The 9th Annual Junior Doubles Championship, and our first working with Squash Ontario on a Provincial Championship, was an amazing weekend at the Granite Club. There were 84 kids playing. Some of the kids were top level singles players and some were new to the game. It was exciting to see the terrific mix of levels. I certainly appreciate the high-level singles players supporting the event.
Our Boys U11 event was exciting and encouraging. Eight of the ten players were actually from the home, Granite Club! Everyone improved so much as the matches went along. We look forward to seeing them for years to come.
The Boys U13 event was AMAZING, with the TOP 4 ranked juniors in Ontario AND 7 of the top 8! Thanks to all of these future superstars for supporting this event. It looked like they all had a terrific time and we loved watching them play.
In the Boys U15, we saw our first out of Province competitor in the very talented Liam Jinks. I hope this catches on and we see lots more out of Province players. The U19 Boys were playing real doubles. We had some tough matches, hard hitting and great upsets too. Thanks to these guys for playing the event, some of them for the last 9 years in fact!
Our girls draws featured some terrific players, but not enough of them! We need the girls to bring out their friends, for singles, and for doubles events. We have to start to balance the numbers better. This is a great sport for boys and girls alike! Great work by Lindsay Kuracina and Danica Deverill who won their 7th consecutive Junior Doubles Championship! They won the U13 in 2011, 2012, 2013, through the age groups and up to our GU19 champs for 2017. Lindsay, now living in the US, still comes back for the event every year. Thanks to both of you. What a treat.
In the GU15 and GU11 we saw newcomers claim the number 1 spot in each draw. So great to have the little B and R clan all playing the U11 and the new ORC girls, Aleeza and Salma, fighting their way through the U15 round robin. Thank you ladies.
The Ontario Squash Doubles League and Harrow Sports were, once again, our Title Sponsors. They continue to be supportive each year and help us grow our event and the game of Junior Doubles! Thanks to them, we had amazing sweatpants as our tournament giveaway. We also had about 40 prizes for our tournament raffle, ensuring that more than half of the kids in the tournament received a prize. The Cambridge Club continued to support the event as well, allowing us to provide more meals and ice cream sundaes for the kids. Thanks to Slaight Music, who donated the highlight of the raffle, two Raptors tickets won by Eve Pehleman.
Thank you to the Granite for courts and facilities. For the second year in a row, we had to use the Cricket Club for some matches on Saturday. Thank you so much to Pat Ryding and the Club for your hospitality. Very much appreciated. And thank you to Lauren Sachvie and Jamie Nicholls of Squash Ontario who both helped a lot on a very busy weekend. Oh, and Al Cook, you're the best for getting all the ORC kids!
One of the most helpful parts of the weekend was the referees! Cathy Tuckwell rounded up a terrific group of people who covered off every single match in the tournament. This made things so much easier from an organizers perspective. I didn't have to worry about finding refs nor did I worry about kids not understanding the rules. Incredibly helpful! Cathy was so organized and everything ran unbelievably smoothly. This kept our tournament running on time. I sincerely appreciate this help for the 6th straight year! Cathy is the best!
Thank you, thank you to all the refs who volunteer their time!
Doubles is a different game from singles, but is loads of fun once you get the hang of it. The teamwork aspect is a great change from the pressures of singles. There were tons of smiles from kids, their partners, their opponents and from all of the spectators. The kids continue to improve each year. I see them getting the hang of it more and more as the tournament continues.
A very sincere and heartfelt thank you to all for playing and supporting. This is my favourite event of the year and I love to see everyone improving and enjoying the game of doubles. Sign up early next year so I don't have to bug you over the Holiday Season!!!! :)
BOYS U11: Jack Willner & Ethan Jain (winners), Hong Duc Cheng & Jeremy You (finalists), Evan Dulmage & Luke McCarthy (3rd place).
GIRLS U11: Hannah Yuzpe & Ashley Hall (winners), Georgia Baldwin & Parker Power (finalists), Ziena Mounir & Charly Willner (3rd place)
BOYS U13: Josh Kay & Alexander Yuzpe (winners), Daniel Deverill & Ben Marrison (finalists), Jacob Marrison & Patrick Walford (3rd place)
BOYS U15: Dylan Deverill & Liam Jinks (winners), Nikhil Ismail & Griffin Manley (finalists)
GIRLS U15: Aleeza Khan & Salma Mounir (winners), Ceinwyn Beattie & Leah Mcgillicuddy (finalists), Alessia Ferris & Nicole Tomei (3rd place)
BOYS U19: Neel Ismail & Jackson Jay (winners), Michael Haffey & Nicholas Trail (finalists), James Flynn & William Kuhn (3rd place)
GIRLS U19: Danica Deverill & Lindsay Kuracina (winners), Sydney Maxwell & Charlotte Orcutt (finalists), Molly Chadwick & Erica Mcgillicuddy (3rd place)
