Nottingham Junior Open: Three of Durham and Cleveland's top junior squash players were in action at the weekend in the Nottingham Junior Open.This competition being in the Midlands attracts the best junior players from around the Country and proved to be quite a test for our local juniors. Daniel Hockborn of Norton in the U11's, Josh Harris of Nunthorpe in the U15's and Norton's Laura Setterfield in the Girls U17's.

Daniel Hockborn continued his winning streak in fine style. He won all his matches 3-0 and was never troubled in any of his matches. This is his fourth open title of the season and his last in the U11 age group. Daniel will be stepping up to U13 level at the start of the season in September and will hopefully continue the start of the new 2004/05 season the way he finished the 2003/04 season.Daniel has proved he can play at this level quite comfortably and high hopes are expected of him in the future not only for his Club and County but Squash as a whole.From what we have seen this season from his performances, there is no reason why this young man with a lot of dedication can not go all the way in the world of Squash.

Josh Harris actually played in the U17 competition due to there being too many entrants for the U15 competition. This proved to be a tough test for Josh as he is still only 13 years of age. He performed very well and won 2 matches and lost 2 matches. Josh has improved tremendously over the last 12 months and this was evident in all his matches. He was playing much older competitiors but never looked out of his depth and am sure in time he will be playing them again in the near future only this time it should four out of four.

Norton's Laura Setterfield played local girl Heidi Walters in the first round of the U17 girls competition. Despite a partisan crowd, Laura was far too strong for her opponent and won comfortably 3-0. Her next match was against Emma Matthews from Surrey who is currently ranked 15 in England. Laura got off to a great start and won the first game 9-7. She then raced to a 7-3 lead in the second before being stopped in her tracks by a very resilient opponent who somehow managed to claw her way back into the game and take it 9-7. Laura then lost the third game 9-6 after an incorrect refereeing decision when she was 6- 5 up cost her a point. The fourth game was won comfortably 9-3 by Laura and her opponent now seemed very tired. All to play for in the fifth game with the winner going into the semi-finals to play England's Number 3 ranked player, Deon Saffrey. Unfortunately Laura got off to a bad start and was soon 5-1 down. Her opponent managing to muster some energy from somewhere. Laura tried to fight back but her opponent played some excellent winners and won the game 9-2.