Scot Mortimer wins final of U15 Southern District championship in 1975.......Squash

Scot Mortimer

The Makarewa Squash Club's juniors were showing off their skills at the Southern District junior championships in 1975. All the players reached finals including Invercargill's Mark Brayshaw, which made it seven juniors in total.  The president, Mr Don Green said he was most impressed with the Southlanders, who showed a lot more skill than any other area.

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The success of the championships had revealed the intense coaching regime that had been undertaken by these players.  The Makarewa Club realised that the coaching of juniors were instrumental in the club being stronger in future years. 
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Scot Mortimer beat the top seed in his section, Dunedin's Grant Utteredge in a great five set battle in the semi-final and then went on to win the final without dropping a set.
The Makarewa lad had a wide range of shots and his court skills were added to by a tremendous will to chase the ball.
Casey O'Brien and Paddy O'Brien, brothers, played some find squash but a lack of experience cost them chances in the search the the under 19 and under 17 titles.
Casey O'Brien won the U19 plate final in straight sets after being knocked off the second championship round by the second seed in four sets.
Younger brother, Paddy went through to the semi finals of the under 17 championship before going down to the top seed, also in four sets.  Both brothers played very well to get as far as they did and more experience at this level will obviously improve their play immensely.
Two other Southlanders, Noel Crosswell of Makarewa and Mark Brayshaw of Invercargill fought out the final of the under 15 plate, with Brayshaw having a cooler approach to win in three sets.
Peter Henderson of  Makarewa lost the final of the under 15 consolation plate while his brother, David Henderson lost the final of the classic plate in the same age group.

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