After 140 matches, involving over 100 players across four days of competition, the county’s latest squash champions have been crowned in the latest edition of the Bedfordshire Squash County Closed Championships that took place at Club Towers in the middle of January.
For the first time ever, there were two Ladies grades, on top of Open A, B and C grades, plus an over 55s tournament, and plate competitions for first round losers.
Read: County squash champions crowned at Bedford’s Club Towers (January 2025)
In the Open contests, top seed Gbenga Adeyi won his fourth straight ‘A’ Grade title with a straight set victory in the final against Club Towers’ very own, Steve Davies, while Ashleigh Kemp picked up the Ladies ‘A’ Grade championship.
In the ‘B’ Grade, Club Towers’ Phil Jenkins – the number four seed – beat Open University’s Karan Dhokia, with Anne Mildon securing the Ladies ‘B’ grade trophy.
Bedford Bulls’ Barry Smith won the ‘C’ Grade title and Ian Thomas retained the Over 55’s crown, with a host of other Plate championships handed out on a bumper weekend of Finals Day action.
The main event was the Open Grade ‘A’ championships, in which top seed Gbenga Adeyi was looking to retain his title after last season’s success, where he beat Club Tower’s, Ben Mann in the final.
Mann could only reach the semi-finals this year, beaten by his club teammate Steve Davies 15-12 11-7 11-7, setting up a grand final against the defending champion.
In the final, Davies battled hard and it looked at one point as if he would extend the match into the fourth set, only for Adeyi’s skill, movement and amazing wristy dexterity landing him another title: 11-6, 11-5, 11-9.
Ladies ‘A’ Grade sees two thrilling semi-finals
Rachael Hamp and Sophie Cable, the top two seeds in the Ladies ‘A’ Grade tournament, found themselves up against the third and fourth seeds, Ashleigh Kemp (seeded three) and Jolanta Hawryluk (seeded four) in what turned into a straight shoot-out for a spot in the final.
Hamp showed tremendous grit and resilience to edge past Jolanta in the first semi-final, winning 6-11, 11-7, 12-10, 8-11, 12-10, digging deep as fatigue began to set in.
In the other match, Kemp produced an outstanding performance to upset the higher-seeded Cable, claiming a hard-fought 11-7, 5-11, 11-8, 8-11, 11-9 victory, with both matches decided by nail-biting fifth games.
The final was a more understated affair as an injury to Hamp effectively handed the title to Ashleigh Kemp, although the tournament as a whole was a fantastic advert for squash.
The highlight among the other grades came from the Ladies ‘B’ Grade final, where Anne Mildon didn’t drop a single set in claiming the title.
Anne claimed the Ladies ‘B’ Grade title with a commanding 15-4, 15-4, 15-4 victory in the final against Karen Ford, after earlier dispatching Susanne Osborne and Lindsay Coulson with straight set victories.
Fourth seed, Phil Jenkins won the Men’s equivalent, winning the final by three sets to one – the final set of which was a tight 15-13 triumph – against Karan Dhokia.
There were also some fine performances from 14th-seeded, Patryk Konopacki who reached the quarter-finals, along with sixth-seed, Moises Estrelles Navarro who reached the semis.
The top two seeds in the ‘C’ Grade, Barry Smith (Bedford Bulls) and Richard Fryer (Carlton), both reached the final as expected, with Smith showing his shot-making class to take the match and the C-grade trophy, 3-0 (16-14, 15-10, 15-11).
Ian Thomas regained his Over-55s title, but in what was an anti-climax after Matthew Towers suffered a calf injury in the final after fighting back to go 2-1 up in sets.
The winners of the Plate competitions were Sam Gelder in the ‘A’ Grade, Charlie Jessop in the ‘B’ and Ben Robinson in the ‘C’ Grade.
