Another historic week for BVI Squash as Delilah Pease becomes the first ever BVI player to win the Canadian Junior Open

The BVI Squash Racket Association, with support from the BVI Olympic Committee, took a team of 4 of its strongest juniors to Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada for the 2024 Canadian Junior Open Championships, December 7-10. 

The prestigious event within the squash world saw just under 400 juniors competing in categories ranging from Under 11 to Under 19. 

BVI Junior Squash Team

The BVI junior squash team comprised Oliver Henderson (Boys U19), Danny Henderson (Boys U17), Jakob Noblett-Diaz (Boys U13) and Delilah Pease (Girls U11) accompanied by National Squash Coach Adam Murrills.

All the players delivered strong performances throughout the competition, collectively winning 15 of 23 matches. 

Oliver Henderson won 2 of 5 matches, Danny won 3 of 5 while Jakob won an impressive 5 of 7 matches claiming the Plate 1c competition. 

Delilah Pease historic win

Delilah Pease played impressively from her first round on wards. In the last 16, she played Naomi Kim, a very strong Canadian opponent, in what was a very close encounter in which she fought back from 1-0 and 7-3 down. This fighting spirit was something she would need to call upon later in the event.

Delilah won both her quarter final and semi final 3-0 to move into the final where she was up against Eugenia Cao, the number 2 ranked player in Canada. Eugenie came out strong in the first game and used her speed, low kills, and boasts to great effect to take the first game 11-7.

Eugenie is a left hander and, between games, Coach Adam and Delilah spoke about the importance of targeting Eugenie’s backhand particularly deep in the court. They also spoke about making sure Delilah’s serve hit the side wall to make it tougher for Eugenie to get in to the rallies. 

Delilah took the advice on board and came out firing. She was hitting with purpose to the back of court and was managing to exploit Eugenie’s slight weakness deep on her backhand side. Delilah constructed her points intelligently and won games 2 and 3 to take a 2-1 lead. 

Eugenie attacked game 4 with a renewed vigour and took the game to tie the match at 2-2 and force a 5th and final deciding game.

Competing on the glass court in a major final in front of a big crowd can be daunting and many 10 year olds would have let the occasion get the better of them. However, both Delilah and Eugenie handled the situation with great composure and a steeliness that belied their age. The two traded points back and forth. Eugenie managed to pull away slightly towards the end of the game to create a 10-8 lead and earn herself 2 Championship balls. Delilah used her aforementioned fighting spirit to claw her way back to 10-10 and force a tie break. Delilah took a deep breath, steadied herself, and went on to produce two more incredible points to claim the Canadian Junior Open Title.

In doing so she has made history for the BVI in becoming the territory’s first player to win the prestigious event.

“This win is testament to Delilah’s hard work, dedication, and complete love of the game,” said Coach Adam. “Hopefully this serves to spur on all of our juniors and show them what they are capable of achieving!

“Congrats to Delilah on creating history for BVI Squash and congrats to all our Elite players for constantly pushing their boundaries and raising the ceiling of BVI Squash!”

The BVISRA is based at the Tortola Sports Club which features state of the art courts. The venue hosts the BVISRA PSA tournaments and most recently hosted the 2024 Nagico and Interpath Junior Caribbean Squash Association (CASA) Championships.