County Open - Season 2003-2004 - 20&21/03/04

It was Thurso Squash Club's turn to hold the County Championships and with a large entry, this meant that it was going to be a tough couple of days for the organisers and competitors to fit all events in, in the two days.

One competitor who was definitely going to want his wife to give him a good rub down at the end of the two days, was James Henderson. This was the first time he was legible to enter both the County Champs and the Veterans tournament and being favourite for both, it was looking like a hard slog.

Nine t-shirts, nine pairs of shorts, nine pairs of socks and Nine hard games later - inevitably, he went onto lift both titles.

Les Mackay was bound to be thinking that he may be a bit tired after all of this competition but the reverse happened and James put in his best performance over the weekend, giving Les no chance to finish any of his tight nick shots and powered his way to the title.

Probably the upset of the weekend was the match between Ian Adamson and Willie Jappy.

With Ian, seeded three, but not being used to the style and panache of Willie, there was always the chance of a shock result - and it happened. It went to the very last point and Willie held his nerve forcing Ian to hit the tin, allowing the Wicker, through to the next round. Following this there were suggestions from the young Inversneckie lad that, quote, "That's me quitting....." - but he managed to get the dummy tit back in his mouth after disappearing home for a wee while, and he returned to the courts with a smile on his face and had a few pints later on.

James Georgeson managed to beat Daisy Swanson in the very last point of the match in the plate competition. This was a good achievement for James who has not been at the top his game for a short while due to an illness that has halted him. Hopefully, he will be fully fit next season, bursting with energy and produce the usual spark he has shown in the past.

There was a low entry in the Ladies championship but this did nothing to take the gloss of the tournament. Carole Mowat lifted the trophy for the second year running by beating Karen Campbell in a tight final that had some good rallies but Carole always had the upper-hand and won by 3-0.

The juniors championship was won by Louis Morrill who beat young Terry Mackay in a tight final.
Louis was the favourite for this tournament but there is an excellent batch of young stars coming into the fold and the lads who appeared over the weekend should be delighted with their performances.

Dr Pradip Data, a legend in county squash, was available to present the prizes to all successful participants.

Pictures

ALL Winners & Runner-Up

Mens Final - Bird v Les	Ladies Final - Carole v Karen
Sniff v Les	Carole v Lara
Bird v Colin	Kirsty v Karen
Donald v Bird	Colin v James
Titch v Les	Bird v Happy
Sniff v Happy	He threw his dummy tit out of the cradle after this shot and Happy jumped..... Adams-son v Happy
James v Daisy	James v Adams-son
Gareth v Bird	Fred v Brian
Sniff v Stevie	They are still talking about this great match between Daisy and Titch.....
Malc v Andy	Malc v Alan

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