Northern had fantastic success at the recent Jesmond junior open. We had 31 of our juniors enter the tournament and ended up with four category winners from the nine on offer.
Our boys performed well with some good strong performances across all the age groups – in the U11 group Joe Elliott and Matthew Mahoney finished 3rd and 4th respectively. Our best successs in the boys events came in the under 15 category where Andrew Shipley won the title , although he was pushed all the way in the final by fellow Gosforth Academy student Harry Little in the final. Andrew went 1 – 0 down, then recovered to win the next two games. The fourth game was a battle and Andrew just managed to take it 14 – 12 to win the event.
Tom Cornell and Liam Kahn finished 6th and 7th in a very strong U 17 competition and then Michael Mattimore and Sam Broughton finished 3rd and 4th in an equally In the U13 event Sion Gittins , Kieran Mahoney and Milan Stach performed well to finish 4th , 5th and 7th respectively. competitive U19 event.
Northern had tremendous success in the girls events with winners in three of the four categories. In the U13 competition Katie Barker had a comfortable pathway to the final but then found herself 2 – 0 down to county team mate Beth Dean from home club Jesmond. Katie came battling back to win the next 3 games and take the title. In the under 15 category Northern had the top five finishers. There was a tremendous semi –final between fellow Gosforth Academy players Emma Delgaty and Harriet Wight .. it went down to the wire with Emma just squeezing through 3 – 2 . In the final she met our own county number 1 Megan Evans and although she battled bravely Megan won the match 3 – 0 to take the title.
Most of our U17 girls were away on holiday but Sophie Bedford entered and played well to finish 3rd.
The U19 competition say Northern girl Josie Barker renew her rivalry with Georgia Webster from Jesmond. They both won their preliminary matches comfortably to make it to the final and that match turned out to be a humdinger! Georgia went 1 – 0 and then 2 – 1 up before Josie came storming back to win the last two games and take the title. Northern ended up with four winners and two runners up and it was an especially good weekend for the Barker family with both girls winning their events!
