Open Squash Tournament – March 24th

2011 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 20,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 7 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Swiss Junior Squash Open 2011

Creditable 9^th place for Kimberley Cauchi in the Swiss Junior Squash Open

Kimberly Cauchi won 2 out of her 5 matches in the Girls Under 13 section of the Swiss Junior Squash Open held in Zurich [December 2011], to finish 9^th overall.

The Swiss Junior Squash Open is a European Squash Federation Super Series Ranking Event. Over 240 juniors from 28 nations took part in the largest junior squash event ever to be held in Switzerland.

Kim’s first match was against Kristína Šmičková, a Slovakian girl ranked no 9 in Europe. Kim started nervously and made several unforced errors in the first set, but then fought bravely in the next 3 sets. In the end the experience of Kristína was the deciding factor with the young Slovakian able to stay calm at crucial points and in the end take a deserved but hard fought win 3-1. [3-11 / 11-8 / 8-11 / 9-11]

The next opponent was Alina Bushma [Ukraine] ranked no 13 in Europe. The two girls were evenly matched up to 8-8 in the final set when 2 unforced errors and a well timed forehand drop sealed the match for Alina 3-2. [11-5 / 3-11 / 11-8 / 5-11 / 8-11]

The third day of the tournament showed Kim in her best form.
Against Maelle Fuhrer [France] Kim played some of her best squash with every point closely contested and although the final score was a 3-0 victory for Kim the match score of 14-12 / 13-11 / 11-6 shows that this game could have gone either way.

Kim’s fourth opponent was Yuna Loaec [France]
With the confidence boost from the days earlier match Kim showed that she has the potential to challenge the top 20 players in Europe with only the first set being close. The final score was an excellent 3-0 victory against the number 16 in Europe.  [12-10 / 11-3 / 11-5]

The final match for Kim was against Denisa Rohunová from the Czech Republic [ranked no 11 in Europe], which Kim lost closely 2-3. [6-11 / 11-8 / 6-11 / 11-5 / 5-11]

As the tournament play offs were played on a ‘round robin’ basis, the 2 sets against Denisa were enough for Kim to secure overall 9^th place, an excellent result in only her 3^rd overseas competition and this should see her climbing up the European rankings into the top 30 for the first time.

Conclusion: Kim played 5 tough opponents, 4 of which are ranked in the top 16 in Europe. Experience was the deciding factor in most of the games Kim lost. Without continual support and the opportunity to compete overseas the gap will remain making progress in the rankings extremely difficult.

Kim is supported by the Marsa Sports Club, coached by Paul Lake, sponsored by Wilson, and is a member of the Marsa Sports Club Junior Squash Development Programme.

Angela House Christmas Squash Event

‘Dove’ Marsa Squash Open

The Dove Marsa Squash Open was held recently at the Marsa Sports Club in October

24 players took part in a tournament full of exciting and entertaining matches and once again everyone was surprised with a new format.

The ‘A’ players in the 1st round played against (with!) players from the ‘C’ category. In the second round (all the ‘A’ players progressed) they then faced players from the ‘B’ category, with once again all ‘A’ players progressing safely to the next round.
All the ‘B’ & ‘C’ players thoroughly enjoyed the experience of playing against some of the top players in Malta and only through playing against better players can the overall standard be improved and experience gained. Everyone taking part played at least 3 matches, all ‘best-of-5′, with more than half playing four matches.

Losers from the 1st & 2nd round then played in their own category with newcomer Paul Borg producing the overall best results of the tournament. Paul only started playing squash earlier this year and has improved at a tremendous rate progressing through the ‘C’ and ‘B’ event beating established players Geoff Brousson, Sarah De Cesare and Sue Aquilina to take overall 9th place.

In the ‘C’ round of matches, squash section Chairman Charles Cuschieri had a good match against Analise Attard. The two had a very close and entertaining match with Charles winning 3-2 and so securing 17th place overall.

Carl Camilleri and Ivan Balzan contested the ‘A’ final.
After battling their way through the ‘C’ and ‘B’ players the 2 top seeds faced up to each other in the 1st final of the new season. Carl has struggled over recent months to find his form from 2010 and this was evident thought-out the first game with Carl uncharacteristically allowing himself to be disturbed by what he thought was a ‘refereeing error’ with the loss in concentration continuing throughout the break. Ivan started playing aggressively from the start and had chances in most games to take a commanding lead only to make several unforced errors and allow Carl to regain his composure. From the beginning of the 3rd game Carl concentrated more on ‘what to do’ rather than ‘how to do it’ and playing with significantly less power and a greater degree of control, was never really worried and took the first title of the 2011/12 season by 3 games to 1.

Thanks to the generous sponsorship, prizes were awarded not only to the best placed male – Carl– and the best placed female – Johanna, but also to every player that was present at the presentation.  All players received a small gift and afterwards were able to enjoy a small finger-food buffet at the club bar and reflect on what was an enjoyable afternoon for all involved.

Sporting Superstars Test

Saturday 10th September

From 15.00-17.00

Squash is one of the fastest games in the world!
Agility – Speed – Coordination – Stamina are all required to play squash.

The Marsa Squash Section will be holding a ‘SUPERSTARS’ test afternoon for junior boys and girls aged 9 – 13.

The afternoon will include a variety of tests that will also include racket sport skills.

Successful participants will receive a certificate.

Participation is free & you can bring a friend.
Closing date Thursday 8th September.
Registration required!

If you think you have what it takes register with Carl on 79032032 or email Paul