04/05/2005 Anthony Ricketts beat Ong Beng Hee 3-1; 6/9, 9/3, 9/3, 9/4. First game up was the ladies match on the second court with Scott and Alistair on the adjoining one. Jennifer clearly had a massive problem, how to beat a top 20 player whilst still a University student. The score does not totally relect the match as Jenny played well, probably better than on the home fixture two weeks earlier, but Shelley had far to many shots, too great a weight of shot and the fitness to be in any trouble. Jenny said afterwards that she enjoyed the game and it showed her what she has to aspire to when she gets onto the ptofessional circuit after leaving University in June. The second game on the outside court saw Mark Cairns take on Daryl Selby. Two weeks earlier Daryl scored a notable 3-2 victory over Mark so he had a bit to prove. Playing some careful, steady, error free squash Mark moved into a 2-0 lead though Daryl was still in the match and took the 3rd after some gruelling rallies. This showed in the next game as Daryl put a number of forehands into the tin, giving Mark a fairly easy 9/3 win for a 3-1 victory, albeit requiring some 68 minutes to do it. Meanwhile Scott and Alistair had been fighting out a fascinating, battling, attritional match on the show court. In the first leg, away at Tewkesbury, Alistair was by far the sharper winning the match 3-0. Scott can do better and showed it tonight by taking a 2-1 lead after some incredibly long rallies. Then the errors crept in with numerous tins at winning positions, too anxious perhaps or just a slight misjudgement who knows. Suffice to say that Alistiar took the 4th and after another 68 minute match Tewkesbury had their first win. Before the match Alex had said that owing to a slight injury that he had picked up 10 days earlier he had not trained as hard as usual and therefore might be short of fitness. If this was an example of being short of fitness then give me a slight injury any time. On the first leg Alex and Rodney played the match of the night and this was a repitition. Rodney dominated the T in the early exchanges but a few errors put Alex in 10/8. A not dissimilar second game went to Rodney by the same score line. Then Alex did look a bit tired and lost the 3rd easily. Looks can be deceptive and an inspired performance took the score to 2 all. At Tewkesbury Rodney got to a winning position in the 5th only to lose it 9-7. This time the reverse with Alex holding 3 match balls only to see a couple of tins and a clear winner from Rodney level the position. A few more rallies and this time the South African number 1 emerged victorious. So the evening was tied 2 all. This is where the points scoring system comes into its own. With both Alex and Scott getting two games (and points) each the team was in an unassailable position even though the last match was still to be played. There are arguments either way but the system does encourage maximum effort all the time as that one game can make the difference. So Anthony and Beng Hee went into the final game already knowing the outcome. This seemed to take the edge off Anthony's game as he lost the first playing some very un-Anthony like shots. A bit of a team talk (sub-contracted to a more influential person) produced the desired effect and the next 3 games were fair rattled through to produce a 3-1 win and a 3-2 match win on the night. The Tewkesbury team were tremendous competitors and even missing their number one lady player, Jenny Tranfield, for the second leg put up great resistance and could easily have won at home. Had they done so this second leg could have been different. Over the two nights around 250 people saw great squash played by some of the best in the world and regardless of the result probably went home wanting to see more next season. Next up the final. Manchester/Pontefract go into the match as favorites but we have produced some upsets during the season. With a bit of luck this could be another. Nottingham on the 24th May will, whatever the result, be a great night for National League squash, the premiership of League squash not only in England but in the World. You really must be there.
WE'RE IN THE FINAL
A second successful but close tie against Tewkesbury puts Wolverhampton into the final.
It was indeed all right on the night. Going into the match with a 16-8 lead was a great advantage but not necessarily a guarranteed winning one. The Tewkesbury team have some very good players and an upset was possible. In the event a noisy and,it must be said, generally happy crowd saw the team win 3-2 in games but 18-8 on points on the night. The evening had some competition as there was some minor football match being played which was on TV. Could easily have reduced the numbers supporting both sides but you can see football every day of the week, or so it seems, but a semi final in the best squash league, not only in the Country but probably in the World only happens every so often. So the people turned up and, if there were a slightly larger number disappearing off to the bar(which has a TV)for 10 minutes every so often I am sure that this was solely due to the need to refresh the throat from too much cheering rather than any other reason. (In fact Liverpool won I believe!).
The scores on the night were:
Alex Gough lost to Rodney Durbach 2-3; 10/8, 8/10, 4/9, 9/6, 10/12.
Scott Handley lost to Alistair Walker 2-3; 9/7, 4/9, 9/3, 4/9, 5/9.
Mark Cairns beat Daryl Selby 3-1; 9/5, 9/6, 7/9, 9/3.
Shelley Kitchen beat Jennifer Wright 3-0; 9/0, 9/1, 9/0.
Contributor: Stephen Russell
Club: Wolverhampton
Link: http://www.wltsc.com
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