CSSC 2019 Civil Service Masters Squash and Squash 57 Tournaments

2019 CIVIL SERVICE MASTERS SQUASH & SQUASH 57 (RACKETBALL) SINGLES TOURNAMENTS

The prestigious Nottingham Squash Club was once again the venue for the 2019 CSSC Squash Masters Singles Championships and the CSSC Squash 57 (Racketball) Championships. A favoured venue for many CSSC squash events, the club and its staff as ever gave a warm and friendly welcome to the players and guests.

Entrant numbers were down on last year, but we were pleased to welcome 3 new players to the squash tournament. There were a number of our regulars who were unavailable due to injury as at this time of year, most players are at the end of a hard season of squash. All have stated that they will be back next year.

The O35 and O45s played each other in a round robin. The O55s had sufficient entrants to warrant a round robin with each other and O65s and ladies joined each other in another round robin. Each competition was hard fought and played in the usual sporting and fun-like manner. The format for both competitions was the same as last year with a best of 3, point a rally first to 11 arrangement ensuring that all entrants played plenty of short matches over the two days

Squash

Mens O35

This year saw Jonathan Simpson a clear winner. Jonathan is new to the event and an A grade player. He did not drop any games during the competition. We are grateful to Jonathan for supporting the event and appreciate him taking time out of his busy playing schedule. The runner up trophy went to Dan Willets. Dan also won all his games except for his match with Jonathan. We look forward to seeing these 2 do battle again in the future, if not at this event, at one of the others in the CSSC calendar.

Mens O45

This year, the trophy went to Paul Armstrong, last year's runner up. Paul played in the round robin with the O35s but also managed to fit in a match with last year's winner of this event who is now in the O55s.

Ladies O50

Our CSSRA Chairperson Sian Hughes had another great tournament and successfully defended her trophy from last year. The ladies played a round robin format with the men's O65s. Everything depended upon Sian's last match with our Association President, Marian Holmes. Sian emerged with one game up on Marian who is this year's runner up.

Mens O55

The O55s were well represented this year.Kevin Hugh a previous winner of the O35s moved into this category and emerges an outright winner. Although he didn't drop any games in the tournament, he provided all his opponents with a competitive and enjoyable match.The runner up this year was Nigel Williams who we are pleased was able to join us again after taking a break last year. Nigel only dropped games to the winner Kevin and so came quite close this year.

Mens O65

Once again, this year's winner was Richard Kendrick defending his trophy from last year in a round robin with the O65s and ladies O50s. Richard was the outright winner of the group. Rob Shepherd was again runner-up in the O65's - another whisky glass to add to the extensive collection. Well done Rob.

Can nobody split these two up?

Squash 57 (Racketball)

Keith Mabey retained his Squash57 title with victories over Micky Gallacher, Fred Sanders & organiser Phill Crane. All the matches were played in a competitive but friendly manner, with Keith coming through undefeated. Runner-up Micky and third placed Fred also picked up victories. Phill picked up the wooden spoon.

Social

Everyone was kept busy for the two days and in addition to the battles on court, a chicken supper and the now infamous Linda Parsley general knowledge quiz accompanied by the requisite amount of friendly banter was enjoyed by all. Feedback from the group indicated that most competitors had a busy and enjoyable experience. endorsing as ever, the equally important social element of this event. Lunch on Friday and Saturday was provided in the form of a cold buffet to allow players to watch the matches whilst eating if they wished.

As ever, the event provided an opportunity for players to combine fitness and fun and to catch up with friends and make new ones. Competitors and organisers were pleased to see Marian Holmes our CSSRA President had entered the event again and introduced a new lady player, Janice Moller to our competition. We were especially pleased to see her once again present the Ladies O50s squash trophy to our Chairperson, Sian Hughes. As usual players made good use of our regular Sports Massage therapist, Graham, to keep everyone fit for their next match.

Special thanks to regulars Fred Sanders (Racketball) and Richard Kendrick who both played the tournament on their birthday! The players took the opportunity to sing Happy Birthday to the pair at the awards presentation.