Under-13 trio win team title

Story by: Nelson Mail - Photo by:

The Tasman-Marlborough team of Callum Seymour, Quinn Udy and Felix Murray have won the under-13 boys title at the South Island age group teams squash championships in Dunedin.

Seymour at No1, Udy at No2 and Murray at No3 combined to beat Otago, Canterbury and Southland, dropping only one game along the way, to win the gold medal and claim the South Island title.

Seymour and Udy won all their matches in three games. Murray lost to Otago but won in four against Southland and in three against Canterbury. It was Murray's first tournament away and the first big event that he has contested.

Their first tie against the second seeds Otago was their toughest.

Seymour's game against Otago's top U-13 boy, Josh Askin, was a testing game and although Askin had a powerful drive, Seymour had a greater range of shots including a low-tight drop and accurate long-hard drives that died in the corner.

In Udy's game, the hard drives were matched by high, accurate lobs into the corners and tight drops into the nick making hard work for Otago's Mitchell Kempton and also resulting in a straight three-set win to Udy.

Otago's No3, Jordan Trainor, was a grade above Felix Murray and even though Trainor won the match, Murray played tough and at times had Trainor running from front to back court.

In his next game against Southland, his opposition was evenly graded and Murray pulled out some outstanding squash to win the match in four.

The championships attracted record entries this year and involved U-11, U-13, U-15 and U-19 age groups for both boys and girls.

Results:

Tasman-Marlborough v Otago: Callum Seymour bt Josh Askin 15-3 15-12 15-14, Quinn Udy bt James Baker 15-12 15-7 15-7, Felix Murray lost to Jordan Trainor 8-15 8-15 6-15. T-M v Southland: Seymour bt Reagan McNaught 15-7 15-8 15-7, Udy bt Mitchell Kempton 15-7 15-9 15-13, Murray bt Alex Tait 15-11 12-15 15-13 15-9. T-M v Canterbury: Seymour bt Malakai King 15-2 15-8 15-2, Udy bt Tim Light 15-5 15-4 15-6, Murray bt George Stephenson 15-1 15-7 15-4.