Junior Academy gain first win in the B League
StoneArt maintained their undefeated run in the top division with their maximum points win against Mid-Court-Crisis. Magnus Lamprecht and Hamish Thornton both had convincing 3-0 wins with the other three matches all going to five games. Alan McNair got the better of Mark Grace and Lyndon Cheetham beat Dave Hedley. The match of the night between top players Jason Blue and Malcolm Levy was very entertaining and demonstrated how the game should be played, with Blue eventually gaining the victory.
Crazies came up against Cannell Print in the other A league match and although they lost 4-1 the matches were close resulting in only two points difference between the teams before the 15 bonus points were added. Jon Shepherd and Oliver Wait won for Cannell at five and four while Mark Webster Smith took the only win for Crazies in a convincing three games. At second string Crazies’ Allister Crossley took Ben Peach to the full five games before succumbing to the younger players energy while Thom Whiteway had a good win against the higher ranked Ashley Sandyford-Sykes at one.
The B League threw up another 3-2 thriller as Outcasts edged past Racketeers Pioneers. Toby Woolard, Pat Russell and Stuart Highy gave the former an unassailable lead before the Racketeers’ top two, Rob Boyles and Dafydd Lewis, prevented the whitewash with hard-fought 3-2 wins of their own over Nathan Quilliam and Chris Cave respectively.
Island Tyres & Exhausts lost their undefeated record to Crowe Dragons in a very tight match. Dragon’s Jon Shepherd and Beth Jones enjoyed 3-0 and 3-1 wins respectively. Shaun Wyllie was the home team’s only winner and his fitness told in this match as he took the fourth and fifth games to single figures. The match-ups at number one and two were very close. The experienced Steve Baker narrowly lost 15-14 in the fifth game to Dragon James Martin while at two Shaun Callow went down 15-10 in the fifth game to Dave Hedley.
Junior Academy celebrated their first win of the season when they defeated Derivco Sharks. The juniors enjoyed good 3-0 wins courtesy of Oliver Wait, Christian Webster and Harvey Douglas. Alan McNair and Brian Cowley took the wins for Sharks, McNair with a good 3-0 victory over Oliver Williams. Cowley making his debut for Sharks had a real battle at fifth string against Ben Leith. This time experience triumphed over youth with Cowley eventually closing out the match 15-12 in the fifth and final game .
C league leaders Hansard Racketeers extended their unbeaten run with a 3-2 victory over Dohle Stars. All matches were completed within three games with Baillie Watterson, Joe Burrows and Lucy Kerr taking wins for Racketeers at the top end. Luke Tippet put on a stand out performance managing to win ten points in the third game against Watterson, a highly ranked player who has just returned to league squash after a long period out with injury. Dohle Stars Harry Douthwaite and David Maddrell had good wins at four and five respectively.
The Island Exhaust Vets came away with a 4-1 victory over Santander Racketeers Academy. The Vets top four players of Peter Sharples, Richard Cretney, Gerrit Du Toit and Lee Loughren all enjoyed good 3-0 wins, but Sharples had to work particularly hard against Fraser Dorling for his victory. Charlie Beard was the Racketeers only winner just getting the better of Phil Shaw in five very close games at fifth string.
Dandara Falcons and Buchanan and Pitts Misfits had a 3-2 thriller with only four points separating the two teams going into the deciding match. There were strong performances to get 3-0 wins by the Misfits Toby Woolard and Jay Dernie. However Falcons Julien Uzzell and Vusimbe Zivave evened up the match score up with 3-0 and 3-1 wins respectively. The third string players were on last in the deciding match between Jon Cox and Terry Holt with Holt overcoming Cox 3-1 in four close games to ensure victory for Misfits.
With many of the Juniors taking part in a squash competition in Manchester over the weekend, it was a struggle to get a full Junior Academy C team together, therefore Beth Jones and her dad Scott Jones Sr (making his league squash debut) had to step in. The Outcasts Dragons provided a strong team who were all able to take home a win, ending the night 5-0 to Dragons. This isn’t to say that their matches were easy for them, each game was very entertaining and there were some great examples of technical squash and improvement among the juniors.
The picture shows the Junior Academy team. Pictured from Left to Right Back Row – Pat Fitzpatrick (Coach), Richard Webster (Captain) and Oliver Wait. Left to Right Front Row – Christian Webster, Emma Leith and Isaac Quayle.