Squash A Grade Mens 2020 champion Mitchell Bowden in front of the Cootamundra Squash Centre.
BThe Coota Squash Club held its annual championships with this year an A and B Grade Men’s, A Grade Women’s and the Boy’s and Girl’s junior competition taking place.
Mitchell Bowden took out the honours for the A Grade Men’s competition after a tight battle with Dan Robinson.
The pair have played each other previously on multiple occasions, including previous years of championship games and it showed as they were able to read each other’s game well.
Both players showed their strengths in power and touch as well as pace, to get around each corner of the court.
The grand final was decided in the fifth set 15-12 with many rallies involved in all sets, although the final score was 63-66 for Mitchell, he took home the chocolates and the ultimate bragging rights, as he won three sets to two.
Mitchell’s first time hitting the black ball was in 2015 where he was grateful to be mentored by the very experienced Graeme Johnson.
He then went on to win the B Grade Championships within the same year, then the A Grade the following year, and the B Grade in 2017.
Mitchell has never missed a beat for the racquet game competing every year and playing socially during the weekdays too.
With a background in soccer and cricket, Mitchell said squash at the Coota Squash Club helps keep his fitness up and gives him something to sweat about all-year round.
“It’s not about getting your name on the board. To me, squash is about exercising, being strategic and it’s a sport you will sweat in less than 30 minutes,” he said.
“Squash used to be very popular 30 years ago and it’d be good to see more young kids come down again and I would certainly encourage more people to come play. We welcome new faces!”
The A Grade Women’s, B Grade Men’s and Junior’s was played as a round robin format.
For the A Grade Women’s, it was a close contest with Wendy Bell taking the honours against Karen McMinn and Lynette Sargeant.
The B Grade Men’s saw Tom Large and Brad Shields go head-to-head in the final game, the pair threw everything they had at each other. Tom got over the line with his skill negating Brad’s drop shots.
Dylan Vivian went home champion for the boys and Ells Ricketts for the girl’s championships.
President Graeme Johnson said the juniors are the weakest section of the club and with recent interest being shown by local schools, he is hoping that numbers will increase across all sections especially in the years to come.
Christopher Tan
