Dylan Younger wrote:
NORTHERN's squash warriors reigned supreme at the County's Annual presentation night, winning two of the three men's Cup finals.
The first team walked off with the Northumbria Cup - contested among the Premier League's top 4 - while Northern 5/6 found their form to lift the B League Cup.
The showpiece matches preceded the county league presentation evening at Tynemouth on Saturday April 27th - and the main event went right to the wire . . .
Northern 1 used players ranging in age from 15 to 63 in their two matches - showing the strength in depth at the club these days.
Having missed out on the league title by a measly six points, Liam Gutcher and Co were in no mood to give this one up without a fight.
The top 4 in the Premier League were Northumberland Club 229, Northumbria Blues 224, Northern 1 223 and Tynemouth 190. Tighter than Gordie Robertson's wallet, in other words - and the Northumbria Cup contest also went right to the wire, as Northern prevented their Jesmond rivals completing the league and cup double with a hard-fought 3-2 win.
Craig Dowie and Matt Hardy had already won their ties - seeing off John Peacock and Peter Kullar respectively. Meanwhile, despite battling performances, Derek Collins and Neil Mason were edged out by Aitor Garcia Chinea and Nick Hale to leave the match on a knife edge at 2-2 as the No 1's took the court.
Skipper Gutch was 6-4 outsider with Betfair (I got 7-4) against talented Egyptian Adel Muhamed El Zarka. But the handsome blond boy band-singer surf dude hit top gear right from the off, clinching the match - and the cup - with a superb 3-0 win, 11-4, 14-12, 12-10.
Providing the launch pad for that final success was an excellent victory over a strong Northumbria Blues team in Friday night's semi-final. Gutcher drafted in 16-year-old Cai Younger and 15-year-old Alex Robertson, who both hit top gear to get Northern off to a flyer. Cai beat Stephen Prested 3-0 while Alex saw off Rob Miller 3-1 - those two wins being enough in themselves to clinch the match with Blues unable to field a No 5. Matt Hardy was a touch below his best, with Michael Mackay taking full advantage (3-1) - while at No 1, Gutcher steamrollered Mike Burton 3-0 give a hint of things to come on finals night.
Dave North wrote:
Meanwhile, a combined Mens 5th and 6th team were battling it out against Newcastle University 3rd team in the League "B" Cup. This is for clubs with teams in the lower Mens Divisions of the County Leagues. The "B" team reached the final by overcoming teams from Gateshead and Concordia in the earlier rounds and Westoe in the semi final earlier in the week. Dave North got the Final off to a good start by winning a hard-fought match 3-2 at number 5, and Chris Hull followed this with a comfortable 3-0 win to put Northern 2-0 up. It looked like Simon Babb might clinch the Cup when he went 1-0 up, but the cannon misfired for once and he lost out 2-3. However, next on was Warwick "Wazza" Davis and he did secure the Cup with an excellent 3-1 win at number 2, to the shouts of "Come on my son!" from his team mates and supporters. Gary Law lost a 5-setter in the "dead rubber". Squad members Joe Prince and Nick Redfern deserve a mention, as they had played in the earlier rounds but were unavailable for the final.
After the Finals, the Cup winners were presented with their medals and Northern also collected League Awards:
Mens 3rd team - Winners Division 2
Mens 5th team - Runners up Division 4
Mens 6th team - Winners Division 6
Simon Babb - Player of the Division (Division 6)
