TODAY at the BJO
Day One, Wed 2nd:
Daily reports from Sheffield ...

Two venues, Twelve courts, 450 competitors ... day one started at 9am on and there's no let up until the finals on Sunday 6th ... we can only give some impressions until it quietens down, so stay tuned ...

An early start at Abbeydale ...

 

ChitChat #1
"Come with me coach" ... some of the longest serving servants ...

Day One GALLERY

B19: Mohamed El Shorbagy bt Wesley Daniels (Rsa)
         9/0, 9/1, 9/1

Shorbagy sets out on
hat-trick quest

Marwan might have got a bye, but big brother Mohamed, bidding to win the U15, U17 and now U19 titles in consecutive years, also got off to a good start with a comprehensive win over Wesley Daniels in a match which saw the seating on Abbeydale's glass court filling up nicely ...

B19: Nicolas Mueller (Sui) bt Aaron Fyfe (Aus)
        9/2, 9/4, 9/0

Mueller leads Euro challenge

No problems for second seed Nicolas Mueller as the Swiss European Junior Champion brushed aside the Australian who was playing his second match of the day ...
  

B19: Joe Lee (Eng) bt Olly Dixon (Eng) 9/2, 9/2, 9/6

Home hopes still alive ...

Naturally there are a lot of home players in the event, particularly the Boys U19. Lee, runner-up in the U17s two years ago won comfortable enough against fellow-Englishman Dixon, to join, among others, national champion Adrian Waller and Andrew Widdison - who both also won in straight games - in the second round.
  

Adrian & Joe

Dixon can't get past Lee

Widdison steps past Nico Dowsell

B19: Aaron Fyfe (Aus) bt Morgan Hibberd (Eng)
            10/8, 9/4, 9/2

A slow start for Aaron, who recovered from 6/2 down to take the first before completing a straight-games win. He now plays second seed Nicolas Muller later today ...

"I got off to a bit of a slow start but that's the first time I've ever played on a glass court, so it's a 100% record !!"

B19: Chris Rusling (Eng) bt
Karri Salonen (Fin) 3/1

G19: Kerri Sample (Eng) bt Tessa Martin (T&T) 
            9/1, 9/7, 10/9

Kerri looked to be cruising to victory at 2/0 and 8/1, but, urged on by Beverley Wilson, Tessa fought back to earn a few game balls at 9/8. Kerri levelled, and was in total control of a rally which saw Tessa flinging herself desperately around the court to save one more match ball. Only one though, at Kerri quickly got the serve back and went on to take the match.

"We're only a small party from T&T, we did the US Open and there's just the three of us come over for the British. I'm here with my son Kale who's in the U17s at Hallamshire, so we'll be heading over there to support him now ..."

G19: Natasha Kingshott (Usa) bt Cheyna Tucker (Rsa)
         9/6, 2/9, 9/0, 9/3

"It's not a big party from the USA, I'm just over with my parents this year. They're both English so it was a good chance to come over and visit family at the same time. You have to do it don't you, the British is huge, like the Wimbledon of Squash.

"I'm playing an Egyptian later today, which isn't usually good news but I'll give it my best shot ..."

G19: Nouran El Torky (Egy) bt
Natasha Kingshott (Usa)          9/0, 9/5, 9/5

Even though Nouran El Torky is younger than her sister Heba, who is defending her U17 title as top seed, Nouran is in the Under 19 event...

"We're ranked one and two in Egypt," explained Heba, but the federation knew we would only be allowed five players in the U17. I had to defend my title, so they decided Nouran should play U19 - she's been playing U19 events all last year - to allow some othere to go in the U17."

Aha ... mystery solved!

G19: Camille Serme (Fra) bt
        Bethan Williams (Wal)       9/3, 9/3, 9/2
        Annie Au (Hkg) bt
        Sara Al Nouramany (Egy)  9/1, 9/3, 9/0

The top seeds in the girls U19 event both safely navigated their opening matches.



European Champion Camille Serme, runner-up last year, is looking to add the U19 title to her U17 trophy while Asian Champion Au, a former U15 winner, is making her first appearance in the U19 event.

An easy opener for our reporter Marwan El Shorbagy who went through in the U15 thanks to a no-show from his opponent ...

Too old this time, Eddie Charlton makes his first appearance as a coach ...

No sweat for Olly Holland, one of the home hopes,
who won his U15 opener 27/0

Greg Mason (Wales) eases through 3/0 against
Edward Fairhurst (England)

Rodney Durbach & John Milton
watch at Hallamshire

B13: Thomas Broekman (Eng) bt
Sandeep Ramachandran (Ind) 3/2

A tall order for Sandeep

Little Sandeep Ramachandran won the U11 in Edinburgh, but the nine-year-old I dian was always going to have his work cut out in the U13 event here.

He made it all the way to two-all though, and ran his heart out event though he was losing in the fifth.

Thomas was serving at 8/1 when Sandeep slipped behind him, and was awarded a rather generous stroke to give him the match. But he'll be back will Sandeep, he surely will ...