We had a surprisingly good evening at Wimbledon Racquet & Fitness Club, considering that poor Colets were deprived of their four top players: Nick Matthew in the US Open, Alex Gough, Scott Handley and Lee Drew in Wolverhampton.

Not good.

So obviously Colets lost, but we still had good matches, like the number fives, Matt Holland, Wimbledon Club Champion, who gave a good demonstration of his drop shot skills against Adam Waddington, normally playing number three in Colets second team.

Like Dave Peck, Colets manager, stated with a big smile, “I was the next in line to play, that how bad it was…!”

Good match for Wimbledon pro Phil Rushworth who disposed of vet Alan Thompson after a wobbly start. Also to be noticed, a good performance from Danny Meddings, who hasn’t trained for months, and even if “it was still very hard work,” walked away with a 3/0 against much younger Shahid Khan. “He was much tighter than I was”, confessed Shahid at the end.

And talking about older/younger, I must say that I was quite impressed with new dad Mark Cairns, who has some pretty good “leftovers”, as we say in French. He still hits superb short shots, runs and retrieves very well, and still has the knack for placing the ball where his opponent really doesn’t want it…

OK, a bit slow to get out of the front corners, but hey, you go and play against Joey Barrington when you’ve just become a dad and are way over 35, and you’ll tell me about it, won’t you…

So, no real surprise in the 3/0 victory for Joey, but a very good match to watch, with some great lines from Mark, as ever, like when the home ref gave a “I’m sorry Joey, but it’s a no let,” the Colets Pillar, hand on hips as only he knows how, stated: “WHAT DO YOU MEAN, YOU ARE SORRY????”.

Priceless…

But the great surprise/joy came from the last match to start, the 15 ½ years old Mohamed El Shorbagy, who has been training with Jonah Barrington in Millfield for a few weeks now. You may remember that name from the British Junior Open, as Mohamed won the under 15 this year, and in January intends to win the under 17 in his first year in that age group.

From Arabic and French mother tongue, the young man is learning the language of Shakespeare, and fast. When I asked him if he wanted to speak French or English for the after match interview, he paused for a second, and “English” was his answer. Determined and courageous. We like that.



Tonight he met Clive Ewins, who is in no way shape or form a push-over, and hit as hard as he knows how, and ran well, and retrieved whatever he could put his racquet on. But the young prodigy was just too inventive, too fast, and moving onto the ball far too early….

So although the Egyptian looks a bit like a giant spider, with legs and arms all over the place, he still walked away with a well deserved 3/0 victory.

Watch out, I tell you. And remember the name. Mohamed El Shorbagy.



And that ended a good night for me, a sad evening for Colets, and an unexpected victory for Wimbledon…

photos by Natalie Drew

I took a great start in the first, I was up 5/1, but then he starting slowing down the pace and play his usual lob game, I didn’t attack enough and made too many errors…

But for the next three, I felt quite comfortable, and did my best not to go for too many shots…

I’m not playing much at the moment, I play on Wednesdays, and then on Sundays I play with a friend who was my best mate at my wedding, but who is not exactly a star player… So not exactly over trained…

I’ve just become a dad, her name is Scarlett Hope Cairns, and she is 7 weeks. And out of the three of us, one is sleeping quite well!

Yes, I made a few errors, but I can’t help it! I love playing squash, so I love going for shots!

Since I’ve trained with Jonah Barrington, I’ve improved tremendously, and especially playing with Joey and Wael has helped me to grow out of junior squash to enter senior squash.

With Jonah, we are concentrating on the British Junior Open. I won last year the under 15, and this will be my first year under 17…

I’ve got nine players on my list, and I couldn’t get five tonight!

But we are top of the league as we beat St George’s and Esporta both 4/1, so we were a few points clear, and we could afford only one loss. Well, that’s it then…

But do not fear, we’ll be back next half…

Squash in the UK