Jill clinches 5th British Masters Title

Hot on the heels of her recent victory at the Welsh Squash Masters Championships, Jill Campion, who plays squash at Henley’s Better Leisure Centre, has won her age category in the iPROSPORTS British National Masters Squash Championships, the fifth time she has won the title.

The tournament, which was held at the nine court Nottingham Squash Rackets Club, attracted over 250 participants in age categories ranging from over 35 to over 65 for women and over 35 to over 80 for men. In her semi-final Campion, who was second seed, played Lynne Davies, a re-run of the Welsh Masters final. This time Campion dominated from the start, varying the pace and taking the pace off the ball and won comfortably 3-0.

On the other side of the draw Karen Hume had a similarly comfortable semi-final. Campion and Hume both have masters world, European and national titles under their belt. As is often the case, it was a high quality match. In the first game Hume used hard, low balls to the back of the court, with Campion taking the ball early and using variety to counter-attack where possible. However, Hume dominated, winning the first game 11-9.

Hume continued to dominate in the second game, with Campion clearly struggling to find a way back in to the match. At 1-7 down she seemed to find her stride, outpacing Hume on tight drives and intercepting more on the volley. She managed to draw back to 7 all, but lost that game 8-11.

Campion was now looking more comfortable and confident but at 0-2 down, there was no margin for error. “I found my game plan during that second game, so I went back on the the third with a different mind set. My lob serves started going well which immediately forced loose balls from Karen. I was hunting for volleys, playing them short when I could, and I tried to keep Karen guessing. Once I got a reasonable lead in the third my shots were flowing. I was able to maintain this during the next two games, which followed a similar pattern. I was thrilled to win. Karen and I tend to have highly competitive matches which can go either way.

“I would like to thank my training partners at the Henley Squash Club, which is based at Better Leisure, Henley, and Tony Griffin’s Gevolution Squash method which has helped me so much in the six months I have been working with him.”

Campion won 9-11, 8-11, 11-4, 11-5, 11-8.