2017 will long be remembered as the year that Squash at HABS came to the fore with the introduction of the HABS Junior and Middle School Championships. The Junior competition was open to boys, of any standard, in year 7 and 8, with the Middle School competition pitting boys in years 9 and 10. The response to the Championship was quite phenomenal with over 40 boys entering both competitions and after 8 weeks of matches, Wednesday 5th July saw the first ever Junior and Middle School Finals.

The Junior final saw Arjan (7S) play against Kabir (8H) in front of a packed out crowd at the Squash courts. Arjan came into the match as early favorite. He is ranked 25th in the country for his age group but Kabir, a talented racquet player, certainly gave as good as he got. Arjan took the first game in a hugely compelling contest but made light work of the second game. Kabir came back strongly in the third winning it to take the game to a fourth set. Unfortunately for Kabir, a number of unforced errors meant Arjan took an unassailable lead and clinched the match and the final in style.

The Middle School final was, on paper, too close to call. Rohan (10J2) had made it to the final beating two tournament favorites in the quarter final and semifinal, whilst Arjun (10R1) had a slightly easier route until the semifinal where he won 3-1 against Cleaver (10M1). The intensity of the final was quite remarkable and after nearly 40 minutes of toing and froing, Rohan came out victorious 3-2.

Congratulations to all the finalists and everyone that entered the competition.

Mr Cooper