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The Junior End of Year Blitz took place on Saturday 25th of April from 2.00 to 6.00 in the afternoon and what a very busy day it was. Mairead organised a face-painter and the younger siblings (future squash players we hope) of some of our already established squash Juniors had great fun getting their faces, arms and legs decorated with Minions, Spiderman, Batman and Pirates.
Everyone who took part in the Junior art competition was given a small prize by Mairead and the two winners were Ellen Doherty and Leah Connolly for displaying great creativity and encapsulating some of the wonderful aspects of squash in their entries.
Mairead organised lots of goodies and treats for the Juniors to enjoy and amidst all the partying we also managed to get some squash played during the 1st section. Bryan broke the juniors into various groups – Cyril took the very young Juniors and put them through 8-Rounds of competition on Court 3 – all the parents gathered outside and in the gallery upstairs and had as much fun watching their kids playing squash as the kids had themselves on court. The 4 x U11 boys took court-2 and there were two great matches, David just overcoming Fionn at 15-14 and Colm eventually won against Cian in what was a great match full of super serving from both. Court-1 had the older girls battling it out and enjoying themselves immensely. Everyone who took part received a Cert and a gold engraved medal and a fantastic squash-ball-key-ring plus some other goodies and had a great time.
All the Juniors for the 2nd session turned up a little early and went on Court-2 where incoming Junior Officer Brendan Connolly made a lovely presentation to Mairead of a beautiful bunch of flowers on behalf of all the Juniors and their parents to say thank you for the wonderful three years she put in as Junior Officer. Mairead (never lost for words) in return also thanked everyone for the lovely thought and encouraged all the Juniors to stay at it and to support Brendan in his new role for the coming year. The Juniors also wrote a lovely card to thank Mairead with some very warm best wishes expressed and Mairead was really touched by these messages. Once the face painter and younger Juniors left the more senior Juniors took to the courts and we played out a blitz where we mixed everyone together – a real treat for some of them who got to go up against Sophie for the 1st time and did their best to get a few points – Sophie as always is a fantastic generous sporting example for the upcoming Juniors and made sure they all got a few points (just a few) but also made sure they worked their socks off to get them. Sophie also baked a beautiful Lemon-Chocolate cake for Mairead which was demolished by everyone outside the courts. Mairead also made sure there was plenty of fun for this older group – there was lots of treats and everyone also got a key-ring, Medal and cert. We finished up with a group photo of Mairead with the Juniors and it was very touching that Sophie and Caoimhe just didn’t want to leave HF and were hugging Mairead every chance they got right up to the last second.
A big thank you to Mairead and the coaches Cyril, Brendan & Bryan – a fantastic Junior Team – for another wonderful Junior season with lots of special memories and they went out on Saturday night with their partners for a nice meal and a few drinks in Jacobs to celebrate. Best of luck to all our Juniors and their parents over the summer break – keep playing squash throughout the summer and the Saturday Junior Squash sessions will return in September led by new Junior Officer Brendan Connolly.