GOSFORTH SCHOOLS HAVE MORE SUCCESS AT NATIONAL SCHOOLS SQUASH FINALS
The finals of the national schools squash competitions were held at Nottingham recently and once again Gosforth schools made an impact at national level.
Gosforth Academy Boys U15 Boys made the final with a 3 - 2 win over John Hampden Grammar but then lost 3 - 2 against Wycliffe College .. Gosforth got off to a great start in the final with 3 - 0 wins for Sion Gittins and Ewan Strathdee at 4 and 5 but Wycliffe had too much strength at 1, 2 and 3 , which is amazing when you consider Gosforth's top three were John Thompson , Matthew Thompson and Kiernan Mahoney!
For the record the Academy Girls U15 team lost 3 - 2 at the QF stage against local rivals Dame Allans ( who went on to win the championship ). Gosforth beat them 5 - 0 in the county qualification but then had two players out with injury and one sick for the Quarter Final ... unlucky! The boys U17 and girls U17 both lost at the QF stage to Ackworth school from Yorkshire.
Some great news in the younger age groups of the competition where the Gosforth Trust teams qualified for both the Boys and Girls U13 finals.
The Boys team of Will Johnson, Hugo Fletcher, Ben Tudor, Matthew Mahoney, Ankur Sawant and Oisin Gorman lost a very close semi final, 3 - 2 to the eventual winners Kings College from Cambridge, then won comfortably 5 - 0 against Trinity school from Surrey to finish in third place.
The Girls team of Libby Foster, Zoe Shipsey, Evie Paterson, Grace Moore, Ava Naisbitt and Kate Naisbitt won a very close semi final 3 - 2 against St Josephs ( Suffolk ) and then beat Benenden school 5 - 0 in the final to become national champions!
The future is bright with such strength at the younger age groups!
All the players involved are products of Northern`s school outreach work in the Gosforth State school pyramid and now train at Northern as well as playing in the club leagues and many of them representing the club in the county leagues.
