Youngsters do their club proud
Bridge of Allan Sports Club’s squash-playing juniors have had a busy start to 2018.
At the Scottish Junior Open in Edinburgh a string of fine performances from Kyle Penman, Felix Wood, Bertie Wood, Jamie Cargill and Merryn Penman culminated in a fantastic eighth place finish in the under-13 championship by Oliver Hunter.
Kyle then flew the flag for Scotland at the British Junior Open in Birmingham where he finished 28th out of a 64-strong field, in what is considered to be the premier championship in the junior squash world.
Head coach Jane Martin was delighted with her pupils’progress but admitted that playing against the cream of the junior crop has underlined that there is still plenty of hard work to be done.
The former world No 8 said:“It was great to see how much they enjoyed competing against the best in their age groups.
“Oliver did really well to finish eighth out of 32 in his age section but all of the kids performed positively and did great credit to the club.
“What I want to see is progress in terms of improved confidence, focus, movement, attitude and fight! To be fair all of our kids are showing that.”
With Kyle flying the club flag at the prestigious Edgbaston Priory Club in Birmingham, Jane was able to take stock of her charge’s progress thanks to technology.
The former England star said:“It was surreal but fantastic to see him play via the live streaming service that filtered into the big screen at Bridge of Allan.
“It did allow me to take notes so we can sit down have a chat and analyse his game together. I think he did very well and a 28th place finish out of 64 is a great effort.”
Meanwhile, the Bridge of Allan teams returned to action after the festive break with mixed results.
The first team lost 4-1 to East Division 1 leaders Grange, with only an epic 3-2 win by Andy Meldrum helping to avoid the whitewash as they plummeted to seventh place and the fringes of the relegation battle ahead of Friday’s match at Colinton Castle.
The seconds continued their promotion push with a 4-1 mauling of ESC 5 which included battling five set wins for James Dougan and Martin Sanchez ahead of a trip to Division Two leaders Waverley tonight (Wednesday). In Division Five, despite defeating Tyne 3-2 with wins for No 1 Robbie Harper, second string Ben Orr and No 3 Jon Spinks, the thirds slipped to second ahead of the visit tonight (Wednesday) of leaders Waverley 4.
The ladies team restart their campaign against Watsonians.