Sarnians help Hants reach final

FOUR of Guernsey's young prospects have helped Hampshire reach the national finals of the Under-13 Inter-County Team Championships. Sarnians Jack Tacon, Oliver Brehaut, Gareth Banton and Janick Radford were selected - along with Lewis Stubbington and Alex Finch - for the squad of six following their excellent results in the Hampshire Closed in September.

The players had already made it through the first round of competition in November against Surrey Two, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire winning all their matches 5-0.

In the second round, only the top team would proceed to the final so the squad had their work cut out.

After being delayed by five hours at the airport, Hampshire started slowly with all the players looking drained.

But that seemed only to bring them closer together and with excellent support for each other the team came through the match to beat Devon 3-2.

Tacon lost a tough rubber against UK ranked L. Fuller, Brehaut beat B. Hancock, Stubbington lost to J. Pyne, Banton defeated R. Wilkinson and Radford overcame P. Reddaway.

Next up were Surrey Two, the team whom Hampshire had beaten in the first weekend 5-0 and on paper the weakest outfit.

Surrey started quickly as Tacon and Stubbington were outplayed by their respective opponents, Robert Claydon and Jonny Brown.

However, once again the spirit of the Hampshire team came through and they fought back to win the match 3-2 as Brehaut beat Daniel Clarke, Banton defeated Max Mosely and Finch won against Matt Main.

The team, playing matches back to back due to the delay, were tiring but a talk from the coach and the thought of being one of four teams in the final of a national event which started with 31 counties seemed to spur the players on and really brought the best out of them.

Playing against Gloucester-shire, Tacon was desperate to go home with at least one win under his belt but had a very hard task against the UK number 10, Matt Boal.

Tacon used all his determination and, with the rest of the team cheering him on, kept his head to win a very close rubber 9-7 in the fifth.

Brehaut, who was so far unbeaten on the day, took on Tom Brockman. Playing simple squash and making few errors, the Sarnian worked his opponent hard and took the honours 3-0.

Stubbington met Ravi Singh and also played his best squash of the weekend to win the match.

Radford played Alex William but despite a very close match, was unable to take a game from his opponent.

Banton came back from 2-0 down to take the third game against James Teague but was unable to keep up the pace and just lost the next 9-7.

Martin Watts, who travelled with the Guernsey players and was in charge of the Hampshire team in the absence of Edd Pooley, the team manager, said: 'It was great to see how well the team worked together.

'Squash is an individual sport, but this is one of very few competitions where players compete as a team and they have really excelled.

'It took the team a while to comprehend the level of squash they were playing at but once they did, they rose to the challenge.'

The team will now travel to the National Squash Centre, Manchester on 24-5 March for the finals.

They have already achieved a huge amount and although the competition will be tough, they could go further.

Guernsey also had two playing for the Hampshire under-13 girls' team.

Amy Stenner and Katherine Jensen, together with a third girl from Portsmouth, played in the semi-final round of the English Inter-County Championships.

Both Sarnians had already beaten their counterparts in Sussex and Kent to face teams from South-East Wales, Surrey and Gloucestershire in the semi-finals.

The best performance for Hampshire came from Jensen with a convincing 3-0 over her older and more experienced Gloucestershire counterpart.

Stenner fought hard against a tough Gloucestershire player, eventually losing 3-1, but earning valuable points for the team.

The more experienced South-East Wales and Surrey proved too much for the Guernsey girls, with both losing their rubbers.

Team manager Simon Walker was very pleased with the team's performance and hopes that the experience gained by Stenner and Jensen on their county debut will benefit them in the championships next year.