We’re delighted to share the news of our recent success in squash, with our team making it through to the semi-finals of the National Schools Championships!
It is only fairly recently that squash has come back to the sporting programme at Bloxham. The school has had courts for many years, but had not played competitively for quite some time prior to 2019, when a squash team was re-established under the guidance of coach Mike Morris.
After a few years of slow and steady improvement, the 2022/23 season proved to be highly successful, with the team winning all but one game, beating schools such as Rugby, Bromsgrove, St Edward’s, Cheltenham and Stowe. This led to the school entering the national squash competition for U18 boys for the first time in 2023/24.
The team has been working hard to prepare for the national competition, in which they managed to come second in the regional round, finishing ahead of Stowe and John Hampden and moving the team through to the semi-finals.
The semi-final competition provided an exceptionally high standard of squash, in a very well contested and spirited competition. In a pool with Abingdon, Aylesbury Grammar School and Merchant Taylors, Bloxham finished third, with Aylesbury deservedly winning the group and progressing to the finals in Manchester.
This places the school team in the top twenty or so in the competition, which is a fantastic achievement for a sports programme that only started to progress in its current form five years ago. The whole squash squad deserve a great deal of credit for the progress they have made and we are also exceptionally grateful to our long standing coach Mike Morris and to his more recently appointed ally, Ed Selby-Lowndes.