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Jesters PNW

2018 Jesters PNW Summary

Jesters Juniors, ,

Without you:

I am proud to carry on the tradition of the 49th Jesters PNW in Victoria BC that Phil Green built. An event that lasts in the minds of the athletes who travel to Victoria each February. Phil’s years of devotion to Junior Squash laid the ground work for our success going forward. This event is run the with 200+ athletes at 3 venues on Saturday (13 courts), comprising a total of 499 squash matches in 2.5 days of play. Our registration deadline was 2 weeks prior to the event but we filled up 1 week before the deadline. It is bad for the squash player who did not get in but good to know that squash is more popular than ever.

If you were able to watch the live stream of this event you would have watched till 12:00am on Friday. We set the record for the latest match at the Friday of the PNW! Brooke Herring and Brianna Jefferson stepped off court just after mid-night from their extra point 5 set Quart-final match. A 5-set match seemed to be the story of the day. The first and 2nd rounds of the main draws needed to be played prior to Saturday. As I entered the results into the draws the number of games going to extra points, or lasting 5 games was a testament to the level of play this year. I kept hoping that we would get back on time…but never quite did.

Once the Friday grind was over we settled into a rhythm for Saturday and Sunday. Longer court bookings and three venues helped the timing for the remainder of the event. That’s not to say the level of competition waned. The boys U19 final had a 5 game match for the winner while the Girls U19 was a fitting domination for her last PNW event. Ryan Picken and Andrea Toth, from BC, both won their events and took home the Gold! To crown Andrea’s win she was voted the George-Morfitt Sportsmanship award.

Now that the fun and games are done we should reflect on the people behind the scene. The team of volunteer’s countless hours to keep things going: Daryl Suen, John Roche, Patty Ballam, and Yennie Yuen volunteered and headed up our venue control, refereeing, food service and tournament detailing. Additionally, 48 volunteers stepped forward to help with court control, registration and food services. I would not have been able to run this event without any of them. If you see a volunteer thank them for their service.

Our sponsors of this event help in countless ways to keep the affordability of the event for the parents who support their kids to play squash.

  • St. Michael’s University School: Providing court time for over 1/3 of the squash matches
  • Victoria Squash Club and Stuart Dixon: hosting their facility all day Saturday and part of Sunday this year
  • Fairways Market: Providing food to be served to athletes and coaches for the weekend
  • Hotel Grand Pacific: They provided a rate, and service that is beyond belief for everyone who stayed at their facility
  • Out of the blue Designs: They helped design and get amazing rates for the tournament souvenir each year
  • Jesters of BC: Their generous support of Junior squash keeps an event of this size in the realm of affordability

I look forward to running this event next year. Registration will open in November of 2018. Visit this site to keep informed of the 2019 50th Jesters PNW!

Thank you
Benjamin Uliana
Tournament Director

For more information on this event please click on the image below or visit http://www.jesterspnw.ca/

Jesters PNW

2017 Jesters Pacific Northwest Junior Championships

Blog, Jesters Juniors,

2017 Jesters Pacific Northwest Junior Championships

Dear Jesters

This year’s event drew a record 233 entries and included many of Canada’s leading players. I’m pleased to report that our BC contingent fared very well. Grace Thomas (Victoria) and Andrea Toth (Richmond) met in the Girl’s Under 19 final with the win going to Thomas in a tight four game match. In the Boys Under 19 semi-final, Ryan Picken (Shawnigan) eliminated top seed Akasham Rajagopaul (Niagra Falls) but was unable to overcome 2nd seed Brett Schille (Calgary) in the final. Additional B.C highlights are listed below.

Over the years, Jester’s sponsorship has helped us to maintain a reasonable entry fee for this event. Additional Jester’s funding in 2017 allowed us to enhance player meals, upgrade the tournament souvenir and to add a third place award in all fifteen divisions.

A volunteer crew of over fifty provided vital services including court control, meal services and registration. In addition, we had 17 local players referee all the Under 19 and Under 17 quarter finals and beyond, plus all the first matches each day.  In total there were 476 matches played at three venues on 13 courts. We gratefully acknowledge and thank St. Michael’s University School and Stuart Dixon at the Victoria Squash Club for the use of their facilities. We also thank Lynne Grass of Shawnigan Lake School who provided an inter venue shuttle on Friday. And finally, a special thanks to John Roche who I believe has assisted at every PNW hosted at Cedar Hill since 1993 – amazing!

The Pacific Northwest Junior tournament was inaugurated in 1969 and has now run continuously for 48 years. In that first year, I was among the participants. I believe it was here where I was introduced to and then thrashed by John Hungerford. Tragic as that was, my occasional glimpses of the front wall cemented a lasting affection for the game and this event in particular. It was my pleasure to run the tournament numerous times from 1970 through to 1982. After a four year stint at Edmonton’s Royal Glenora Club, I returned to Victoria in 1986 and this was the beginning of an unbroken thirty year association with the PNW. How time flies!

In 2018, the PNW will be hosted under new leadership. I am confident that Ben Uliana and his team will continue to enhance the event’s reputation as one of Canada’s most popular Junior tournaments.

To all B.C. Jesters: thank you for your enduring support of Junior Squash in the province
With thanks,
Philip Green

Other notable BC results in Open divisions include:

Boys Under 17  
John Dempsey  2nd
Emilio Carrillo 3rd
Sayeed Mavani 4th

Girls Under 17  
Sarah Cao 1st

Boys Under 15  
Christian Yuen 3rd

Girls Under 15  
Julia Horsey 1st

Boys Under 13  
Joseph Toth 1st

Girls Under 13  
Grace Huang 1st
Maria Min 2nd
Ava Bicknell 4th

Boys Under 11  
Ryan Vest 2nd
Galen Armstrong 3rd

Six ‘B’ divisions were also offered

Boys Under 17/19 B     
1. Lucas Galloway
2. Mark Felea-Motet
3. Amir Djearam

Girls Under 17B       
1. Annika Lakhani
2. Angel Hu
3. Carolina Mees

Boys Under 15B   
1. Ian Heck
2. Cole Parmar
3. Oliver Kerr

Girls Under 13/15B  
1. Bernice Xiao
2. Juliana Angel
3. Ava Galloway

Boys Under 13B   
1. Razaan Lalji
2. Tyler Driscoll
3. Ryan Khakzad

Boys Under 11B    
1. Nathan Campo
2. Anderson Brown
3. Jonathan Gower

> >  Click here to view the draws.

 

 

 

 

  

                                   

Pacific Northwest Junior Squash Championships

Jesters Juniors,

This year marked the 45th operation of the Jester’s Pacific Northwest Junior Squash Championships.  With 217 entries, it ranked amongst the largest turnouts for any Junior tournament in Canada this year.  As one of four Squash Canada core events for elite Under 19 and Under 17 players, we were treated to a very high standard of play in the senior events.

Check out the final results here.

Given the large number of matches to be played, we have recently started play at the local level on Thursday and on Friday, at 1:00 pm.  This has helped maintain reasonable evening match times for all players and yet still wind up the tournament by 3:00 pm on Sunday.

In addition to the four courts at Cedar Hill, we used nine additional courts at St Michael’s University School and the Victoria Squash Club.  A total of 439 matches were played!

George Morfitt graciously attended our award ceremonies and presented the sportsmanship award in his name to Michele Garceau of the Evergreen Squash Club.

Once again this year, we are very grateful for the support of the British Columbia Jesters. With George’s assistance, a poster was on display at each venue which we hope has informed players, coaches and parents of the role of the Jesters in our Squash community.

Many thanks to Phillip Green, of the Cedar Hill Squash Club, for the following photos from the successful event.

Boys Under 19 Final
Boys Under 19 final – (L) Carter Robitaille (Toronto) and (R) Jarryd Osborne (Kingston)  Robitaille won 3-1

Girls Under 19 FinalGirls Under 19 final –  Michele Garceau in blue (Vancouver) and Madlen O’Connor (Toronto)  O’Connor won 3-1

PNW Crowd

Sunday finals crowd!

Pacific Northwest Junior Squash Championships