Crazies Capitalise on Cannell Casualties
The 3-2 result of the A league match between Crazies and Cannell Print was not a true reflection of Cannell’s abilities but actually due to them being so short of players that the last two strings were walkover matches. In the matches that were played Adam Corcoran just pipped Rob Colquitt 15/13 in the fifth to take the win for the Crazies. The other two wins went to Cannell with Ben Peach just proving too strong for James Ramsey whilst Thomas Whiteway took a 3-0 victory against Mike Hayler.
Mid Court Crisis (MCC) got their first win of 2020 when they defeated StoneArt 3-2 with the three Dave’s – Norman, Hedley and O’Neill all getting the wins for MCC. The closet match was between MCC’s Paul Barnett and Hamish Thornton with Thornton getting the win 3-2. Young Ben Leith made his debut for MCC and did well to take a game off the much taller and stronger Alan McNair.
In the B league the Sharks won a closely contested match 3-2 to close the gap on the B League leaders Outcasts. The game of the night was the battle between the number ones with Outcast Nathan Quilliam coming out the 3-2 winner against James Ramsay by just snatching the fifth game 15/14 in an entertaining match with consistently good squash from both players. Mark Stratford beat Stuart Highy 3-0 and Baillie Watterson beat Peter Ginty by 3-1 to put Sharks ahead in the match before Alan McNair secured the victory for Sharks with a close 3-2 win against Mark Henson. Toby Woolard played well for Outcasts to beat Dave Freer 3-1 in the final match.
Racketeers Pioneers had to fight hard to get a 4-1 victory over Crowe Dragons with three of the matches finishing 3-2 in the Racketeers’ favour. Dafydd Lewis, Marc Taggart and Fraser Dorling were the Racketeers 3-2 victors. Joe Burrows, who is improving all the time and is playing up for the Racketeers B league team regularly now, beat the Dragons captain 3-0. The resistance from the Dragons came courtesy of a 3-1 win by Richard Cretney.
Junior Academy took on a depleted Island Tyres & Exhausts team which had drafted in four C League players. Leighton Ginty made his B League debut for Junior Academy at five winning an entertaining and competitive match against Fatheha Essa 3-0. Oliver Williams and Christian Webster at third and fourth string for Academy registered convincing 3-0 wins against Terry Holt and Stephen Pitts respectively. The match of the evening at second string featured Harvey Douglas against squash doyen Les Callow. The first three games were closely contested until a change in tactics by the younger player led to a quick finish in the fourth game and a 3-1 win for the Academy player. The final match was between the number ones Ben Peach and Magnus Lamprecht with Peach winning 3-0 to complete a clean sweep for Academy.
C league team Outcasts Dragons beat Falcons 5-0 but the matches were all so close there was only a fourteen point difference before the 25 bonus points were added. Falcons one and two Julien Uzzell and Lewi Long both took their respective opponents Brian Crellin and Stuart Highy to five games. Falcons Captain Vusimbe Zivave lost 3-1 to Fatheha Essa but only separated by three points and Jon Cox lost to Andy McLarney 3-2 but with only one point in it.
Buchanan and Pitts Misfits bagged a good 4-1 win over Hansard Racketeers last week. Confusion over start times meant that only four matches were played in the end, Misfits triumphing 3-1 in these to bag the 25 bonus points. Andy Dixon, Stephen Pitts and John Watterson were the victors on the night for the Misfits while Joe Burrows continued his recent imperious form to claim the Racketeers’ sole victory of the night at number one.
Santander Academy Racketeers lost 5-0 to Island Exhausts Vets. Racketeers Fraser Dorling had the stand out match of the evening, taking Mark Stratford to five games and only dropping three points. Peter Sharples, Les Callow, Lee Loughren and Phil Shaw all got 3-0 wins for the Vets but Racketeers Charlie Beard and Steven Wright put up stiff resistance getting to 13 points in three of the games. The Vets are still undefeated with 999 points out of a possible 1000 from their first four matches which could lead some to wonder if they are playing in the wrong league.
The Junior Academy C league team beat Dohle Stars 220-160 in points. Leighton Ginty, Amaline Batty and Callum Larkin all got 3-0 wins. Asad Awan had a good 3-2 battle with Chris Nash only just taking the win for the Juniors 15-9 in the fifth game. Dohle Stars only winner was Angus Hopkinson who was making his debut for the team and restricted Beth Jones to just 14 points in his 3-0 victory over her.
Team Crazies – Back Row – left to right – Mike Hayler, Ashley Sandyford-Sykes (Captain) and Mark Webster-Smith. Front Row – left to right – Dave Freer, James Ramsey and Adam Corcoran. Note – Allister Crossley also plays for the team but was off island when the photo was taken.