"A great weekend of squash was on display at Glan Yr Afon this weekend, a big thank you to all who made it to play. The weather was on the cold side all weekend but that didn't hamper any of the squash, we had 10 different clubs represented at the competition and the feedback from many was a very positive one.
Winner of the 'B' Grade competition was Steve Hewell of Cwmbran beating club team mate and no.1 seed Nigel Wrench 3 - 1 in the final. Plate final saw Nathan Griffiths of Cwmbran beat Peter Bradwick of Cwmbran 3 - 0.
Winner of the 'A' Grade competition was Tej Singh of Monmouth beating Greg Dainty of UWIC 3 - 0 in the final, the two of the finalists both scraped through tough semi finals 3 - 2 earlier in the day. Plate Final saw Dave Powell beat Joel Gould of Aberdare 3 - 2.
A big thank you again to all who made it to play or support the competition, a big thank you also to Dave Powell of Kapow Photography who not only played his way to wining the 'A' Plate but took a number of great photos over the weekend."
Glan-yr-Afon Open 2010
The Wedding Photography business this time of year in South Wales is obviously slower than in the summer months but here at Kapow photography we keep ourselves busy by working as event photographers with different events and occasions across South Wales. This weekend I shot the Glan-yr-Afon Open. A knockout squash tournament held in Cwmbran at the newly refurbished courts at the Glan-yr-Afon Leisure Club.
This was the first squash tournament that I'd photographed and right away I realized that this was going to be a challenging assignment as not only was I photographing the event but also playing in it also! Although the squash courts themselves were perfectly lit the spectator area has to be dark, combine this with the fact that I was taking photographs of fast moving players, through the glass backed courts and you can see where the difficulty lay. Obviously flash photography wasn't an option so I had to improvise.
Luckily I had a very fast lens with me in the Canon L series 24-70 f2.8 and this meant I could speed up the shutter and still get enough light in the camera to capture some pleasing shots.
The Tournament itself was a fantastic event and I feel vindicated in the fact that I've now moved to Cwmbran to play for the Glan-yr-Afon next season.
Thanks to Damien, Nigel, Tim and Brett for putting on a superb event and offering such a warm welcome to all that played.
Opposite is a short blog by tournament organizer Damien Burgess.