After months of planning, and a fantastic build-up with the Kent Squash Festival, the Kent Open is about to begin.
Players flew in today from various parts of the w
orld, including Egypt, Malaysia, Turkey, Holland, Russia, India .... and Yorkshire!
They were glad to have a hit on the Mote courts before checking in at the Grange Moor Hotel, with Alam Soliman treating his Egyptian guests to a Cairo barbecue in his back garden (cooked by his son Mo).
Qualifying starts today (Tuesday) with the draw at 4pm and play beginning at 5.15pm, with the professionals joined by locals Neil Baker (Rodmersham) and The Mote's Jonny Powell and James Evans.
The qualifying finals are tomorrow, with four places up for grabs in the main draw on Thursday, where Ben Ford is seeded No.8 and Wild Card Steven London is looking forward to his PSA debut against Irish No.1 John Rooney.
As always, it was interesting to watch the Egyptians and Malaysians warming up and seeing so many different styles of hitting a squash ball.
Our old buddy Issa Kamara, from Sierra Leone, is now based in Turkey and he joins the hopefuls in qualifying. He is seeded seven after the withdrawal of No.2 qualifying seed Oliver Pett from Sussex.
The main draw begins on Thursday with the first round, with the Quarter-Finals on Friday, the Semi-Finals on Saturday and the Final on Sunday.
This is the biggest project ever undertaken by the Kent SRA, in conjunction with England Squash and Racketball and The Mote Squash Club, and we hope that the gallery will be packed with Kent squash enthusiasts every day.
The courts are looking immaculate and the club is decked out with signage generously donated by Tom Woods from Autowrap.
Our sponsors include Harrow Rackets and we are pleased to see a large number of Harrow players in both the qualifying competition and main
draw.
BRING IT ON!