CARLOW LTC Squash and Carlow Sports and Social Club hosted the largest junior squash open of the season when over 100 young squash players from all over Ireland took part in the Leinster Junior Squash Open.
This year a new event, an U9 section, was included and a cracking standard was set by young Dubliner Dennis Gilevsky.
He is so smooth on court and it’s incredible to witness a kid who is so young and so well coordinated.
Dennis won his section with ease and local lad Eamon Lalor won two of his four games to finish third.
In the U11 boys section Matthew Downey won two of his four games and he defeated players of a higher seeding on both occasions and finished 12th overall with Rory O’Flaherty in 16th place.
Carlow had four players in the U13 boys with Jack Doyle seeded fourth.
He lost out to Ryan Kelly of Dublin in five sets but won the remainder of his games to finish fifth.
Joe Jennings and David Lalor were locked in a great battle for 14th/15th place in round three with Jennings just taking it. Craig O’Brien came through to finish an impressive 12th in his first tournament.
None of the five local lads managed a first round win the Boys U15 section but Brendan Perry and Michael Daly did make the plate final with Daly winning 3/0. Glen Dermody finished 11th with Daryl O’Brien 13th and Eoin Perry 14th.
An eight-player section brought the U17 boys lads together with Ryan Luther seeded 5 taking on Tipperary’s Ciaran Maher in the first round.
Maher took the first 14-12 and a stunned Maher left the second game with a 11/0 loss to Luther. Maher took the third 16-14 and Ryan the fourth 117.
In the fifth, Ryan went 7-4 up with Maher chasing down everything and his little deft shots seem to desert him.
The game turned when a loose serve allowed Maher to kill the ball with great skill and he came back to 10-9 with a win in sight.
Luther had not given up and urged on by the crowd fought hard but it was Maher who took the win.
Number two seed Shaun Hennessy was expected to make the final but a second round loss to Cillian Dunne from Dublin ended his hopes of a title win and he finished fourth overall with Maher taking third.
Cian Doyle (7) lost a close 3/1 to Kevin McQuaid in second round and defeated Patrick Doheny.
Elly O’Brien competed in the U11 girls and was very pleased with her win over Cate Maher in her Leinster Open event.
Cliodhna Ní Shéa was seeded seventh in the U13 girls and she can be very pleased with her two wins over Laura McSweeney and Stephanie Crinnion and her only loss was to the number two seed Rachael Quigley.
Four Carlow girls played their part in making the girls U15 section a really competitive event.
Casey Luther, seeded two, reached the final where she faced Stepanhie Ryan.
This time it was the Dublin girl who emerged the winner.
Shiela O’Keefe, just moving up from U13, finished sixth with Niamh Fitzpatrick moving up from 13th seed to 11th following her good performances with wins over Ellen Walls (Dublin) and Sophie MC Sweeney (Cork).
Pia Dalton (11) reached the plate final and just lost out to Lauren Smith (Dublin)but played very well winning two of her four games finishing 10th.
The U17 girls event was won by Dubliner Breanne Flynn and Rebecca Mc Dermott showed just how competitive she is with a fine fourth-place finish.
Flynn is head and shoulders above the opposition at this age group and was an easy winner overall.
Hazel O’Flaherty took seventh place following along lay off with injury.
The next event is a one-day event in Carlow LTC in the week prior to the junior national championships.
If you are interested in taking up squash, please come to Carlow LTC on Fridays 4-5pm or Saturdays, 12-1pm.
For more info please contact Dermot 0875431386. The Saturday League has now resumed and matches are as competitive as ever.