Thurso Club Championships - Season 2001-2002

Carole clinches her 20th title

Thurso Squash Club staged its annual championships recently.

The weekend began with the ladies' competition preliminary rounds and, such is the current upsurge in squash, the number of lady players now demands a plate competition for first round losers. The first winner of this event was Anne Bremner, who defeated Coral Sinclair.

In the ladies' main event Carole Cameron and Carole Mowat accounted for Jane Grant and Barbara Newson respectively in their semis and this set up what proved to be the match of the tournament. Carole Cameron, going for an incredible 20th title, saw her opponent put up a tremendous fight before going down by three games to two.

The girls' event was won for the third year in succession by Donna Sinclair, who sportingly made sure that her younger opponents, Laura Taylor and Michelle Cowie, enjoyed their first taste of competitive squash.

All winners of the Thurso Championships Tournament - plus some young stars for the future, at the front.

In the boys' event it was refreshing to welcome several new members to the tournament. Gary Mackay, Lee Malcolm, Steven Bremner and Ewan Scott all showed real promise at this early stage in their squash careers.

In the semi-finals Martyn Cook defeated Craig Gardner and Louis Morrill came through against Gary Mackay. Louis chased every ball in the final but Martyn is now playing for the senior team and he used his experience to retain his title.

At the semi-final stage of the veterans' event, first time oldster, Jim Georgeson - who was seeded three in the men's tournament - defeated the ever competitive Ian McElroy, while Jimmy Cassidy survived a match point to finish strongly as a 3/2 winner over second seed Sandy Stewart. In the battle of the two Jim's, it was Jim Georgeson who triumphed to take the cup.

Team player Dougie Sinclair was unfortunate enough to draw number one seed Colin Paterson in the open event but his consolation was to win the plate tournament. He defeated junior member Craig Gardner in the semi-finals and then Malcolm Lord in the final.

Malcolm had played well to win a tough semi against the rapidly-improving Allan Sutherland.

In the men's competition, champion Colin Paterson defeated Alan Irvine in the first semi-final while Les Mackay fulfilled his second seeding by winning through against the busy Jim Georgeson.

Thus the final was a repeat of last year and good-sized crowd was treated to some first-class squash. Although Les strove hard to break into the match, Colin played a highly consistent and controlled game to win by three games to love.

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