Three LDS members made the trek up to Edgbaston to compete in the Edgbaston Priory Graded Squash Competition, Ramon Sharma, Kurran Sharma and myself. Curate's egg seems the most appropriate description of the performances - good in places. The facilities were outstanding with 10 courts, clay and grass tennis courts an indoor pool and a very busy outdoor pool and leisure area, along with the obligatory bar and gym.

Kurran (pictured left) performed very well to get to the final on the F Grade showing great resilience and fitness winning one of his group matches 3-2 on a very impressive show court. He fell just short in the final going down to an incredibly talented and precocious 10 year old (who it later transpired is the son of a professional as on court as often as 3 times a week!). Kurran said, "It was great to come here and see players like Joel Hinds play at such close quarters. I was pretty pleased with my performance in getting to the Final."

Kurran's dad, Ramon, (pictured left) recovered from a potentially soul-destroying 3-0 defeat in his first match in D Grade, having been awarded a bye in the first round, to despatch another precociously talented 14 year old, 3-1 to make it to the plate final. Ramon made few mistakes in winning the final and said afterwards, "It's great to come to places like this and challenge yourself rather than play the same people all the time. You see some great squash at the higher grades and you can't help but be inspired by that."

I had to travel up on the Saturday to play my 1^st round game and had to concentrate hard on the job in hand when confronted by what seemed like just another in an endless stream of talented youngsters. My return with the Sharmas on Sunday saw me paired with Ramon in the second round and then onto the final. It was a titanic struggle, on the positive side I did fight back from 2-0 to take it to a 5^th, but having been well ahead on the 1^st and losing the second in a tie-break, I should have been home and hosed before it came to that and I was left disappointed losing the 5^th 11-9.

In summary, 3 entrants, 3 trophies isn't a bad return for the club, but I for one was left feeling that it was a great opportunity let slip to win a Grade and move up to the next one.

These Graded events take place regularly, so keep an eye out on the website for future opportunities to take part and mix with the wider squash community.