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Tue 20th May - Day ONE
Locals bow out on opening day
The 2014 edition of
the Bedell Jersey Squash Classic got under way at Jersey Squash
and Racketball Club in St Clements with eight first round
qualifying matches, six of which featured local players.
 The
eight seeded players all came through to their expected places
in the qualifying finals with three-nil wins, by far the hardest
of which being Michael Harris’s win over Jersey squash
director and reigning British O40 champion Nick Taylor.
Taylor, urged on by the home crowd, contested the first two
games point for point and had chances to win both before Harris
edged them 15/13 and 12/10 before taking the third 11/5 against
a tiring opponent.
 “That
was very tight,” said a relieved Harris. “he’s still a very good
player and there was a bit of pressure on me there taking on a
local and with the girlfriend watching on the live stream, I
hope it didn’t stress her out too much!”
“It was just a step too far today,” said Taylor. “It’s tough
giving players this good 18 years, and I went a bit weak on the
crucial points at the end of the first two games, if I’d taken
either of those it could have been a different story.”
 Taylor
was more than happy with the performances of his proteges -
Scott Gaultier and Charlie Griggs both pushed their
higher-ranked opponents well, while youngsters Theo Barnes
and Anthony Harkin tasted their first experience at
squash of this level.
“I’m really proud of how they all conducted themselves today,”
said Taylor, “Anthony and Theo are only 15 and have been playing
for just four years so it was a really proud moment to see them
on court against world ranked players.
 “I
was really pleased with Charlie’s performance, he pushed
Courtney [West] hard in all three games, the week he spent
recently training in Yorkshire with James Willstrop and Saurav
Ghosal certainly paid dividends.”
“I tried my best,” said Charlie, “but I really enjoyed that, it
shows me what I need to do to improve and it’s so much better
than last year when I didn’t even compete so it’s definitely a
step in the right direction.”
Qualifying Round One:
Day One
Photos
Sebastiaan Weenink
(Ned) 3-0 Anthony Harkin (Jer)
11/1,
11/,2, 11/4 (20m)
Jan van den Hereweggen (Bel) 3-0 Callum Cunningham (Jer)
11/4, 11/3, 11/4 (19m)
Ashley Davies (Eng) 3-0 Gary Nisbet (Eng)
11/4, 11/5, 11/4 (22m)
Alex Ingham (Eng) 3-0 Scott Gaultier (Jer)
11/4,
11/5, 11/0 (22m)
Richie Fallows (Eng) 3-0 Theo Barnes (Jer)
11/2,
11/7, 11/2 (19m)
Courtney West (Aus) 3-0 Charlie Griggs (Jer)
12/10, 11/6, 11/7 (29m)
Michael Harris (Eng) 3-0 Nick Taylor (Jer)
15/13, 12/10,
11/5 (43m)
Lewis Walters (Eng) 3-0 Conor Sheen (Eng)
11/4,
11/9, 11/7 (27m)
INFO: all about the event
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the 2014 DRAW
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