The first ever ‘young and old’ squash doubles tournament was held recently at the Marsa Sports Club.

The event, created by Academy coach Paul Lake, was designed to help the squash section juniors at Marsa increase and improve their all-round squash skills.

Squash doubles requires an increase in control, a sharper awareness of when and where to hit the ball plus the obvious increase in reactions and speed.

Each junior was allowed to choose a senior player of their choice to be their partner and some interesting teams were put together.

All the matches played were extremely close fought with all the juniors’ showing extremely good control and demonstrating how much they have improved their skills and techniques over the last three months.

The final was played between Colette Sultana, who chose Academy coach Paul Lake to be her partner, and Mark Seychell who chose Colette’s father Robert Sultana as his partner.

Seychell and Sultana opted for an all out power approach in the final and tried to put Colette Sultana under as much pressure as possible.

Colette, however, has improved dramatically over the past three months and once again showed amazing composure for her age. With precise short play, good control and constant encouragement from Lake, the pair held the upper hand and defeated Seychell and Sultana senior to take the first doubles title of the season.