18 & 19/04/09 - Alchemy+ Highlands & Islands Junior Open, Inverness

55 of the top junior squash players from throughout Scotland converged on Inverness Tennis & Squash Club for last weekends Alchemy+ H.I.S.A. Junior Open. The tournament is separated into divisions of 8 dependant on Scottish ranking. In Division 1 the final was a rerun of last year with Sam Allan ( Aberdeen) meeting Inverness player, Greg Lobban. Greg with his usual attacking flair took the first game 11-8 but the next game was point for point till they reached 10-10, which meant to win you had to get two clear points. It was Sam who eventually took the game 16-14 to level the match. Greg continued to attack at every opportunity but errors crept in to his game allowing Sam to take the last two games 11-6,11-7 and avenge his defeat from last year. With Ewen Urquhart 4th, Aly McCorquodale 7th and Jamie Henderson 8th the Highlands players performed well in the top league.

Division 2 had 5 players from the North but it was Inverness player Kyle Gribben who made the final after narrowly defeating club mate Allan McKay 3-2 saving 4 match balls in the process. Kyle met Callum Johnston (Kinross) who had pipped him in the recent Scottish under 15 final. Kyle won the first game but his exertions in the semi-final then caught up with him and he went on to lose 3-1. Gavin Majilton, Dexter Durrand and Fergus Richards all from Wick were 3rd, 5th and 8th.

In Div. 3 Sam Allan's sister Rosie gave a demonstration on control against her final opponent Mark Everard ( Banchory ) Mark was fast and powerful but Rosie always made it very difficult for him to get racket on ball and convincingly won 3-0. Michael Ross and Gary Beales were 4th and 5th.

Inverness player, Kirsty Lobban convincingly won her way through to the Division 4 final to meet David Beaumont from Kinross. Kirsty took the first game 11-9, lost the second 11-13 and the third 7-11. Showing some great determination and more use of the back court Kirsty came back to win the last two games 11-7, 11-7. Kyle Bruce (Nairn ) came 4th amd Martin Ross (Inverness) 6th.

Fife junior Craig Valente-Wallace took the honours in Div. 5 coming from 2-1 down to edge the final game 12-10 against Elspeth Young from Kinross. Brian Wallace from Nairn played well in his first tournament to come third.

Division 6 was won by Rebecca McKerchar (Perth) with brother and sister Richard and Emily Hollins from Macduff taking 2nd and 3rd places.

The final division was won by Tino Mackay-Palacios over Jack Orr from Crieff.

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