We wrapped up an exicting week of squash at Tynemouth, and have crowned the 2026 Northumbria County champions!

Men's A

The Men’s final was one of the best in recent memory, with top 2 seeds Michael Mattimore and Liam Gutcher, holding 6 titles between them, facing off in a repeat of last year.

Michael had earlier seen off the challenge from up-and-coming Duncan Rutherford in the first semi-final, with Liam once again overcoming old adversary and 12-times county champion Dave Barnett in the other semi.

In the final, both players gave maximum effort, and were level after 2 games, but Michael charged to a 2-1 lead after an 11-1 win in the 3rd. The 4th game ramped up with both playing at a ferociously fast pace, a game ball opportunity came and went for Liam, then one championship ball saved by Liam at 11-10, but Michael made no mistake with his 2nd – rolling a perfectly measured boast into the nick to take his 5th title on the bounce! Michael is now level on wins with the late, great John Dale.

Women's

4-time, and reigning, champion Kim Hay took on 2nd-time finalist Harriet Wight, who returned to the women’s showpiece match after a 2 year abscence.

In the semi-finals, Kim had overcome Emily King and Harriet had come through a tough 4-set match against Shae Paterson.

In the final, after going 1-0 up, Kim found herself several points down in the 2nd, after some great play from Harriet, but Kim managed to claw her way back to win it 12-10. Kim’s momentum carried on into the 3rd, and she claimed title number 5 by 3 games to nil, moving her to 3rd in the all-time women’s champions leaderboard!

Men's B

In an all Chester-le-Street final, number 1 seed Steve Fountain and defending champion Tom Beresford fought out a titanic battle full of epic rallies, Steve recovering from 2-0 down to eventually triumph 11-8 in the 5th and take Tom's crown.

Men's C

Wildcard entrant Will Brocklehurst, the latest product of the very successful Northern junior programme, ploughed through all opposition to reach the final, where he outplayed Joel Birch-Machin to take the C title. Joel had earlier defeated Will's dad Dave, the number 1 seed, in the semi-final to prevent an all-Brocklehurst final, but against Will had no answers!

Masters

In the Men’s O45 final, Eric Mok beat top seed and 2024 champion Simon Long 3-1 in the opening round to set up a final with teammate Richard Bradley who beat Tom Allan. Eric continued the upsets and beat Richard in a gutsy performance, winning 3-1, with 2 matches going to a tie breaker, and took his inaugural MO45 title!

In the Men’s O55, current champion Richard Bradley held his nerve after going 1-0 down, and beat Rob Black 3-1 to retain his title.

2-time champion Steve Ross was unable to mount a title defence, opening the door to a new MO65 champion this year. Top seed John Ord took the chance with both hands, beating county chair John Thompson 3-0 in a well matched final to win his first MO65 title!

In a brand new event this year, Geoff Brindle and Bob Graham contested the MO75 final, with Brindle winning the inaugural title 3-0!

Doubles

Northern youngsters Duncan Rutherford & Sam Tufton took the doubles event by storm, topping their group without dropping a game to advance to the semi-finals, where they beat 2015 county champion pairing Marcus Campbell & Simon Long. In the best-of-3 final they faced Jamie Chalcraft & Chris Garner, who pushed the pair to a sudden-death in the 2nd, but the juniors pulled through to be our 5th new doubles champions in as many years!

Racketball

In the Racketball final, the 2024 and 2025 champions locked horns, and it was Alex Cahill who convincingly came out on top, beating the holder Kim Hay 2-0 (11/5 – 11/1). Alex becomes only the 3rd person in county closed history to win multiple Racketball titles!

Plates

As always, there were plate events for the 1st-round losers. The plate final results were as follows:

A Plate: Matt Hardy 3-0 Harry Little (11-5 / 11-9 / 11-8)

Women’s Plate: Emma Rowell 3-2 Amy Rowell (11-9 / 5-11 / 11-7 / 8-11 / 15/13)

B Plate: Adam Coates w/o Ethan Brown

C Plate: Steve Brown 3-0 Paul O’Connor (11-6 / 11-8 / 11-5)

Racketball Plate: Joel Birch Machin 3-0 Steve Cubbins (11-4 / 11-5 / 13-11)

MO45 Plate: Tom Allan w/o Simon Long

MO55 Plate: Peter Thompson 3-1 Stuart Mitchell (11-9 / 11-4 / 7-11 / 11-5)

MO65 Plate: Tim Gorman w/o Steve Ross

Congratulations to all the winners, runners-up and everyone who participated in the tournament and a huge thank you once again to Tynemouth for hosting and to Steve Cubbins, Louise Robertson, Dave Armstrong and all those who volunteered their time to make this tournament a success.