Bishop's Stortford's own Victoria King is British Open Over 45 Champion

 

Congratulations to Victoria King who won the coveted British Open title in Manchester last week.

B/Stortford Club Champion a record 9 times, Victoria was seeded 1 to reach the Final in her 1st year in the age group.

 

In Round 1 she received a walkover through to the quarter-finals where she played 5/8 seed Susan Pynegar from Nottinghamshire and won 9-3 9-5 9-5 in 29 minutes, in the semi-final Victoria played the 3/4 seed Heather Tweedle from Merseyside winning 9-7 9-7 9-7 in 23 minutes.

 

This meant that Victoria was in her first ever major Final but she started off nervously against her opponent Tasmin Bennett from Surrey the number 3/4 seed who had beaten the number 2 seed in her semi-final, Victoria lost the first two games 9-4 9-2 and was 7-3 down in the third when she staged a magnificent comeback to win the game 9-7 and then on to win the match 9-1 9-2 in 45 minutes of top rated squash.

 

Daryl Selby played in the mens event and won 2 matches to qualify for the main draw. He beat Alex Stait from England 11/5 3/0 who then retired with an injury and then beat Simon Rosner from Germany 11/5 12/10 7/11 11/9 in 54 minutes.

In the first round Daryl faced the defending British Open Champion Nick Matthew and put in a very creditable performance but lost 5/11 7/11 8/11 in 50 minutes on the all-glass court.

 

Other Bishop's Stortford Squash Club members who played the event were Kath Kemp who lost to Tasmin Bennett in the first round of the same event 9-2 9-1 9-3 in 24 minutes.

 

Over 65 Club Champion John Preston won his 1st round match against Martin Sweeney 9-7 2-9 9-3 9-5 in 36 minutes but then lost to Chris Stahl 9-4 9-0 10-8 in the last 16.

 

Jason Foster tried his luck in the Mens Over 35's and won his 1st round match 9-4 9-0 9-6 in 18 minutes against  Luke Momber from Avon but then faced the number 3/4 seed Peter Marshall the double handed former World number 2 and lost 9-3 9-1 9-0 in 24 minutes.

 

All in all a very successful Bishop's Stortford Squash Club campaign at the British Open.

 

Jason Foster
Bishop's Stortford Squash Club