Posted June 21

Junior County and friendly Monrad Tournament 10th - 12th June  

Orkney youngsters faced tough opponents when teams from Shetland and Caithness visited the county last weekend.

Orkney players performed well against Shetland . Orkney no. 1, Graeme Murdoch threatened to take a match. His fast start and sharp play won him the first set but Shetland’s Michael Swierczewski rallied and showed machine like fitness and focused power play to take the match in 4 sets.  At no.2 Orkney’s Alistair Scott threatened Shetland Captain Michael Thomson by retrieving nearly everything thrown at him. Eventually Michael’s power and accuracy was too much for him as he won in the first 2 sets and just won the 3rd after a brave call of set 1.  Orkney no 3. Cameron Robinson faced the very experienced Patrick Nicol who unleashed some lethal shot combinations to win in straight sets. Orkney no 4. Greg Kemp played Lorne McNiven and had some long rallies but once again Lorne’s experienced play made the difference as he won in straight sets. No 5 Sweyn Cowie did well in the final set to take points off the older opponent. Orkney no.6 Michael Schinkel did manage to keep it very close after a very tight second set which he won but he lost in 4 sets. The last two experience Shetland players were Girls 1 & 2 Hannah Garrick & Leanne Jamieson whom played strong games to give their respective opponents Aimee Drever & Amy Walker little chance. Although Amy almost picked up the second set which ended up being the longest game in this intercounty with 41 gruelling rallies. A strong come back from Amy saw her only lose out 10-8 on set 2. Orkney No.3 Raenne Hutchison put in a good performance against Emma Niven.

Orkney v Shetland

1 Graeme Murdoch  Michael Swierczewski 9-3, 2-9, 1-9, 2-9.

2 Alistair Scott  Michael Thomson 4-9, 4-9, 8-9.

3 Cameron Robinson Patrick Nicol 1-9, 0-9, 0-9.

4 Greg Kemp  Lorne McNiven 2-9, 7-9, 8-10.

5 Sweyne Cowie  Stuart Ferguson 0-9,0-9, 3-9.

6 Michael Schinkel  Thomas Marshall 3-9, 10-8, 1-9, 5-9.

1 Aimee Drever  Hannah Garrick 0-9, 0-9, 1-9.

2 Amy Walker  Leanne Jamieson 3-9, 8-10, 5-9.

3 Raenne Hutchison  Emma Niven 2-9, 3-9, 1-9.

Orkney V Caithness

The Caithness junior team are making waves in Scottish Squash and quite a few players have been regularly travelling to regional competitions and are obviously doing things right. Unfortunately the Orkney no 1 Graham Murdoch was drawn against Scottish ranked Jamie Henderson son of the legendry Caithness player “Birdie”, Jamie is currently beating Orkney top senior players so Graham did well to take 5 points in the third game. Greg Kemp and Amy Walker put up a good fight for Orkney but also lost.

All the players had a great social and had a well earned fish and chips & Chinese at 8.30 at the KSC.

Orkney V Caithness Results

1 Graham Murdoch  Jamie Henderson 0-9, 0-9, 5-9.  

2 Alistair Scott     

3 Cameron Robinson Gary Beale 1-9, 0-9, 0-9.  

4 Greg Kemp  Mark MacDougal 5-9, 0-9, 5-9.  

5 Sweyne Cowie  Dylan Hutchison 0-9, 0-9, 1-9.  

6 Michael Schinkel  Alexander Campbell 1-9, 0-9, 1-9.  

1 Aimee  Stephanie Campbell 0-9, 0-9, 1-9.  

2 Amy Walker  Charlene Bank 4-9, 6-9, 1-9.  

3 Raenne Hutchison  Claimed by Orkney 9-0, 9-0, 9-0     

Caithness also played Shetland at the Kirkwall courts with Caithness winning again.

Obviously 3 intercounties was not enough squash for one trip so after this 32 players took part in an enthralling 72 match monrad draw. [Swiss style seeded competition] Graham Murdoch had the best result from Orkney and finished in 4th place.

Posted April 29

Junior Improver

Alistair Scott has received the Most Improved Junior award. He received the David Sinclair Memorial Cup from Alex Dohrn who won the cup in 2002..

Posted March 23

Junior Training restarting after Easter break

The Tuesday Junior sessions will re-commence after the Easter break on Tuesday, Apr 12.

Posted January 10

Junior Training stopped for Christmas

The Tuesday Junior sessions will re-commence after the Christmas break on Tuesday, Jan 11 at the new time of 7.00-8.30.

Posted September 29

Junior Training restarts

The Advanced Junior sessions will re-commence on Tuesday, Oct 4. More here.

Posted March 24

Changes to Junior Training

Monday and Saturday training has finished for the Summer. Wednesday night sessions are off for the holidays but will re-commence on April 14.

Posted March 23

Ola Gorie Tournament

The Ola Gorie Tournament was held on Monday 22 at the last of the season’s Junior coaching sessions. A healthy entry of 7 boys - Sweyn Cowie, Cameron Robinson, Michael Schinkel, Tom Scott, Jack Scott, Alex Griffiths and Alistair Scott took part. There were great games throughout the tournament, with Sweyn Cowie and Alex Griffiths progressing to the plate final, where Sweyn won 2 - 0. Alistair Scott and Michael Schinkel played for the main trophy, with Alistair winning 2 - 0.

Posted March 23

Juniors in Caithness

Orkney juniors crossed a lumpy Pentland Firth on 13th March to meet Wick and Thurso in the Inter County and Cameo Cup.  The 13th was not an unlucky date for the Orkney team however as they all played very well and won by 8 matches to 3.  The Cameo Cup was not played for last season and had been held by Caithness for 6 years prior to that.

. Full report.

Posted December 14

Grampian Junior Open

Saturday 5th of December saw four Orkney squash players taking part in the Grampian Junior Open in Aberdeen.  Andrew, Erlend and Andy had visited this tournament in previous years and for David, this was a first time.  The first games played on Saturday morning were the qualifiers.  This was to see roughly where they were going to be placed.  David, being new to the tournament,  was placed low in the competition and had a comfortable qualifying game in Division 7.  This was a comfortable win for David and was moved up to Division 6 to play the remainder of his games.  The second game was a tougher one and saw him beaten narrowly by his opponent.  Andy’s qualifying in Division 5 saw him up against a female Scotland player, who beat him after much effort.  Staying in Division 5, his second game followed as another Scotland player managed to win marginally.  Erlend saw himself in Division 4 and as you went up the divisions, the games got better.  Needles to say, by this stage, games were at a much more technical level. This ended in Erlend losing his qualifying.  His second one matched his first but both were close and good games to watch.  This left Andrew, his first game was almost a loss until several well-played shots secured him the very narrow match.  Putting him up into Division 2 saw him up against the best and his second game went his opponents way but not after much hard work.

Sunday saw each player play another match and the games didn’t get any easier.  Andrew, Erlend and Andy all put in the effort but more experienced opponents overcame them narrowly on most occasions.  David however losing his first game that day finished on a high after a win in his final game.  All players picked up so many tips and pieces of advice that losing games wasn’t a major concern.  Much was learned and great fun was had by all resulting in a worth while trip to attend such a popular tournament.

Andy Reid

Results also available on Scottish Squash web site.

December 12 - Junior Inter-County against Shetland

Orkney got off to a fantastic start when both David Chalmers and Aimee Drever, playing in her first squash Inter County, won their matches 3 – 0.  David played a very controlled game to defeat Shetland’s Michael Swierczewski also playing in his first inter-County. Aimee appeared cool, calm and collected in defeating Chelsea Jamieson.

The next match on was the irrepressible Yan Shearer playing Lorne McNiven.  Although Yan won the match 3- 0 it was not an easy win as the first two sets both went to 10/8 but the Shetland player never got to grips with Yan’s exuberant style.  Meanwhile Andy Reid struggled  to play his usual game and lost 3 – 0 to Shetland’s Patrick Nicol. The Shetland player was one of the younger visitors and looked very capable. Definitely one to watch in future matches

This meant that at this stage Orkney were winning 3 – 1 with 5 matches to play.  

Amy Walker played Leanne Jamieson in a return match as they met each other when Orkney travelled to Shetland for last year’s tournament. Leanne only dropped two points to beat Amy 3 – 0.  Kit Bichan, also playing a return match met Michael Thomson at third seed.  Kit again showed that the Orkney players are learning to play to a game plan. He controlled the match and frustrated his big, strong opponent. Having won the first two sets 9/2, 9/5 he didn’t panic when Michael managed to get to 8/7 in the third and coolly took the set 10/8.  That moved Orkney to 4 – 2, requiring just one more match to take the trophy.

Sarah Cowie playing at number 1 seed was up against a strong opponent in Hannah Garrick who has played both junior and senior Inter County for a few years now.  Hannah won the match 3 – 0 but Sarah played well and once she settled into the match began to pick up more points in the third set.

Team Captain, Andrew Moar played top seed Kevin Moar in a fast , hard match where the audience anticipated a few new balls being required as the ball got no mercy.  Andrew showed Kevin no mercy, adding accuracy to his powerful shots and winning in three sets 9/2, 9/4, 9/1 to bring the overall score to a match winning 5 – 3 for Orkney with one match to play.

Erlend Cowie and Ellis Robb were the last players on court playing the final match.  Erlend won the first set 9/7, Ellis then retaliated by taking the next one.  Erlend was not to be beat however and took the final two sets 9/3 to complete a good win for Orkney, regaining the trophy that Shetland won last year.

With most of the Orkney players still eligible for next year’s inter-County, the prospects are good. Many thanks to all those who helped out in any way. Thanks to Billy Mycock and Davey Garrick for taking the Shetland team down for a great weekend of squash.

Linda Hill

November 25

There seems to be interest in a 24hr marathon again this season. The Easter holidays seem to be a possible time. If interested speak to Andrew or Linda.

October 21

There are a lot of pictures from the recent Caithness inter-county at http://www.kevinajones.co.uk/portfolio74820.html. Some of them are embarrassing - you have been warned.