North Wales Annual Activity report June 2018 International success the pinnacle of the year was the success of North s Tesni Evans who had a remarkable season reaching a career high World ranking of 12, became the first ever Welsh winner, male or female of the British Championships, first ever Welsh woman to reach the quarter finals of the British Open and won the bronze medal in the Commonwealth Games ladies singles! Also a bronze medal in the World Doubles mixed with partner Peter Creed. Tesni is a player who has come right through the Welsh pathway, as has her brother Emyr who reached his first PSA final and reached a career high WR of 128. Lowri Roberts also achieved a career high of 149. Tesni led the Welsh women s team to a 5 th place finish in the Europeans accompanied by teammates Lowri Roberts and Elin Harlow from North Wales. Emyr was in the Men s team who in the same event finished 6 th and stayed up in Division 1 for the first time for 9 years. Also capped as juniors were Layna Beattie / Josh Davies and Jamie Silvester.
PSA Karakal Bangor Classic. Also on the International stage Tesni is promoting the first ever ladies PSA event in Wales this June to promote women s squash in Wales and the Welsh lady players. Pathway The pathway continues to be successful from school programmes right up to National squads and International representation. There has been school activity with visits /festivals in Flintshire through Deeside, Prestatyn, Penygroes / Bangor / Bethesda / Bangor / Caernarfon / Wrexham. A new Goldmine has started in Bangor and planned for Wrexham next. For the first time Area Performance Centre sessions were held regularly in the North West and North East coached by Steph Roberts and Mark Davies.
Academy days and training nights were held in both Deeside, Bangor and St Asaph and included players from Mid Wales. There was also a fitness trainer. There have been meetings and partnerships set up with Wrexham /Gwynedd and Denbighshire and the same planned with other local authorities. Gwynedd has chosen squash to be one of their priority sports for next season and will include a regionalised Gwynedd Academy at Caernarfon. National squads of all ages were split North/South and Deeside/Bangor. Junior regional competition To give more juniors of a certain level more competition, the first ever North Mid Junior league was set up and 6 teams with 3 players in each team played monthly. The results and league tables were put on the Squash Wales website! The 6 teams were 2 from Wrexham Brymbo, Deeside, Bethesda, Newtown and Llanfyllin. Congratulation to the first winners, Newtown! Massive thanks also to Mark and Jim from Brymbo for running the league, everyone is looking forward to next year s!! Two Development events were also held with over 20 entries in each. At inter county level 3, junior teams were entered in the English inter counties. They all made it through to stage 2 and the Ladies senior team won Div 2, so gain promotion to Div 1.The Men unfortunately couldn t raise a team for stage 2, so again the North need to decide whether this is an event that players want to be playing in and representing North Wales. Men s and Ladies teams also competed in the Welsh inter counties competition in Cardiff.
Tournaments The Henry R Davis North East Wales Open was held at Deeside in November with 54 entries! The Men s winner was Emyr Evans The second tournament was the Sue Charlesworth Memorial tournament and the ladies trophy was won by Rachael Chadwick. The inaugural Snowdonia Open was held at Bangor in April with 56 entries. Emyr Evans and Hannah Davies were the winners. The North Wales junior open was held in February at Bangor University, with just over 50 entries. Thanks to Tesni Evans and Greg Tippings for presenting - priceless.
Disappointingly the North Wales Masters Open was postponed in March at Deeside, due to insufficient entries and is being trialled at Bangor this June to run alongside the PSA Karakal classic. It looks like entries are just about sufficient to go ahead, but this is an area that everyone in the North needs to get involved with. Discussions are required as to whether this is an event that is wanted in the North. Coach education and refereeing There has been lots of activity with 3 coach mentoring sessions and ongoing coach mentoring / 3 leaders courses one in Gwynedd, one in Bangor and one in Wrexham Brymbo. There was a referee s course and a separate referees workshop held in Bangor University. Bangor University continued their partnership with Squash Wales covering all aspects of squash with sponsorship and support, including offering scholarships and programmes to include squash alongside their education.
Women and girls project Squash Wales have a National #Squash4girls project starting at the start of next season which will aim to offer increased opportunities for women and girls to regularly participate in Squash. The project will offer more coaching sessions specifically aimed at women & girls, as well as providing the chance for women & girls to complete coach education courses. A #Squash4girls roadshow will also be a big part of the project, which will involve exhibition matches taking place at different clubs throughout Wales. These exhibition matches will feature commonwealth games bronze medalist Tesni Evans. This is a very exciting project for Squash Wales, who are looking forward to getting the project underway within the next few months. One disappointment was the closure of the courts in Mold where Squash Wales got involved but unfortunately was too late. Please contact Squash Wales with any court issues. Thanks to everyone for their support and help in North Wales.