In a nail-biter of a final against Gosforth Academy, they bounced back from 2-1 down to prevail 3-2 and lift the national KS3 trophy in Edgbaston.
The same quintet of Leo Carpenter, Rocco Elliott, Marcus Chanter, Arthur Leonard and Hamish McLellan debuted impressively at the previous year’s competition, placing second to Harrow, and squash development officer Martin Watts was so proud to see them winning this time.
‘It’s amazing, when you see their age and how they’ve developed,’ he said.
‘It’s a long journey.
‘Overall, there were 61 teams in the tournament, so finishing first is pretty amazing.
‘It was great to see all the players step up and compete so well, but more importantly as a team, supporting each other and having great respect for each other.’
Gosforth were seeded favourites but Guernsey hoped to draw upon their strength in depth, being consistently strong from Carpenter at one to McLellan at five. Their game plan was to win at four and five and sneak another match.
McLellan won his match 11-5, 11-3, but a loss for Chanter kept it level.
Leonard stuck to the plan by winning his first game but opponent Yu-Yang Chiu bounced back, attacking more, to take the next two and bring Gosforth to the brink of victory.
Facing William Brocklehurst, who had beaten him in previous encounters, Carpenter won the opener 11-6 and then, from game point, scored three times successively to steal a heated second 11-10.
Elliott then played ‘one of the games of his life’ – according to Watts – to win the decider 11-5, 11-8.
The College had clean-swept their other two matches during finals day.
They had opened by beating Manchester Grammar School 5-0, including a particularly authoritative 11-0, 11-1 win for Chanter and with no games dropped.
They ultimately achieved the same scoreline in their semi-final against Aylesbury Grammar, dropping just the one game.
McLellan lost his first game 11-4 but refreshed himself mentally to win 11-5 and 11-2.
Across the tournament, after winning 11 of their 12 matches last year, College completed the perfect run this season and were victorious in 89% of games.
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