Youngster excells in squash

Lyn Aitken
THE ninth annual Santam St Francis Bay Doubles Squash Tournament at the St Francis Bay Squash Club from Thursday, February16 through to Sunday, February 19 attracted 106 entries, of which more than 20 were from abroad.
A first for this year's event was the St Francis Bay Junior Championship also sponsored by Santam which took place on the Thursday.
Sea Vista development player, 17-year- old Marvin Adams took the trophy for this event and was presented with a Technifibre racquet and sports bag. Talented sportsman Adams is also the 2011 Talhado Children's Haven tennis singles champion and dreams of pursuing a career in sports management.
"We have been running a development programme at the club, led by Eric Stewart and Jenny Davies, for the past four years,” said tournament organiser, Peter Bridges.
"Through this tournament, the programme received a huge boost as two of South Africa's top squash coaches, Paul Atkinson and Mike Tootill, ran a coaching clinic for local coaches and development players alongside the tournament.”
The Santam Open tournament is run on a knock-out basis. All other categories are run on a Swiss pairing basis.
This year's Stewart Cup went to Kelvin Edwards from Cambridge Club in East London.
Coaches Atkinson and Tootill went on to win the Santam Open title with the Malcolm Lees Plate going to Geoff Stephens and Shaun Peterson of Port Elizabeth.