"The Jim Bristow Cup"

Co-Presented by Inform Connection and the Victorian Masters Squash Association at the Moorabbin Squash Centre

May 23-24th, 2009

EVENT REPORT

The Fifth Masters Juniors Championships were conducted on May 23-24, 2009 and were held once again at the Moorabbin Squash Centre. We received an extremely pleasing number of entries this year and were delighted with the volume of players involved.

The nature of this event lends itself to a very social, relaxed weekend and we had a noticeable increase in the amount of teams that were made up of Mothers/Daughters/Fathers/Sons which is encouraging to see. Much time was spent on grading the 11 sections and as a whole it ended up very well with competition being very even in most cases.

The crew from Leeton (NSW) lead by Rod Harrison was a pleasure to host and we enjoyed having them involved in the event. Apparently they are bringing even more players back next year - that's a great effort considering they had 12 this year!!! Another group to point out is the gang from Poowong - out of a town of 400 people, 13 of  them played in this event!! Thanks to both regions for their support and we hope you can be involved again in 2010.

After a weekend of singles and doubles matches  with close scorelines it was time to hand out the awards on Sunday afternoon. Jim Bristow was present  which was great and we welcome his involvement in the event named after him! A list of results is below however I wish to highlight the following special awards.

The Masters Junior Apprentice Awards go to one Male and one Female Junior who played in the event. This is an award worth in excess of $2000 per player and is aimed at providing support to these junior players. We want to increase the likelihood that they keep playing and enjoying the sport and also give them the best chance to gain skills and develop a love of the sport. Congratulations must go to our recipients this year, Skye Douglas and Chris Knight. Photos appear on the photos page so please have a look and support these junior players wherever you may see them. 

They have received the following:

• Full Squash Kit from Grays and Hi-tec including a bag, racquet, shoes, clothing etc

• A minimum of $500 towards squash coaching for the 12 months

• Free entry into any Inform squash tournament in Australia for the 12 months

In addition to the above awards, we were also fortunate enough to provide yet another benefit to junior squash - thanks to one of our major sponsors, Harry Mahoney, we are able to donate a benefit to the winner and runner-up junior from each section. This means that 22 junior players will receive FREE ENTRY into the Grays Australian Junior Graded Championships at Moorabbin in November this year. Thanks very much for your additional support Harry, it is much appreciated.

Thanks to Jim Bristow, Brian Davey and Terry Barlow for their hard work leading into the event and to Clara and Mike Edney for being such wonderful hosts. We look forward to seeing you next year, same time, same place, same bat channel........

Regards

Lisa Walton