In the space of three short weeks, Elaine Ware has turned the junior squash scene in Ireland on its head. Three weeks ago in Galway, this exciting Carlow player took the U-15 Connacht Junior Open and this week she travelled to Belfast where she took the U-17 title in emphatic fashion. Seeded 6th, she moved up to play U-17 as she just reached her 15th birthday. She defeated fellow club-mate Katelyn Doran in the first round, Doran went two up following a 1/6 deficit in the first game but Ware remained calm and kept working Katelyn around the court eventually winning 3/2. This turned out to be Elaine’s most difficult match as she strolled through her semi-final and defeated Jennifer Hegarty the No 1 seed from Galway 3/0.
Elaine becomes one of the few juniors who have won Open titles from two different age groups in the same season.
While Elaine was winning her title, next door, Casey Luther the 9 year-old was playing for the U-11 title and she pushed her Dublin opponent all the way in a very close match. Luther who defeated the No2 seed in the first round, showed she has determination and a huge desire to play squash. She will no doubt be up on the winning podium soon.
Also in great form at the moment is Fiona Murphy. She reached the U-15 final when she defeated the No 3 seed in the semi-final in a cracker of a game 3/1. Fiona Power, the young Galwegian, turned the final on the Carlow girl to win 3/0.
Conall Murphy was hit by a broadside on the Friday night when seeded at 4 he unexpectedly lost to Adam Morris a newcomer seeded 13 on a 3/1 score line. This kept Conall in the bottom half of the draw and he eventually finished 10th here in the U-17 event.
Cathal Hennessy was not his usual self, due to a chest infection, and finished with just one win from 4 matches. Such is his determination he will no doubt bounce back from this.
Also in the U-17 event was Jim Kenny and he too had just one win from 4 matches, all 3 loses were to players ranked higher than him and as the tournament progressed he improved and on Sunday morning defeated Nathan Wilkinson from Ulster 3/1.
Shaun Hennessy had a good U-15 tournament winning 2 from 4 matches. He took the No 2 seed to 4 games on the Sunday morning and lost out 7-11, 1113-11, 10-12, 7-11.
A plate final was just reward for a very hard-working David Smyth and he just lost out in the U-15 Plate to Rob Barnes 3/1.
Ryan Luther reached 6th in a tough U-13 boys’ event just being edged out on the Sunday to Kevin Hughes 3.1.
Sarah Murphy’s attempts to break into the top 3 received a setback when she finished 6th overall in the girls U-19 event.
Local girls, Fiona O’Keefe and Melanie Ní Bhroin, met in the 2nd round of the girls U-17 event and Melanie took this 3.0 and finished 6th overall while Fiona in her first big Open event finished 8th.
Another debutante in the Junior Opens, Niamh O’Keefe finished and younger sister Sheila in the girls U-11 finished 5th in a very competitive section.
While the juniors were up North, Rory Byrne was down in Cork battling his way through the A section of the Munster Senior Open and he finished an exciting 3rd place defeating one of the toughest squash players ever to play for Ireland, Stevie Richardson from Belfast.
Making their league debut for Fitzwilliam LTC in Dublin this week were Elaine Ware and Katelyn Doran who join Niamh Brennan on the Ladies Division 1 team. Meanwhile on the ladies Premier team, Carlow girls Claire O’Brien, Ciara Moloney and Róisín Brennan have had some good results recently.
Also playing for Fitzwilliam in the Leinster leagues are Seamus Harmon, Cathal Hennessy and the very experienced Rory Byrne.
The recent Junior squash one-day event saw some great squash among the juniors with the Hennessy brothers Sean and Cathal reaching the A final with Cathal winning out. Eric Dalton’s improvement saw him reach the final of section 2 and he pushed Ryan Luther all the way but Luther was just too sharp and won out. Fiona Murphy’s good form continued with a great win in section 3 over Rebecca Mc Dermott. Jemma See and Pia Dalton stood out in this section playing some great squash.
