Mike Hopkins and Sarah Taylor: New Open Squash Champions

Mike Hopkins and Sarah Taylor are the new Island Open Squash champions.

Competing in the Bedell Group Jersey Open Squash Championships at St Clement at the weekend, Hopkins beat Rob Hickling in straight sets and, in a much closer contest, Taylor beat Kate Cadigan 3-2.

In the men’s event, both players began at a furious pace, but Hopkins turned on the pressure as the match progressed.  And, after two days of intense squash, and 50 minutes of fierce hitting in an absorbing final, he was awarded the title, and the trophy. It was also the first England Squash and Racketball sanctioned Jersey Open championship.

The women’s final proved to be a very different and far closer affair. For both Sarah Taylor and current Island Closed champion Kate Cadigan, firm friends away from the squash courts, seemed evenly matched and, in truth, that final could have gone either way.

However, Cadigan, seeded above her friend, should have realised how determined Taylor was after her unexpected 3-2 win over Guernsey’s Issey Norman-Ross, the No 1 seed, in her semi-final. Taylor said: ‘I can’t believe I’ve won. To beat Issey in the semis and then Kate in the final is a dream come true. I put in ten hard days of hard work with Nick [Taylor, director of Jersey Squash and Racketball] and on my own and it’s paid off.’