County side is reborn

Ed Johnson from Mowsbury and Sam McCoy and Alex Tentori from Flitwick were joined in the team by Muqaddam and Azhan Khan from Luton and Dunstable Squash and Rackets Club.

Seven-year-old Azhan showed maturity beyond his years to come out as the only undefeated Beds player of the day.

The first match was a very tight affair with Berkshire edging out Beds 3-2.

Muqaddam, nine, playing at second string won his match 3-0, while his younger brother Azhan, at fourth string, triumphed 3-2.

Unfortunately number one string McCoy lost 3-0 and strings three and five, Johnson and Tentori, went down 3-1.

The second match was much more one-sided with Oxfordshire triumphing 4-1, with only young Azhan winning a tie and doing so in some style with a 3-0 victory.

Johnson lost 3-1, while the others failed to win a game.

It’s the first time for many years that the county has managed to field any representative side at Junior level and team manager for the day, Steve McCoy, said: “Whilst the boys were obviously a bit disappointed with the ultimate result, they thoroughly enjoyed the event.

“The fact that we managed to field a side at all is testament to the growing numbers of juniors playing the sport across the county.

“We will now enter a side into the national county competition and given the age of some of the participants we will hopefully have the foundations for a decent side in years to come.”