REDBRIDGE JUNIOR SQUASH CLUB PHOTO GALLERY

A report by Sarah Mackie with some early pictures (and video at the bottom)

Careful with that racket!

Redbridge v Holland and Belgium

In true Redbridge style and as promised, coach Dave Lazarus led his troops to back to conquer some more of Europe. After the dress rehearsal last year which saw them crawl back from Slovenia with only one medal they were told 'get those rackets ready as this time we really are going to kick arse'. With a further 12 months coaching under their belts and an extra 9 players making 19 in total they felt far more confident than the previous year.

Martin

The minibus's left Redbridge at 6.30am and the journey began. Amazingly and thanks to the navigation skills of Jim Linning they arrived safely many hours later in a small town called Weert where they were let loose on the opposition. Tired and stiff from the journey they played as well as could be expected and coach Dave looked somewhat unimpressed. He took to the court to save some English dignity, however unfortunately the glass walls on the court meant that he could see his reflection and the distraction cost him his match against a top Belgium player. This time it was the turn of his troops to suffer the humiliation. Seeing the morale of the team slipping, Sarah Mackie who herself unable to play due to an injury decided to step in and save the day by encouraging them to drink as much as they could before teaching them a catalogue of dance moves and ensuring they stayed up till at least 4:00am. She was very impressed with the quality of their dancing and thought by the end of the trip they could be truly amazing.

George

Managing to wake up the next day and make their way to the squash courts they were told that they were in for some serious training before they met their next set of rivals at a club in Eindhoven. Trying to mix their newly learnt dance moves into their squash game had coach Dave yelling something about 'balance' but the troops were clearly out to impress their opposition with any means possible. The 17 courts at Eindhoven were quickly filled with cheers and groans as some very close matches were played. Being nicely warmed up for another night out they hit the town in force again and this time there were no excuses on the dance floor as they all knew the moves. Mike Boot showed a particular talent closely followed by Alpesh Patel. Realising they hadn't won a trophy yet they set about trying to find one. Martin O'Toole, Melisa Robin and Ann Selby worked on distracting the local darts team whilst Sarah, Suzanne Conway and Imran Ishraf swooped in and went for the grab. They are now the leading darts champions of Weert County District 2009 sponsored by Prodarts and will be back to defend their title next year.

Imran and others

After army logistics specialist Michelle Higgins managed to track down all the juniors (Alex Denham found a particularly good hiding place)

Alex

they were off to represent England in the Eindhoven Junior open tournament With some of our juniors only having had three hours sleep the adults who had been playing at a club in Antwerp were shocked when they found out that they had won every category they had entered. Jack Jago won under 17 boys, Alex Denham won under 15 boys, Fraser Lining won under 13 boys and Elise Lazarus won under 13 girls. Both Tom Fraser and George Darling also came away as runners up and the locals were left shocked as the late entrants ran away with all the medals. Unfortunately the adults were less resilient, with mumblings of aching, feeling sick, headaches and where is the beer being quietly taking place behind the coaches back.

Fraser

With only one night left, the team thought that it was only right that they celebrated the success of the juniors. Mustering up all their energy and hitting the town in Antwerp they had clearly become professional dancers, apart from Dave who had noticeably missed the previous two nights lessons and needed a bit more practice. Sarah and Keith Lesser tried their best to help him but eventually conceded that it was in fact dangerous and that he needed more professional help.

Needless to say that when offered one last chance to play more squash before they left, the troops just about managed to scrape together enough energy to say 'are you mad?' and the exhaustion was clearly etched on their faces as they drove home with David Uttley seeming to have fared the worst.

All in all the troops agreed that it had been a great trip with some lovely hosts and can't wait for the next one, where they will be back to defend their darts title.

Elise and Fraser on a "Spinner"