Northumbria junior county championships were held at Northern Squash club last weekend and once again Northern juniors had a very successful competition. The Under 11 girls event had an all Northern top three with Salma Barkouk pipping Charlotte to the title and Dua Ali Saleem finishing in third place. Three of the top four in the Girls Under 13 event were Northern players and part of the Gosforth Trust team that won the national schools championships last season but Elizabeth Muldoon Smith ( 2nd ), Hannah Tufton ( 3rd ) and Alice Pearsall were no match for Emma Little from Jesmond , who stormed to the title. Rebecca Little made it a great weekend for the Little household with Freya Finnemore and Lucy Ulyatt in 2nd and 3rd place in the U15 Girls event. Northern players Ava Naisbitt and Isla Cook competed for the U17 Girls title and although Isla put up a great fight it was Ava that became champion. In the U19 event Shae Paterson stormed to yet another county championship and her sister Evie had a close 3 - 2 win against Katherine Palmer for the runner up spot.
There were four boys from Northern in the U11 event but none of them could break into the top three where Freddie Gilberg ( Jesmond ) beat Harry McBride ( Jesmond ) in the final and Archer Robson ( Tynemouth ) finished 3rd. James Southern ( Newbiggan ) was a massive favourite for the Boys U13 title, having attended England squads in the past year , he is a very strong player but Northern player Will Brocklehurst pushed him hard in a competitive final. Three players from Gosforth Academy finished in the top three of the U15 event, where all seven players had started playing squash as a result of our Schools outreach work. Charlie Armstrong was too strong for Joseph Brocklehurst in the final and Thomas Oliver finished 3rd. The best quality squash of the weekend was played in an excellent Boys U17 event where the top three boys from the Northern Junior 1st team finished in the top three. Sam Tufton beat Aidan Mahoney 3 - 1 in the thrilling semi final but was no match for Duncan Rutherford in a one sided final.
DB glaziers were the sponsors and a great deal of thanks goes to Dave Barnet , who organised the event.
