Once again, the new season has commenced at the East of England Championships, but this year at a new venue. The East Anglia Tennis and Squash club laid on superb facilities with a great ambiance enjoyed by all. Over 130 competitors were contesting and was nice to see some local players making their debuts too.

Susan Pynegar played well to oust the number 2 seed Sarah Howlett in the semi-final in a very close 3-2, as Karen Hume joined her in the final with a loss of only 1 game in her first round. Karen showed her pedigree and won the final 3-0.

A small field in this event, with Rachel Woolford ending up as champion and Mandy Akin as runner-up, even though Mandy was playing 2 age groups down! (I hope she doesn’t mind me saying so!)

This event was played out in a pool format, which resulted in a second place for Louisa Dalwood and first place Keeley Johnson, fresh from her European Masters gold medal exploits.

Nigel “The Gentleman” Belle achieved a great win over the number 2 seed David Fisher in the semi-finals 3-1, to join Adrian “Silver Fox” Wright in the final. Adrian out-foxed Nigel to extend his record of the most Regional wins to become champion, winning 3-1.

A good draw here with some very strong players. Jack Halford (all the way from Cornwall!) scored a notable scalp by beating the recently elected “England Masters President” Martin Pearse 3-2 in the quarter-finals, only to succumb to recent European Gold medallist and number one seed Ian Ross from Scotland 3-1 in the next round. Barry Featherstone came through the bottom half of the draw virtually unscathed to meet Ian in the final, where Barry overturned his recent European Championships loss and beat Ian this time to win 3-0 and take the title.

A large draw saw lots of close matches in the earlier rounds. All pretty much going to seeding, except for a big upset when Terry Belshaw took out the number 1 seed John Rae 3-1 in the semi-finals. Terry couldn’t quite repeat that form in the final though, when he lost out to Ronnie Bell in a very close 3-1, for Ronnie to emerge as champion.

A big upset in the semi-finals saw Paul Harris from Scotland beat the number 1 seed Stuart Hardy in a very tight 3-2. The rest went to seedings though as Gordon McManus from Kent reached the final also. The semi-final win must have taken it out of Paul as he went down 3-0 to Gordon, for Gordon to become champion.

Mark Taylor from Warwickshire pulled off a good win to beat Ian “Bradders” Bradburn 3-0 in the quarterfinals but couldn’t sustain that form when he came across number 2 seed David Box in the semi-finals, for David to win 3-1 and reach his final berth. Waiting for him there was number 1 seed Jeremy Goulding from Avon, who has returned after a year break from the Masters circuit. Jeremy proved his pedigree though and reached the final without dropping a game but lost an extremely close final 3-2 for David to emerge as champion.

This was probably the strongest O50 draw we may have ever seen. With some very notable debuts in this age group, it made great viewing! Plenty of potential winners from the quarterfinals onwards, saw number 2 seed Andrew Cross come through to beat Duane Harrison 3-1, which considering Duane has now developed a drop-shot, was a fine result! In the top half, the current British O50 Champion and number 1 seed Steve Mcloughlin, lost to local David Youngs. Unfortunately for Steve, “Youngsy” wasn’t really interested in too much running around and played his own and very effective version of the game to record a quickish 3-0 win. The final saw “Crossy” take a close first game, only for “Youngsy” to then take the next two extremely close games to go 2-1 up. A few polite discussions with the ref ensued for some clarifications but “Youngsy” kept his concentration to close out the fourth game to win the final 3-1 and be crowned champion in his home town.

A small draw here but not without quality. Matt Stephenson from Yorkshire moved up an age group and made his debut in the O45’s, seeded 2. Matt dug deep in the semi-finals to come from 2-0 down and beat Jeremy Krzystyniak from Surrey. Meanwhile number 1 seed Jonathan Gliddon from Devon overcame an in-form James Powley 3-1 in the other semi-final. In the final, Matt secured his “best dressed of the weekend” award, with a very bright all turquoise matching kit (even down to the long socks!). Anyway, it was nip and tuck until about 7-7 in each game, only for Jonathan to pull away to remain the most composed and close out each game and record a 3-0 win to become champion.

Another quality draw which went to seedings up to the semi-finals but not without number 2 seed Jonathan Gallacher from Devon, having to come back from 2-0 down to defeat “Giant” Joss Hargreaves 3-2 in the quarterfinals and avenge his British Open loss to Joss to reach his semi. In the top half, top seed and local player Ashley Bowling, defeated Tim Burrell 3-1 after losing the first game, to reach the final. In the other semi-final, Jonathan Gallacher couldn’t contain the entertaining style of local player Ian Cox, who won 3-1 to meet Ashley in the Final. Ash beat his local compatriot Ian in that final comfortably 3-0 to be crowned champion.

Paul Stroud played really well to cause an upset and beat 3/4 seed Mick Biggs 3-1 in the quarterfinals where he met local favourite Jamie “5 game” Goodrich. Paul continued his good form but couldn’t quite close out the match as Jamie won his usual 5 setter 3-2 to reach the final. In the top half, number 1 seed Keith Timms played Matt Marshall in the semi-finals. Matt took the first game but found it too difficult to sustain the pace of the match, as Keith won the next 3 games to win 3-1 and reach his final. The final was a repeat of last year’s event and actually shared the same score line too. However, it was the local boy who won this time 3-2, as Jamie defeated Keith to record another Regional title to his name. A fantastic feat, considering Jamie is actually playing two age groups down!!

Huge thanks go to Mik Sorboen, Hannah Colby, Katie Lawrence, Anita Woods and all the team at the club for their hospitality. Their keenness and passion was certainly noticed with many lovely comments from competitors. Thanks also for the England Squash referees who adjudicated over the finals.

The biggest thanks once again, go to Brian Brock for organising and running a very successful weekend of tournament Squash and to his best friend Paul “Foxy” Fox for supporting him most of the weekend. Very much appreciated by all players etc.