Bedford Modern School dominated the latest annual Schools’ Bedfordshire Squash tournament, taking five out of the six titles across the age groups, as a record number of participants took part.
50 students, from years five to 11, took to the courts of Bedford School on behalf of Club Towers across a single evening on Thursday, 19 March, with both state and private schools competing.
There were six different tournaments, for Boys and Girls, across three age groups.
Years 5 and 6 were in one competition, followed by Years 7 and 8 and Years 9 to 11, with Bedford Modern taking every title except for the Years 9 to 11 Boys title, won by Oliver of Samuel Whitbread.
Only two Girls entered the Year 9 to 11 competition – sisters Charlotte and Annabel – with the latter taking the bragging rights, but both also competed in the Boys competition, eventually won by Oliver.
He beat Bedford Modern’s, Matthew, denying the School a clean sweep.
There were four girls in the Year 7 to 8 event, who played a single round-robin group to determine the winner.
There was some impressive squash from all the girls, but the dominant performance came from Bedford Modern’s, Izzy who showed her class by winning all of her matches comfortably.
The battle for the runner-up trophy was close, with Etta just managing to beat Abbie 11-9, 11-9 – both of Bedford Modern – to take second spot.
The Boys’ competition consisted of four groups of four, with Bedford Modern’s, Milan taking the final against Bedford School’s Theo by a scoreline of 11-6, 11-6.
Many of the players in the youngest age group, (Years 5 and 6), had been playing for less than 12 months, but the supervising team noted that, “The quality of the rallies was especially impressive”, in an equally competitive pair of tournaments.
In the Girls’ event, there were two groups, followed by semi-finals and final.
In group ‘A’, Bedford Modern’s Flo showed her match experience by winning her matches comfortably, but group ‘B’ was much tighter, with Bea – also of BMS – edging out her opponents to take the group by a single point.
The two would go on to meet in the final, which saw Flo win in impressive style 11-3, 11-7, but Bea played very well considering she took up the sport only a few months back.
The boys were again split into two groups, and it proved to be a very competitive competition all the way through.
Bedford School’s Ernest took group ‘A’, in a pool where no-one won all of their matches, which resulted in a very close finish. Ernest (Bedford School) took the top spot with 64 points, while Bedford Modern’s, Teddy took a narrow second place.
Vivaan (BMS) ran away with Group ‘B’, but Teddy beat him in their semi-final, going on to face Ernest in the final, in which Teddy was victorious by an 11-6, 11-5 scoreline.
It capped another record attendance for an increasingly popular sport across the region.
A lot of the players on show are also members of Bedford Squash Academy, situated at Club Towers who have assisted in growing the sport’s popularity in Bedford and beyond.
You can find out more about the Bedford Squash Academy here.
