England Come From Behind to Secure 11th Consecutive Title

England secured their 11th consecutive ESF European Mixed Team U19 Squash Championships title after coming from behind to beat France 2-1 in an entertaining final in Eindhoven, the Netherlands.

Top seeds England went into today’s match in strong form, having won 32 games and dropped just three as they overcame Belgium, Germany, Wales and Spain en route to the final.

The defence of their title, though, got off to a challenging start as Samuel Osborne-Wylde went down 3-2 to France’s Brice Nicolas in the opening match.

In a seesaw opener, the pair traded games, with Osborne-Wylde’s strong fundamentals well-matched by Nicolas’ attacking endeavour. When Osborne-Wylde levelled the match at 2-2 with a crushing fourth-game 11-1 win, momentum appeared to be with England. Nicolas, however, recovered admirably to give the French a one-match lead with an 11-4 fifth-game win.

With England facing an uphill task, Finnlay Withington put in a mature performance in the second match against Maceo Levy to reach parity.

After taking a competitive first game 11-9, Withington appeared in trouble in the second as Levy took a 9-5 lead. The Englishman, however, responded fantastically, upping the tempo and going on a six-point scoring spree to take a two-game lead with an 11-9 win, before levelling the final with an 11-7 win in the third.

After his win, Withington said: [I felt] no pressure or nerves going in and I backed Saran 100 percent if I won. The team has got on great and the chemistry has been unreal.”

At one match apiece, all the pressure was on Saran Nghiem in the decisive third match. The 18-year-old, though, showed no signs of nerves against Ninon Lemarchand, taking the first game 11-6 before a recording a dominant 11-3 in the second.

Although Lemarchand showed signs of recovery in the third game, Nghiem was able to hold her off to record an 11-7 win and deliver the championship for England.

Afterwards, Nghiem said: “There was complete focus for the match.” She added: “[I was a] bit nervous to start, but once I got going I was fine. The team dynamic has been great all week and I've really enjoyed it.”

Reflecting on the team’s performance, Head of England Potential Chris Ryder said: “I was really pleased with how we reacted to a bit of pressure after losing the first match and being 1-0 down. Finn and Saran showed a lot of mental strength to be clinical in their performances and it was an unbelievable experience for them to be under that much pressure in a European final.

“The team have done really well throughout and thoroughly deserve the gold medal. They’ve shown that the depth of English Squash at the moment is really good. They were pretty convincing all the way through to the final, with big contributions from every member of the team.”