Jill is Welsh Masters Champion for 3rd time

Jill Campion, who lives in Bix and plays squash at Henley Leisure Centre, where the Henley Squash Club is based, won her age category at the 2024 Karakal Welsh Masters Closed Championship for the third consecutive year.

Campion’s age category included other, highly experienced Welsh international masters players. She needed her famous lob serves and touch shots to be working on the hot courts at Rhiwbina Squash Club where the tournament was held. In the semi-final she was able to do this, outmanoeuvring former Welsh number one Sian Johnson 3-0 in a match that was tougher than the score suggests. The final was against Lynne Davies – a repeat of the European Masters final last year in Hamburg. With her lob serves compromised by a lower ceiling, Campion was unable to dominate and Davies’ soft game combined with her excellent retrieval resulted in a cracking and very close match, which Campion just won 12-10, 9-11, 12-10, 11-8.

Speaking after her win Jill commented: “I beat Lynne relatively comfortably in Hamburg at the Europeans, but this match was totally different. Lynne was faster, and more disruptive in her approach. I struggled to find my rhythm but managed to win the key points that mattered thanks mainly to the Gevolution Squash training method I have been using for the past six months. Hopefully this win will stand me in good stead for the British National Masters Championship which takes place next week in Nottingham.”

“Winning the Welsh title means a lot to me as my mother represented Wales for many years and I was born there. However, when I started playing masters squash aged 35 I was asked to play for England and continued representing the country until 2019. With no international matches taking place 2019 – 2022, I met the World Squash Federation’s three year rule for changing representative country. In 2022, the first time I was able to play for Wales, we won the Home International Tournament (England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland) at my age group for the first time. You can imagine the emotion.”