A League:
This week saw the top two teams in the A League compete against each other. Cannell Print made a good start to the match with Thomas Whiteway and Damien Loughrey taking 3-0 wins over Jason Crease and Daffyd Lewis of Team Aon respectively. Rob Colquitt earned a 3-1 victory for Cannell Print over Fraser Dorling. Mason McLarney picked up some consolation points for Team Aon with a 3-0 win over Ben Peach.
The Global Monetary Solutions Junior Academy team won their first match of the season when they defeated Stone Art Squash Team. None of the matches were won in straight games with Pat Fitzpatrick and Richard Cretney dropping a game each on their way to wins for the Juniors. Doug Jacobsson mirrored the score line on his victory for Stone Art. The match of the night was between the Juniors Harvey Douglas and Toby Woolard. Douglas continues to improve with every match and only just lost to the higher ranked Woolard after 5 close games. With the match score 2 each but the games score 9-8 to the Juniors, the Juniors claimed the additional 4 bonus points for a match win.
Thursday also saw an under powered Josh’s Jaguars take on a full team from Crazy Billions with an early win from Mike Fernandez and a strong performance from Lance Whyllie, the Jaguars pushed it to the wire before losing on a games count-back.
B League:
The renamed MES Mavericks went up against a determined Outcasts squad last week. Outcasts’ Peter Sharples held his nerve in a tight first game to pull ahead against Clare Townsend, who then couldn’t overcome his lead. Peter won 3-0. At fourth string, Outcasts’ Peter Ginty pulled it back from two games down, cleverly changing strategy to outwit Dasa Brynjolffssen and taking the match 3-2. Rick Hayley and Maverick’s Dave Hedley played a tight match at 3rd string, with Rick emerging victorious, 3-1. Outcasts’ Mark Henson played some feisty points to muscle his way back into the match at second string, having found himself a game down against Magnus Lamprecht, and eventually won 3-1. At first string, Chris Walton from the Mavericks kept his cool and took a 3-0 victory. A well played fixture from the Outcasts, who won the match overall 4-1.
The second set of matches in the B league were between Derivco Sharks and Racketeers Pioneers. This was a match of two halves with Racketeers winning the two top order strings and Derivco Sharks winning the match by taking the lower order strings. Alan Macnair made a return to league squash after an injury break, although Fraser Dorling got the better of him for Racketeers. Also winning for Racketeers,Dafydd Lewis extended his unbeaten run in the B league against Allister Crossley. At 3rd String David Freer beat Baillie Waterson in 4 games, Douglas Jacobsson beat Marc Taggart by the same margin, whilst Dave O’Neill beat James Leith in 3 games. The result keeps Derivco Sharks at the top of the table after 4 rounds.
C League:
In the C league, Buchanan & Pitts Misfits took on the Global Monetary Solutions Junior Team.
First up, Elliott Henson of Misfits playing at 4 won all 3 games against the young Robbie Lapsley, who is improving week by week. There were similar outcomes at both number 3 and number 2 ranks. At number 3, Patric Russell’s (Misfits) experience helped overcome a determined Christina Cruz (Juniors). At number 2, Misfits’ Ian Barnes had to work to beat Harrison Callow (Juniors). Chris Gledhill, who was placed at number 5 for Buchanan & Pitts Misfits, was unmatched on the night due to the Juniors’ player shortage and so Gledhill took all 3 points. At the top of each team Misfits Dasa Brynjolffssen took on Callum Larkin. Dasa won the first game but Larkin came back in the second to claim a point for Juniors . However Dasa then won the next two games. Final score was 5-0 to Misfits.
Crazy Jack’s could only field a 4 man squad this week so were already one match down. Matt Ripley, Darren Smith, Tom Barker and Tek Min Ewe put up a valiant effort against Island Exhaust Vets’ Pete Sharples, Mark Stratford, Mark Grace and Rob Smith but all lost 3-0 to give the Vets a 5-0 match victory.
The exciting fixture between the Falcons and Strix Squash Squad ended in the latter’s best result so far. The first game saw Sam Elliot win 3-0 against Natacha Jones despite a close third game. Game two pitted Strix’s Clare Townsend against the Falcons captain Vusimbe Zivave. The games were close and Vusimbe played some excellent squash, but Clare managed to find her shot and ended the match with a 3-0 win. The third game was by far the most exhilarating with Andy Igoea vs Joe Butler playing as the number 4s. With some intense rallies, Joe Butler managed a great comeback using his youth over Andy to win the third match 3-2. Game 4 saw Aaron Rumney for Strix and Adam Jones for the Falcons compete. With both players hitting the ball with great speed and power, Aaron started to play more methodically in the final game, and finished the match with a 3-0 win. The final match was between the number 1 seeds, Sarah Simpson vs George Rumney. Despite Sarah hitting some incredible shots at the front of the court and tight to the side walls, George won 3-0 giving an overall 4-1 win for the Strix team.
The final set of matches was between Dragons and Hansard Racketeers. The Dragons took a 3-2 win despite being ranked below the Racketeers in the C League.
Cannell Print (Left to right): Ben Peach, Rob Colquitt, Brian Cannell, Damien Loughrey, Thomas Whiteway.