Recently the Buchanan and Pitts sponsored squash competition was held at the NSC. This was a Blitz style comp where the players had to score as many points as they could in 12 minute timed games. As this is a timed game all matches started and stopped at the same time. Four groups of players were seeded according to ranking into round robin groups, each player in the group had to play all the others in that group which meant that they each played at least 4 12 minute non stop games in just over 3 hours. As the winner of each group would be decided on points scored this made for hectic squash with most players having 2 back to back 12 minute games which proved to be a great test of stamina.
In group A which only had 5 players (meaning they only had to play 4 matches) Ben Peach, returning to full fitness after a long injury lay off, proved to be too strong for the rest of the group winning the group with Patrick Fitzpatrick coming second.
Group B was a very closely contested group of 7 players, each player playing 72 minutes of squash. Callum Larkin (still a junior) showed that he is now a strong and fit player, winning the group with Stuart Highy in second place.
Group C, with 6 players in it, was made up of existing players and some new players taking part in their first competition. Dave Johnson showed just how much he has benefited from Saturday morning club coaching by winning the group with new play Jamie Biddulph coming second.
Group D was again a 6 player group made up of new players mostly coming from a Manx Sport and Recreation initiative called Active8, Andrew Igoea came out on top with Mark Goodall coming second.
A big thanks goes to Buchanan and Pitts for their sponsorship of the Blitz comp which is proving to be a very popular event