Civil Service Squash Championships November 2017

CSSC NATIONAL SQUASH SINGLES COMPETITION – 2017

The annual CSSC National Graded Squash Singles, which took place on 24/25^th November 2017, was again a highly successful event with many talented squash players from all over the country attracted to the excellent facilities at Nottingham Squash Club together with an impressive field of players in the top half of the draw. Being a graded event there was squash available for all levels and the event saw a friendly yet competitive two days of squash for the 26 men and 3 ladies who entered. It was again good to see several newcomers entering the men’s event. Confusingly some matches were hard to mark when both players turned out in their identical free purple event T-shirts!

The number of lady entries was again disappointing, though the quality of the squash was excellent. The Ladies Competition was held as a round-robin with the current holder, Becky Campbell retaining her title by overcoming Keeley Grindle and CSSC Squash Chairman Sian Hughes.

With a full 16-man draw in the men’s A/B event, this was held as a knock-out competition with 1^st round winners forming the A event and the losers forming the B event.

The A grade event had a strong field. There were a lot of good matches with only CSSC Champion James Hodson and former Champion Tony Webb reaching the semi-finals without dropping a game.  However despite the 3-0 score line in Tony’s quarter final match against James Whelan it was a very tight and hard-fought match. It was a contrast in styles with Tony’s fluid movement, gliding around the court versus James’ more brutal hard hitting. A very determined James chased down every ball as Tony moved him around the court, with Tony just about edging every game to take a 3-0 win. In the semi-final Tony came up against Tim Burrell, someone he has played many times before. The outcome was a 3-0 win for Tim to put him once more into the final.

Possibly the closest match in this group was Marc Aldridge’s quarter final against Adam Lavis, which he won 3-2. Marc led 2-1 before Adam fought back to level at 2-2. Adam looked a likely winner when he took an early lead in the 5th but Marc used all his experience and guile to take the game and match 11-8 in the 5^th. In his semi-final match against James Hodson, Marc started well taking the first game 11-9, but was not able to hold off James from reaching his 6^th successive final with a 3-1 win.

The men’s A final was a repeat of many years with Tim battling against James Hodson for the title. The second game was especially crucial with Tim fighting back from game point at 7-10 to make it 10 all. Unfortunately for Tim, James was able to hold off the challenge and take the game 12-10. James then stormed off at the beginning of the 3^rd game and Tim was not able to prevent him taking his 6^th title before a full crowd who had stayed to watch the final - a fantastic display of squash.

The A grade Plate event was won by James Whelan who certainly earned success with his energetic squash with close matches against both Mark Bangs (3-2) and Adam Lavis (3-1).

All first round losers in the initial AB grade draw went into the B grade competition in an 8 man knock out. Here Imran Bashir came through to the final, after a strong challenge in the semi-final from Dan Willets. With games see-sawing between them the outcome was undecided up to 7all in the 5^th game when Imran managed to secure the match. In the other half of the draw Chris Thom and Dave Netherton both had tough first round matches against Paul Lane and James Hewitt respectively. In the final Chris was able to overcome the challenge from Imran with a 3-1 win.

In the B grade Plate James Powell emerged successful after a hard fought match against Craig Blurton, when he came back from 0-2 down to win 3-2 followed by a 3-1 win in the final over Paul Lane.

Initially 10 players were entered into the CD event so a first round knock out was held. With one entrant failing to arrive and one player obviously in the wrong grade (and moved up to the AB event), this, after some hard fought first round matches left 4 winners to play in the C grade event and 4 losers to play in the D grade event. These were held as Round Robin competitions with all playing all.

The C grade produced some close matches with the eventual winner being Micky Gallacher over Matt Thomas in 2^nd place. The tightest matches, in fact were between Micky and John Frankland and Matt and Fred Sanders – all in all a very tight group.

The D grade competition was equally hard fought with Paul Armstrong emerging the worthy winner over CSSC Squash Treasurer Jim Fay in 2^nd place.

The customary social evening was held at the club on the Friday evening to relax everyone after a hard day’s squash. The club provided supper and organiser Linda provided a light hearted quiz. Fortunately the winners took this light-heartedly as Linda managed to miscalculate the scores and awarded the wrong team 1^st prize.!

The CSSRA held its AGM on the Saturday, which enabled players to comment and discuss relevant issues. Ideas for improvement, alternative venues and a social team match were discussed.

CSSRA President, Marian Holmes, who had been in attendance throughout the tournament (though not playing this year as a result of injury), presented the prizes and thanked the Squash Club for their hospitality and Linda and Ian Lockey for their effective organisation of the event. Finally, she thanked all the players for their excellent attitude that helped to make this such a friendly but competitive occasion.

Report Written by Linda Parsley

                                                        TROPHIES / PRIZES