave it a real go.
Up first was 3rd string, Ben Thorpe. With Fin Irish unable to play, Ben stepped up and played valiantly against Gabriel Cox. Although Ben lost, he played some of his best and most consistent squash. Louis Murray (1st string) had a tough match against one of the best juniors in the world, Sam Todd. But Louis stuck to his task and made sure he pushed Sam where he could. Owen London played highly ranked Josh Payne in the 2nd string match. Owen played magnificently and had game balls to take it into a 5th game. Great performance from Cornwall.
Next up was Hampshire (who Cornwall lost narrowly to in the previous round). Ben continued his great start with a fully committed 3-2 win against Harry Thomas. Harry had beaten Fin in the previous round, but this time Ben had too much for the Hampshire 3rd string. In the 1st string match, Louis played a stronger Joe Pannell. Louis was on top for much of the match, with Joe taking the 2nd game and pushing in the 3rd. But Louis was too strong. In the previous round, Owen had lost 2-1 to Tom Johnson. This time Owen played with great conviction and skill and won 3-0. So, a clean sweep against Hampshire in the 2nd round.
The last match was against one of the pre-tournament favourites, North Wales. In the previous round, the Welshmen had pushed Yorkshire all the way. At 3rd string, Ben started shakily, but soon got into his stride and won 3-1. Louis played 1st string and Welsh No. 1, Rhys Evans. This was a magnificent match with amazingly accurate squash from both players. Louis had game balls to go 2-0 up and was 2-1 up, but, although he gave everything, lost it in 5. So, Owen needed to win his match for Cornwall to win the tie. He won the 1st game with some great squash. But after that point, Josh Davies proved a bit too strong and North Wales took the tie narrowly. What a great tournament for Cornwall. Superb team spirit, some fantastic squash, and 6th placed county in England.
Feature Image from left to right: Owen London, Ben Thorpe, Louis Murray
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