Cannell Print beat weakened Team AON who were stretched with no Creases
In the A league a strong Cannell Print took on a weakened Team AON who were stretched with no Creases. In-form Cannell Print duo James Martin and Ben Peach took 3-0 wins over Liam Davies and Dafydd Lewis. At two, the ever improving Joshua Green also sealed a 3-0 win against Mason McLarney of Team AON. Cannell Print number four Oliver Wait made a strong start against Chris Cave taking a 2-0 lead. Cave pulled the game back to 2-2 with some dogged retrieving despite his shoes falling apart mid game but Wait pushed up the court and won the decider 11-4. Thomas Whiteway and Patrick Fitzpatrick renewed rivalries in a match that went one way then the other. Fitzpatrick went 2-1 up with some tight squash and lead the fourth game 5-1 before Whiteway pulled the game back and eventually secured the 5-0 win for Cannell Print taking the final game 16-14.
The other A league match saw StoneArt winning 3-2 against Crazies. StoneArts’s senior players Hamish Thornton and Lyndon Cheetham used their years of experience to get 3-0 wins against younger opposition. The last time Jason Blue played Crazies Ashley Sandyford-Sykes was in the final of the Manx Telecom Dave Karran tournament about three weeks ago when Ash won 3-0. Jason did better this time to take the first game and very nearly edging the third but he went down 3-1. The other two matches were very close 3-2 encounters with StoneArt’s Toby Woolard coming back from 2-1 down to clinch his victory over Mark Webster-Smith and the Crazies Mike Hayler winning 12-10 in the fifth in his match with Angus Hopkinson.
In the B league Crowe Dragons took their first win of the season with a 3-2, 239-190 win over Racketeers Pioneers. The Dragons were too strong in the top order matches with James Martin, Dave Hedley and Peter Ferguson all getting 3-0 or 3-1 wins. However the Racketeers fought back in the lower string matches with James Leith and Barry Irvine both winning the ‘money’ points in their close matches to get very valuable points for the Racketeers.
Outcasts continued their unbeaten start to the season when they played Sharks, but it was a close result. Mark Henson had a comfortable win against Gary Proctor who was making his debut for Sharks. Dave O’Neill returned the favour with a comfortable win over Liam Davies. Chris Cave lost a close game 2-3 to Doug Jacobsson and Pat Russell had a close win over Greg Ansara 3-2. With the match evenly poised it was all down to the top string encounter where Angus Hopkinson sealed the win for Outcasts by beating Alan Macnair 3-0.
It was a tough match for Argosy Juniors against a very strong unbeaten Island Tyres and Exhausts team. Dependable Richard Cretney, determined Liam Townsend and debutant Damien Loughrey all won without dropping games. Island Tyres captain Magnus Lamprecht had to work a bit harder and dropped a game on his way to a win over Harvey Douglas. The stand-out match of the night though was between number one Argosy junior Olly Wait who overcame Shaun Wylie in five very close games. Island Tyres and Exhausts increase their lead at the top with a final score of 4-1, 249-157.
Hansard Racketeers tough start to the C League season continued with a 5-0 defeat at the hands of champions elect Island Exhausts Vets. Gerrit Du Toit had a straightforward win at five, joining Vets skipper Ian Sheard and Mark Stratford in claiming 3-0 wins. Peter Sharples and Les Callow were pushed a little harder in their 3-1 victories, Barry Irvine and Tom Burrows taking a game off their higher-ranked opponents.
Outcasts Dragons claimed their first win of the season with a 5-0 win over the Falcons. Although Dragons achieved maximum points it was a close encounter with three of the matches going to five games. Stuart Highy, Phil Whittam and Fatheha Essa all triumphed in the fifth game after getting their moneys worth against Falcons Vicky Watterson, Phil Butler and Jon Cox respectively. As all the matches were quite close the Falcons secured 193 points to the Dragons 250 maximum.
Santander Racketeers Academy hosted the Buchanan & Pitts Misfits in a long and ridiculously close night of squash. Four of the five matches went down to the final points in the fifth games. Fraser Dorling and Steven Wright took wins for the Santander’s Racketeers against their opponents Andy Dixon and Elliot Henson. However Mark Henson, Stephen Pitts and Chris Gledhill gave the Buchanan & Pitts Misfits the overall victory with wins against Andrew Brown, Charlie Beard and Martin Greenwood in what was a very empty NSC by the time the final game was completed. The overall score was 3-2, 240-221 showing just how close these two teams are.
