‘Racketball improvement will be crucial’ as Guernsey travel for inter-insular

The squash and racketball inter-insular is unique in that it includes the two similar but different sports, which contribute to a combined tally to decide which island will be crowned champions.

That worked against Guernsey in last year’s home event as, although they won the squash rubbers 12-8, they were deflected by a Jersey clean-sweep of the racketball. The opposition ultimately won 18-12.

Looking ahead to the return match, squash development officer Martin Watts has complimented Guernsey’s team in several areas.

‘I think it’s looking like quite a competitive event,’ he said.

‘We have got our players that are going to be at the European Team Championships, which is excellent to see.

‘We have got some juniors coming through and playing in the team for the first time.

‘Overall, we are looking quite strong in the squash. Racketball, we are stronger than we were last year, but I still think Jersey might be a bit too strong for us.’

While Watts feels their best chances of winning come in home inter-insulars, he has still backed Guernsey to put up a challenge for the victory.

‘I would like to think we are sending our strongest team and we have always got the chance of winning,’ he said.

‘If we can pick up two to three wins in the racketball, that’s an improvement on last year. That will help us with the overall score.’

The biggest change this year comes in the omission of the women’s squash category, owing largely to unavailability of important players.

That is a situation that Watts admits is ‘disappointing from our point of view’.

Availability of flight spaces is also a consideration. This issue makes it harder to send large teams between the islands and Watts says that different options are being looked into for future years, including the splitting of squash and racketball.

‘There was lots of talk after last year’s event of having an overall racketball and overall squash event.

‘If we had two inter-insular events, it would help us in terms of travelling.’

But the current focus is very much on this year’s event, where the two islands are set to contest 27 rubbers.

There will be 15 rubbers of squash and 12 of racketball, including two women’s matches.

Men's Squash A

Janick Radford v Charlie Griggs

Henry Birch v Matthew Boote

Leo Fossey v Antony Harkin

Patrick Josey v Stanley Tanguy

Toby Young v Se Price

Men's Squash B

Leo Ware v Will Turpin

Jack Tacon v Julian Adamson

Ben Maxton v Harry Scriven

Miles Birch v Pat Dixon

Jack Welbourne v Charlie Bullock

Squash Vets

Martin Watts v Jon Hibbs

Andy Biggins v Dave Young

Steve Falla v Mark Baudet

Chris de Putron v Richard Pallot

Kevin Murphy v Sue Turpin

Men’s Racketball A

Laurence Graham v Richard Brocken

Omar Kandili v Jon Southern

Zak Parsons v Charlie Journeaux

Matt Robin v Ed Fletcher

Russel Michel v Will O’Dwyer

Men’s Racketball B

Tom Eulenkamp v Franck Matthews

Andy Rigden v Joe Chaytor

Arthur Evans v Peter Ahier

Richard Fyfe v Graeme Tanguy

Ben Anderson-Relf v Richard Le Cornu

Women’s Racketball

Karen Robinson v Aush Fletcher

Katie Birch v Val Brown