Janick Radford overcame up-and-coming player Toby Young for Grade A honours in a repeat of last year’s final result, but he had to fight for it after losing the first two games 8-11 and 10-12 at Beau Sejour.
Once he got into the swing of things, he won his following games 11-7, 11-3, 11-5 to conclude what Guernsey squash and racketball development officer Martin Watts called a ‘brilliant final’.
Young had to come through a five-game battle of his own simply to get there, beating Jordan Smith 11-3, 7-11, 11-4, 7-11, 11-3 in a monster semi-final lasting 59 minutes.
Top seed Radford had a gentler journey through the rounds and had won his own semi 11-4, 11-4, 11-3 in less than half that time against Albert Climent Muniesa.
Toby’s sister Sophie Young won the Women’s A crown from a group of three players.
She opened up with a convincing 11-3, 11-2, 11-4 victory over Diane Shaw, but her decisive match against Abby Darnell proved more testing.
Young eventually prevailed 11-7, 4-11, 6-11, 11-4, 11-4.
In a strong men’s Grade B, where several players showed potential of competing in the top tier next year, Zak Parsons took the honours.
He won the final against Russel Michel in three games, albeit scraping through each, 12-10, 12-10, 11-9.
In contrast, Paul Davis triumphed in Grade C by not dropping a single game across his three matches.
‘It was a good event,’ Watts said.
‘We doubled our numbers from last year. We had just over 30 players this year, which shows the growth and development we have made in racketball over the last couple of seasons
‘We had a Grade A, Grade B, Grade C and a Women’s A, which we’ve never had before – that’s excellent.’
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