Sharks Lead B league by One Point as Squash Resumes

Sharks Lead B league by One Point as Squash Resumes

The IOMSRA squash season resumes on Monday 8th February after a temporary break due to the ‘circuit breaker’ lockdown. The B league managed to squeeze in three matches on the Monday evening before lockdown which resulted in Sharks gaining the top spot with just one point more than Outcasts.

The Racketeers Pioneers kicked off the new year with only their second victory of the B League campaign. The Pioneers edged past the Argosy Junior Academy 3-2, 228/206 to pick up the win. Daf Lewis’s return to the side after slipping out of the island’s top 25 proved a late Christmas gift for the second-tier strugglers as he beat the Juniors’ newly promoted number one Christian Webster 3-1. Marc Taggart and Baillie Watterson secured the Racketeers’ other two wins, the latter the match’s decisive second string encounter with Harvey Douglas. Isaac Quayle and Emma Leith were the youngsters’ victors, the latter beating C League sparring partner Andy Brown in four at fifth string.

Autumn B league winners Outcasts got the Winter B league off to  good start with a 4-1 win over Crowe Dragons. Chris Cave, Liam Davies and Peter Ginty all secured maximum points with 3-0 wins, while Mark Henson beat Dragons captain Darren Smethurst 3-1. Stephen Pitts was the Dragons only winner in a tremendous five game battle with Pat Russell which he eventually took 3-2 to prevent the whitewash. 

The Sharks got off to a good start dropping just 1 point in their 4-1 victory over Island Tyres & Exhausts. Sharks captain Dave Freer and former captain Peter Baker both gained 3-0 wins. Dave O’Neill and Mark Stratford both dropped games against their opponents but managed to make it 4-0 to the Sharks. Shaun Wyllie took the only win for his team as he and Douglas Jacobsson had a marathon 5 game match with the former winning the final game 15-12. Special mention must go to Lance Wyllie who made his league debut and managed to add 23 points to his teams total. 

The NSC reopened to the public on Monday 1st February which allows players to try to get back to a pre circuit breaker level of performance with a weeks practice before the IOMSRA season resumes. The plan is to play 6 weeks of league fixtures before the Easter holiday when we will have a 2 week break. These 6 weeks of league fixtures will be divided by the Elites and Masters Tournaments. The Elites Tournament is restricted to the 16 best ranked players that enter the tournament whereas the Masters is for over 40s, over 50s and over 60s players. 

The season resumes after the Easter break with another 4 rounds of league fixtures. In the middle of these 4 rounds the premier event of the IOMSRA season will take place, the IOMSRA Championships. This event is restricted to players who represent the Isle Of Man or are residents on the island. It will take place in the week commencing Monday 26th April with the final scheduled for the last day of April.

The season will finish in the week commencing Monday 24th May with the Steve Gaylor Memorial Graded Tournament. 

In addition the SRA Cup will be played on Saturday 20th February. This is a team event and is played as a ‘Blitz’ tournament that utilises handicapping to ensure that every team that enters has a chance of making the winners podium.