The Northumbria County Closed 2025 is being held at Tynemouth Squash Club from Tuesday 21st to Sunday 26th January. The latest status of each event is published on this site here.

There have been 52 entries in the Men's graded (A to D) events, 11 in the Women's event, 24 in total across four Masters age groups (O45, O55, O65 and WO40), 11 for Racketball and approximately 10 Doubles pairings, with plate events for first match losers.

In the Men's A event, top seed Michael Mattimore (Northern) is favourite to claim his fourth consecutive title. Michael is seeded to meet 13 times former champion Dave Barnett (Northumberland Club) at the semi-final stage, with second seed and twice former champion Liam Gutcher (Newcastle University) expected to meet Cai Younger (Northern) at the same stage.

In the Women's Senior, in the absence of the 2023 and 2024 champion Hannah Cliff through injury, Kim Hay (Northumberland Club) returns as top seed seeking a title she has won three times previously, in 2008, 2009 and 2010! If seedings go to plan, Kim will face Emily King (Newcastle University) in the semi-final, with the other semi-final likely to be an all Northumberland Club affair between second seed Lizzie Little and Emma Turnbull.

The top seeds in the other graded events are:

B - Richard Bradley (Tynemouth) and Tom Beresford (Chester-le-Street)

C - Ari Karki and Tom Allan (both Tynemouth)

D - John McLean (Tynemouth) and Chris Sharp (Northumberland Club)

Meanwhile in the Masters events, Simon Long (Eldon) defends the O45 title which he took last year from top seed and five times former champion Peter McCleod (Sunderland). In the O55 event, Richard Bradley (Tynemouth) and John Armstrong (Newbiggin) are the top seeds, and Steve Ross (Concordia) defends his O65 title against top seed John Thompson (Tynemouth).

Racketball will have a new champion again this year, with Kim Hay the top seed.

In the Doubles event, Peter McCleod and Simon Cliff are expected to be back and seeking to regain the title they last won in 2021, and there are many first-time pairings so Saturday evening could be unpredictable.

All are welcome to attend throughout the tournament. The trophies will be presented following the completion of the finals on Sunday evening.

For any queries please contact:

Steve Cubbins (steve@cubbins.com)