The Oxfordshire School Games took place across three venues: Oxford University Sports Complex Iffley Road, Magdalen College and Christchurch Sports Ground on 5th & 6th July.
The squash competition was a one day event, taking place at Oxford University Sports Complex on 5th July.
The day started with an exciting opening ceremony, where the children were treated to fantastic performances by Pegasus Street Dance group and football freestyler Billy Wingrove. Karen Pickering MBE, Great Britain’s most successful Olympic swimmer, gave an inspirational speech before the children were led to their sports venues by African drummers.
Two schools took part in the squash competition – King Alfred’s and Cherwell. As some of the children were completely new to squash, Helen Peachey taught the children the basics.
Helen, helped by 6 Oxford Academy Young Leaders, taught the schoolchildren the rules of squash, how to serve and a number a shots through various drills and fun games. The children also played three quarter court to get them used to playing competitively.
After a short break for lunch, the competition started. The squash competition was played as a round robin PAR to 9 and best of 3 games, so everyone got the chance to play against each member of the other team. This allowed the children to put their newly learnt skills into practice with lots of competitive play.
There was some excellent squash being played with some very close matches, one game even went to 12-10. After an intense, fun-filled afternoon of squash King Alfred’s School were crowned the winners.
A big thank you to the Young Leaders who worked very hard, marking matches non-stop all afternoon and making sure the competition ran smoothly.