Young squash players from Cambridgeshire competed in The National England Junior Squash Championships in Surrey over three days. Representing The Sports Academy at Hunts County Squash Club, all three performed really well against tough opposition from some two hundred of the best players from around the country:

Tayla Mounter in her first year in the Girls U15, played her matches at the Surrey Sports Park in Guildford, a new centre to major squash events and enjoyed by all the players, coaches and parents. Tayla, who has just moved up from U13 to U15, was drawn against Cloe Harrison from Lancashire England #15 and although following her usual warm-up and clearly keen to get on court and play, found the very warm conditions and older more experienced opponent a handful! In quick time Cloe had Tayla under pressure and was two games up: showing great character and determination, Tayla came back in the third game to make the match competitive, but although showing great spirit in the fourth it was too much for her and after a very close game she lost 1-3.

Emily Fuller and Nadine El Refee both played at Collets in Thames Ditton, venue of many major events including hosting finals of National Interclub.

Emily had a difficult match in the Girls under 13 against Ellen Cooper from Pontefract, Yorkshire: going down 2-3 in a hard fought match, Emily who is quite new to competitive squash showed early signs of knowing how to compete (she attends Perse Girls school in Cambridge and represents the school at a number of other sports). In the consolation event, Emily looked set to win against another good young player from Yorkshire but pulled a hamstring and again lost 2-3, struggling  at the end to get to the ball!

Nadine, also playing the Girls U13, had an excellent win against Aisha Forester from Yorkshire, winning 10/4, 10/3, 10/2 in just 13 minutes, the fastest first round match to be played. She then had another excellent win against Laura Neil from Northants, winning 10/4, 10/5, 10/2 - again in thirteen minutes! Looking good. In the quarter-finals she came up against the number 2 seed, Elin Jones from Gloucester; starting off with great confidence and playing attacking squash she took the first game 11/5: then, as so often happens in junior squash, she lost her way a bit and started over hitting her length and forgetting her game plan. Elin at the same time began to hit better length and although Nadine had real chances to win the second game, she eventually went down 10/12, 10/6, 10/8, finishing strongly, but the middle part of the match taking allot of nervous energy out of her as she struggled to re-kindle her early form. In the play-offs for England National Rankings, she finished 6^th - one place higher than expected.

All three girls train regularly at Hunts County Squash Club as part of The Sports Academy Junior Program. With The Sports Academy now taking squash into a number of schools in the area, organising the junior program at St Ivo and the growing program at Hunts County, there are in excess of 1300 youngsters involved. Head Coach Colin Griggs says "2011/12 should see a number of our young players fighting for places on National Junior Teams and with the Sports Academy Team now providing coaching from six England Squash coaches, including three that have played at International Level, there has never been a better time to play squash"