Inverness squash player claims hat-trick winning Scottish championship for third time
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
Inverness squash player Alasdair Prott is looking to break into the world’s top 100 after retaining his Scottish Under-23 title.
Prott became the national age group champion for the third year in-a-row after a dominant showing in Glasgow last week.
Getting a bye through the opening round as top seed, Prott eased past James Newman 11-1, 11-1, 11-0 in his first action of the competition.
He also recorded a straight sets victory over Harry Barron in the quarter finals, winning 11-7, 11-7, 11-2.
If anything, he was even more impressive in the semi final, again prevailing in straight sets but this time with more comfortable winning margins of 11-3, 11-4, 11-2.
The final, against third seed Rory Richmond, threatened to be a much closer affair.
Prott actually lost the opening game 9-11, but came back strongly to win the second 11-3.
Richmond tried to fight back but Prott still took the third 11-9, which possibly was the breaking point for his opponent as Prott would seal the title by taking the final set 11-3.
The tournament has cemented the Highlander as one of the top young players in the country, soon after making his World Team Championship debut in December.
That was a landmark moment for Prott, and he has high hopes once again for 2024 as he looked to climb to a career-best world ranking.
“Top 100 is definitely still an ambition of mine and hopefully it’s on the cards this year,” Prott told the Scottish Squash website.
“I was getting close but then some other people had some good results and that pushed me down a bit further, so I’m looking to go a few better this year.”
Prott was not the only Highland representation at the National Under-23 Championships, with Natalie Main – also from Inverness – taking part in the women’s draw.
With fewer entrants this was played under a different format, as everyone played each other in a round-robin to crown the overall champion.
Main would come up against some tough opposition, not in the least eventual winner Robyn McAlpine who did not drop a set across the whole tournament.
The level of competition, then, did show in Main’s results.
However, victory against Ella Bannister was enough to earn Main a fourth-place finish, and she would push third-place Beth Moglia all the way in their clash too.
