IT was the first time Wycliffe Prep School had entered the tournament as a squad of players and everyone was very excited.

Those going had committed to squash over the two terms and shown sufficient improvement to warrant selection for the tournament.

Leading them was Nathan Mead, who the weekend before had reached the final of the English National Championships so was going into the IAPS Tournament as a firm favourite.

We departed at 6.30am and first up were the group stages.

For many of them this was the biggest tournament they had played in.

Jamie Randall and Millie Radford both struggled in the girls’ event but they have another year left of training.

In the boys’ event Robbie Denning and Monty Lewis played well giving of their best but found the opposition too strong.

By the end of the day it was only Charlie Lister, Ben Richards and Nathan Mead still in with a chance of progressing to the knock out stages.

Unfortunately, neither could qualify, although Ben missed out by a single game.

It was then left to Nathan to continue his dominant form against the competition from all over the country.

Meanwhile the doubles competition had started and with Nathan partnering Ben, they had a good chance of winning.

After some down time in a water park on the Tuesday evening, everyone was set for a big Wednesday in which we still had a chance to win two titles.

On the Wednesday, Nathan and Ben progressed to the final of the doubles where they came up against Holmewood House Prep School.

The first two games were shared but then both Ben and Nathan went up a gear to close out the match 3.1 and win the title.

It was then down to Nathan to complete the double.

He came up against the number 13 in the country in the final and whilst it was closer than the coaches would have liked, Nathan ran out a 3.0 winner to become the IAPS champion.

This rounded off a great three days and we look forward to returning next year to try and retain the titles.