County Open - Season 2001-2002

Bird and Carole do it again

It was the Thurso Squash Club's turn to stage the Caithness Championships this year and there was a reasonable entry from both sides of the county.
The junior competition was won by Martyn Cook who comfortably defeated Louis Morrill in the final but the younger player is improving rapidly. Losing semi-finalists were Craig Gardner and Steven Craigie.

The plate competition was on by the experienced Stuart Greig but Malcolm Lord put up a gallant fight. The losing semi-finalists were Allan Grant and Brian Henderson.

Jim Georgeson continued his domination of the veteran competition adding the county title to the Wick and Thurso ones he had already pocketed. Jim had to overcome the uncanny accuracy of Willie Jappy in four hard games. The losing semi-finalists were Carole Cameron and Jim Cassidy.

L to R:- James Georgeson-|-Martyn Cook-|-Stuart Greig-|-Bird-|-Carole Cameron-|-Malcolm Lord- Sitting - Jane Cormack-|-Willie Jappy-|-Louis Morrill-

In the Ladies' event Carole Cameron was once again calling the tune: although Jane Cormack played powerful squash she lacked the steadiness to oust her experienced opponent. It had been Jane versus Carole in both semi finals when Carole Cameron beat Jane Grant and Jane Cormack won out against Carole Mowat.

In the men's competition there were a lot of tight games in the early rounds but none were more dramatic than that between Wick players Willie Jappy and Andy Robertson (seeded fourth). This intriguing match went as far is arithmetically possible - 16 all in the last set with the seeded player just squeezing out the last vital point.
Dougie Sinclair and Donald Pollard also served up a fast and exciting five setter, which Donald won.
However, the four top seeds did make their semi-final places when Jim Henderson ended Andy Robertson's run and Jim Georgeson upset the seeding to defeat reigning champion Colin Paterson in another punishing five game match.
Not surprising;y, Jim Georgeson lost out to James Henderson in the final but still managed to contest some punishing rallies despite the fact that in this competition and the veterans he had played seven matches in two days. Jim Henderson thus re-asserted himself as the top player in the county with his usual combination of tight driving, aggressive volleying and the ability to return what would be outright winners against most players.

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