Six boys from Cambridgeshire have returned from Sheffield after competing in the finals of the Boys’ Under 13s junior inter-county championships.

The boys had won through to the finals by beating teams from Oxfordshire, Warwickshire, and Lincolnshire. Facing them in Sheffield were teams containing some of the strongest juniors of their age in the country.

In the first round, Cambridgeshire lost narrowly (2-3) to Northumbria, seeded second.

In the second round, however, they had a nail-biting win (3-2) against Wales. The match was in the balance at 2-2 with only the second strings left to play. But Cambridgeshire’s Henry Milner came out on top in a hard-fought game played beneath a packed and noisy gallery, with both boys looking close to exhaustion at times.

In the last round, Cambridgeshire went down to a very impressive Middlesex team headed by the England no. 3, but still finished a very commendable sixth overall.

Led by Joshua Fillmore, one of the strongest juniors of his age in England, the Cambridgeshire boys play and train at a number of squash clubs in the county, including the City of Peterborough Squash and Racketball Club, Hunts County Squash Club, Swavesey Squash Club, St Ivo Rackets Club (Huntingdon), and Ely Squash & Leisure Club.

Team manager Martyn Goodger said: "Everyone in Cambridgeshire squash will be proud of how hard our boys battled on court and how well they supported each other during matches. You couldn’t have asked for a better team spirit."