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BUSA
Premier League final stage
02/03 December, Birmingham |
This weekend has seen the best
university squash teams converge on Birmingham for the seeding stage
of the BUSA team competition. The format is the same as
inter-counties leagues - 8 men's and 8 women's teams which split
north-south for the first weekend to determine top 2 and bottom 2
for each half to form a top 4 and a bottom 4 for final play-offs. We
then take all 8 men's and 8 women's teams to Birmingham to determine
1-8 rankings for the the team championship (knock-out) draw in
Feb/March.
Loughborough take top spot
Jethro Binns reports
 The
men's event saw Loughborough, Birmingham, Sheffield and Nottingham
competing for seedings 1-4 and UWIC, Manchester, Exeter and Aberdeen
competing for seedings 5-8.
These weekends are always looked forward to by the players as they
are a chance to play some good quality squash matches and more often
than not enjoy an evening at Birmingham's student union, the Guild,
on the Saturday night.
 Yesterday
saw Loughborough score a convincing win over title holders
Birmingham 4-1, with Jethro Binns, Jonathan Underhill,
Adam Wildig and Nick Bradley scoring victories over
their opponents to put Loughborough in a strong position going into
the second day.
Sheffield had been unable to raise a team and conceded their
matches. In Saturday's other tie, Nottingham went down to Birmingham
5-0 in a competitive encounter which saw Peter Marshall
playing competitive squash again, nearly taking out Joel Hinds
as the former world number two held match balls in the fourth, but
Joel's fitness proved to much and he ran out the ultimate winner in
five.
So going into the final day Loughborough needed 9 points to top the
group.
That familiar Sunday feeling ...
Sunday morning arrives, and now in my third year of BUSA I have
realised that it follows a familiar pattern. Wake up feeling
generally worse for wear, shower, eat something and consume as much
water as possible. Arrive at the club to find the whole of UWIC
lying in a corner looking as if they are unable to move, let alone
run around a squash court. Speak to Peter Creed and find out
who he was kissing the night before and then have an argument about
who is going to referee the first match.
As it turned out Marsh had decided not to play today so we faced an
equally fragile Nottingham side missing their star player. This
meant that the Cheshire junior rivalry between James Larmouth
and Adam Wildig was unable to be re-ignited much to the
dismay of the crowds that had gathered.
Larmouth was on first and faced the young sprightly Jon
Underhill. This was a match of contrasts, with James' shot
playing taking on John's running around like a headless chicken
tactics. Unfortunately for the Nottingham man the chicken got the
better of him and Loughborough found themselves 1-0 up.
 On
the adjacent court Nick Bradley won 3-0 to put us in a
commanding position. I was next on and ground out a win in five
against Dan Brown giving us the match, and Adam Wildig
won 3-0 to take us to the top of the group.
 The
match of the day saw Rhodri Hughes take on Neil Rossi,
Hughes made a promising start and took the first, before Rossi
staged a comeback in the second. The third saw Rhodri find his feet
again only for them to be taken away again in fourth and fifth as
Nottingham earned their first rubber of the match. As one can see
from the photos, Rhodri's state deteriorated as the match went on
>>>>>>
So all in all a successful weekend for Loughborough as they take the
top spot and now will look to go on and take the title which has
eluded them since the glory days of Ryder and Selby.
In the 5-8's UWIC proved that they could not only move but play
squash, and ground out an important victory against Manchester to
take the fifth place spot.
 In
the women's event Birmingham took top spot, winning Sunday's
deciding match against Leeds 3/1.
So with that BUSA is over until the new year where it gets down to
the knock out stages and the road trips take place to investigate
other student unions around the UK ...
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COMPLETE RESULTS
Peter Marshall
Peter Creed
Adam Wildig
Rhodri's Trials
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MEN'S FINISHING POSITIONS
WOMEN'S FINISHING POSITIONS
COMPLETE
RESULTS
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