Monthly Archives: April 2018

2018 Jesters Jericho Juniors Recap

Jesters Juniors, ,

The Jericho Junior Open was another huge success here at the club (Jan. 19th-21st).   We had 120 juniors from around BC competing in eleven events including three ‘Silver’ divisions to encourage competition with developing players in the Boys U17, U15 and Girls U13 divisions.

With your generous donation all of our winners received brand new Salming racquets!  We provided excellent prizes and trophies for 1st, 2nd, 3rd and consolation winners as well as some fantastic draw prizes.  I mention the draw prizes because the juniors will stay to watch the final matches and attend the awards presentation because in order to win they have to be in attendance.

Sam Scivier from Jericho and Alex Brown from SMUS where the overall winners in the boys and girls divisions respectively.  BC has some exceptional 13-15 year old players at the moment as the Boys U17 and Girls U19 were all packed with younger juniors playing up in higher age categories.

Again the Silver categories provided an opportunity for developing players to experience success in full weekend tournaments without having to compete against more established elite level juniors.  These are some of the most enjoyable matches of the weekend as the players are very keen and excited to be at the event.

Thank you once again to the Jesters for your support of our event and other Junior and Adult squash tournaments across BC.  Your contribution really makes a difference to the success of our weekend and impacts the enjoyment and experience of the juniors who compete.

https://www.sportyhq.com/tournament/view/2018-Jesters-Jericho-Junior-Open

Richard Yendell
Head Squash Professional
Junior Girls National Coach

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