Due to Northern`s school outreach programme there are lots of good quality junior squash players at the local middle schools so at the end of each season Gosforth East Middle School ( GEMS ) and Gosforth Central Middle battle it out for the middle school cup.
The format is a twelve a side competition where each player has three games against three players of equivalent standard.
At the top of the order GEMS top three of Tom Cornell, Andrew Shipley and Harry Little all play for the county and proved too strong for Central`s threesome of James Appleby , Dylan Jenkinson and Tom Porter who put up a brave fight but lost all nine of these matches.
In the second category Central had two county players in Erin Vitty and Aanya Hamilton to join Thomas Moore but once again GEMS top order strength proved too much with Michael Home, Tom Wright and Liam Duncan Kahn, although Thomas Moore did win against both Michal Home and Tom Wright.
The third category was much more evenly contested with the Central players, Dylan Gittins , Catriona Watling and Jamie Ogilvie getting 4 wins out of the 9 matches against Ali Little , John Thompson and Matthew Thompson. Jamie Ogilvie was Central`s top performer with wins against the Thompson twins while Ali Little for GEMS was unbeaten.
Centrals strength lay at the bottom of the order where there threesome of Lucy Hutchinson , Nicholas Dark and Gabriel Diggle had 6 wins out of the nine matches against Alice ONeil, Megan Evans and Reese Wright / Callum Tortice. Their star performer was Lucy Hutchinson , who won all her three matches comfortably.
The final score was GEMS 384 points and Central 297 points but Central will be hoping to halt GEMS winning run next season because they have a much younger team.
Competition organiser and head coach said " for each team to be able to field 12 experienced juniors in this competition , with 9 junior county players on show , proves how strong junior squash is in Gosforth. I can only see it getting better as our school liaison work continues "
