Lee Leads England's Attack In World Junior
Surrey 16-year-old Joe Lee has been selected to lead England in the Prince Men's World Junior (U19) Team Squash Championships next month in New Zealand.
Lee, the England U19 No1 from West Molesey, will be joined in the squad by Chris Tasker-Grindley, 18, from Cheltenham in Gloucestershire; Tom Pashley, 18, from near Haywards Heath in Sussex; James Snell, 18, from Exeter in Devon; and Adrian Waller, 16, from Enfield in Middlesex.
The 14th Men's World Junior Team Championships take place in Palmerston North in New Zealand from 23-28 July, immediately following the World Individual Junior Championship which gets underway on Sunday 16 July. England have won the team title four times, the last time in 2000, and have reached the final on five further occasions.
"We will be under a lot of pressure at these championships, where defending champions Pakistan will be strong, and Egypt, led by the defending individual champion and world No20 Ramy Ashour, are also likely to be seeded ahead of us. But we have a talented young squad who are extremely well-prepared," said England Squash High Performance Coach David Campion.
"As we have seen in previous championships - where our preparation is strong and our team spirit is high, we will be difficult to beat," added Campion.
Joe Lee, the British National U17 champion, was the only English finalist in the British Junior Open Championships in January – reaching the U17 climax. Lee is coached at St George's Hill club in Weybridge by his father Danny Lee, himself a former England junior international.
Tasker-Grindley, the 2004 British National U17 champion, reached the European Junior Championship semi-finals in April, against his seeding. This will be the second World Junior Championships' appearance for Pashley, the 2003 British National U15 champion, who also played in the 2004 event in Pakistan.
James Snell, the 2000 British National U13 champion, won the Welsh Junior Open crown earlier this year.
Adrian Waller is also 16 and, like Lee, will be eligible to compete in the 2008 World Junior Championships in Switzerland. The British U13 National champion in 2002 and the U15 champion two years later, Waller can also boast England appearances in the European U15 championships in 2004 and the European U17 championships in 2005 and 2006.