Friday 22^nd saw a collaboration between Lexden, Mersea, Maldon and Frinton junior squash players, all coming together for a fun starter type tournament and to encourage those in small clubs to start competing. Coaches Matthew Nott from Maldon and Chris Vine from Frinton also present to support their teams of players and pick up a few marking roles too.

There were four categories, group 1 was for those new to competition, the youngest playing in this group were just 6 years of age and yielded a total of 5 competitors, they were allowed two serves and the ball only had to go above the line and to the other side of the court. Group 2 were a little further on, there were reduced to one serve this saw 9 competitors separated into two groups and then play offs for final positions between the two groups. Group three and four were full serve rules, seven players in the earlier group all in a round robin style event while the last group fielded ten players, shared between two groups with playoffs for final position.

Group 1 was taken by strong performances from Oliver (Maldon) winning all his matches and Theo (Maldon) taking the runner up spot. With trophies to first and second in all groups and Lexden water bottles to 16 lucky players in the tournament too there was lots to play for.

Group 2 was a Mersea clean sweep with Laiton and Zac winning all their matches in their respective groups with Laiton coming out the stronger for the winner’s trophy 11-5 in the final playoff.

Group 3 was again topped by Maldon with Lilly G strongly defending the trophy from the outset with her teammate Dylan taking runner up and George from Frinton coming third.

Group 4 fielded ten entries and again split into two groups Kyle (Maldon) & William (Lexden) taking the one two in group 4b and Jack (Maldon) & Ben (Lexden) the counterparts in group 4a this then all went to playoff with William taking third place overall ahead of Ben 11-7 and Kyle making the day a clean sweep 11-6 against Jack.

A team of Merry Christmas markers supported the tournament and kept things running even slightly ahead of time, Lara & Max Newton, Rebecca Salmon who swooped in to help at the last minute kindly, as well as Joel Braddock, Chris Vine and Matthew & Harrison Nott. Lexden are extremely grateful for your help.

After matches were finished, our resident top players Neil Cross and Joel Braddock gave a demonstration match to the juniors and their parents who all keenly cheered and watched amazed at the performance. Following this the prizes were presented, and Joel also handed out two free 1:1 coaching sessions to lucky players William (Lexden) & Angus (Mersea) which they were thrilled to receive.