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/
