The carefree youth of C’Chartres Squash

They have baby faces. And the carelessness of their 20s. Nurtured by their coach Denis Bourret from an early age, C’Chartres Squash players are starting a new season in National 3 as part of the French team championship.

5th last year

A race with a particular flavor for Mathias de la Colina, leader and youngest of the Chartres team, 15 years old: “The team is a different picture from France. There’s less at stake but that doesn’t stop me from playing every match thoroughly,” said the teenager Guillaume Duquesnoy, the 39th French player, beaten dry by Le Havrais on Saturday. While awaiting his next departure for Philadelphia, where he will play his first US Open (December 14-21), Mainvillois, 5th in his age category in the national ranking, nonetheless contributed to the first two successes of the Chartrain quartet (and his two substitutes) in the league, ahead of Tours and then Le Havre (3-1).

Despite an unrivaled average age in N3, the “Chartraine nuggets”, 5th in the previous year, don’t intend to make complexes against the fierce players they will meet in the next three days (see opposite). In the foreground are the play-offs for access to N2: “It’s true that in the beginning the matches against expert players who didn’t necessarily have a very academic style disturbed us a lot. But it’s getting better and better as the years go by,” notes “expert” Jules Grison, 18, who attended the club’s squash school, as did most of his younger partners, all aged 15 to 19. (except Baptiste Franchet, 26 years old).

If the ages are homogeneous in the squad, the state of form is not necessarily so: “My ranking is not significant: I play very little because I’m injured. But besides keeping fit, meeting my friends at the club is always a joy. With a great atmosphere since we’ve known each other since we were little,” says Titouan Bonnin, from Nogent-le-Phaye.

The French elite championships will take place in Chartres

Denis Bourret, who teaches them the art of this sport as spectacular as it is demanding, confirms: “I happen to think about it. A decade ago, when they arrived at the clubhouse, they were as tall as three apples. Today we play on the same team! “The truculent patriarch laughs, a little moved. If his colts demonstrate that value does not wait for the number of years, the former French number 58 does not hesitate to take over the racket when the context requires it, even at the cost of “giving a blow” to the average age of the team, at 46: “The priority is still training, from the start,” adjusts Bourret, winner of his Touraine counterpart Benoît Frelon, on Saturday (3-0). With his protégés, he will be back on the pitch during the next trip to Nantes on 3 December. With his young wolves, they will martyr the little black ball once again. As well as their opponents?

David Berthelem