Wellington took the win by the narrowest of margins in the Junior One dayer
Our Central Junior team of 20 young excited squash players traveled to Hutt City Squash Club on May 26th, the recently revived Central v Wellington Junior One Day Challenge.
Wellington presented a strong team winning the trophy for the first time, but not without solid opposition from our Central Juniors. This year we had 7 new juniors join the team and represent the District for the first time. It was great to see the enthusiasm from the new players as they embraced the experience. Hopefully this is just the start of their representative journey.
Many of our players had tough games against much stronger opponents, despite this they all dug deep, gave their best and with good spirit. This level of sportsmanship from the team was wonderful to see.
Following round 1, Wellington had a 2 game lead, as the number one seeds faced the number two seeds. During round 2, Central fought hard and drew the round. The final three games were all watched with great anticipation with a potential win within sights. Jayden Bailey (OA) won his game in 3 moving us one step closer. Jayden had an outstanding day on the courts, winning both his games. His win in four against a higher seeded Ben Jones was a highlight of the day. Despite a huge battle in 5 for Toby Freyria (KP), the win didn’t go to Central. Toby had jumped into the team at short notice after Liam Burnard (OA) had fallen to covid. We appreciate Toby helping the team out, after he had played the Kawaroa Park Open the days earlier before traveling to the Hutt on limited sleep. Toby had an excellent first win for the day against a higher seeded Riley Priest. The final game of the day was between Thor Darlington (WG) and Ben Jones. This was an exciting game for spectators which could have gone either way as it came down to win by two in the fifth set. Ben snagged the final few points needed for the win on this occasion with Wellington taking the win and securing their overall challenge trophy. Had Thor taken the win, the challenge would have drawn on games, however Wellington would have still taken it on set count back with 72 sets to 67.
Congratulations to Wellington for their win. Thank you to Hutt City for hosting the One Day Challenge. We look forward to hosting the Challenge next year within the Central District and the opportunity to play for the trophy once again.
Thank you to all the families who traveled to Hutt City and supported our team throughout the Challenge. It is only with the parents and players' support that these challenges will continue into the future.
