Club Championships 2013

The prestigious event known as the Northern Club Championships took place this year over the period 9 to 18 May with a total of 49 entrants. The event was held over 6 nights and I would like to thank all those who participated and helped make it a success.

On to the squash…

With the absence of Liam Gutcher and Derek Collins there was an exciting prospect of a new name being on the Club Championships winner's board.

The Men's events kicked off on Thursday 9th May with all 3 events in action. The Men's 'A' Event provided no upsets in the 1st round draw as all seeds made it through to the quarter finals, also creating a very exciting bottom half of the draw, with 3 of the 4 players being up and coming juniors plus the veteran Gary Candlish.

The 'B' Event was also very strong with a previous Champion, Jacques Dinsley, taking up the No 2 seed position and returning from injury and Roland Orton taking up the top seed position. The 'B' Event created lots of excitement in the first round with two of the seeds crashing out and 3 matches going the distance. Dan North slammed out the3/4 seed Mike Paul in a thrilling 5 setter. Another junior, Jack Cornell overturned the in-form 5/8 seed Tim Barker in another mouth-watering 3/2. A special mention to Vinny Richards and Phil Purvis for providing an incredibly entertaining but somewhat noisy affair, in which Vinny saved a handful of match ball opportunities in the foruth to fight back and win in the 5th.

The 'C' Event provided 3 matches on the first night and also an appearance from our youngest competitor Tom Cornell. Tom battled valiantly but was defeated by Ian Campbell in a very close 3/1 match. All the seeds in the 'C' Event progressed to the quarter finals.

The opening round of the Ladies Event took place on Friday 10th May, with the event boasting 3 previous winners. Two of the previous champions, Lesley Vitty and Michelle Robertson, went head to head in an epic encounter, resulting in Lesley winning 3/2 in a tightly fought match. The other 3 matches featured some of our 'old' junior players battling it out against some of our high achieving 'in form' juniors, with the more experienced players prevailing on this occasion.

The second round matches for the Gentlemen kicked off on Sunday 12th May with the start of the Plate Events. The Men's 'A' Event quarter finals promised some mouth watering matches between old and new juniors. The top half of the draw featured 3 of the veteran juniors... and Neil Mason, with the bottom half sporting 3 younger models... plus Gary Candlish. The round produced some epic battles and some scintillating squash, with the No 1 seed Matt Hardy defeating the 2008 runner up Alex Storey in three hard fought games. Craig Dowie defeated the 'cockey cockney' Neil Mason in a thrilling 3/2 encounter. The quarter finals also had our first casualty of a top seed in the 'A' Event - young Alex Robertson defeated the highly respected Gary Candlish 3 games to 2. Finally, the duel between Cai Younger and Michael Mattimore which was played behind closed doors ended in Cai winning 3 games to love.

The Men's 'A' Plate provided some exciting matches with many juniors with points to prove. Sam Birch-Machin beat Dave Williams in a close battle 3 games to 1. Annoyingly for some, veteran Gary Candlish dropped into the plate after receiving a bye in the first round. Gary with fire in his eyes after crashing out to a junior in the main draw was seeking redemption facing another up and coming junior Sam Broughton whom he overcame 3/0. Lewis Wake beat awkward lefty Andrew Smith 3/0.

The Men's 'B' Event quarter finals saw the in-form Dan North overcome the 5/8 seed Steve Armstrong 3/1. The bookies favourite for the title Roland Orton was in action against Jack Cornell. Roland won 3/0 with Jack putting up a valiant effort. The No 2 seed, Jacques Dinsley faced the 5/8 seed Vinny Richards with the match going to the 5th and final game. It was nail biting stuff. Jacques however emerged the winner and progressed to the semi finals to face Dan North. A fresh Rob Rae who received a bye in the first round progressed to the semi's defeating Stan Watson in straight games.

The Men's 'B' Plate only had 2 matches with Andy Smith beating Tim Barker 3/0 and Mike Paul beating Steve Armstrong 3/0. In the semi's Andy would face Gordy Robertson and Mike would play Dave North.

The Men's 'C' Event quarter finals promised some thrilling matches with all the seeds facing each other. The No 1 seed Anth Cummings faced Clive Lucas who he overcame 3/0. His opposite number Chris Seal, in the bottom half of the draw, progressed to the Semi's overcoming Ian Campbell 3/1. The pick of the matches for the neutral was the match between the 3/4 seed Tony Broughton and Joel Birch-Machin. Joel's tactical game paid off and he took a flying 2-0 lead over Tony, but Tony 'the tiger' certainly wasn't lying down that easily and clawed it back to 2-2 and it was to be sealed in the final game. Despite Joel flying and diving around the court Tony proved to be too solid and completed the 'purrfect' comeback. In the battle of the two Thompson's Gus and Pete, Pete emerged as the winner 3/0.

The semi finals went pretty much according to plan with only three slight upsets. In the Ladies Plate Competition most would have thought that Michelle Robertson would be both too fit and strong for Tegan Younger. However, with Michelle not playing for most of the season (due to a recurring back injury) and Tegan making great strides over the past 12 months, both factors gave Tegan the edge and she won 3/0.

Another junior success was in the Men's Plate Competition with Sam Birch-Machin recording a resounding win over James O'Neil 3/0. Once again, another Junior making his mark in the club.

The third and probably most unexpected junior win was Tom Cornell beating Roger Tames. Nobody was more surprised than Tom himself - he had intended to enter only the junior event but because of lack of entrants, we asked him to enter the adult competition to gain a bit of experience ! He played a good game and to his credit so did Roger and as always was a complete gentleman on court but Tom (muscled !) his way to a 3/1 victory.

One more match worthy of note was Chris Seal versus Tony Broughton in the 'C' Event. It was a close fought match and the outcome was never certain and Chris was looking a little distressed the longer the match went on. However, with too many years experience behind him to mention, he was able to 'hang on in' and grind out a 3/2 victory. His final comment on leaving the club was "I'm off to bed".

And so to the finals.

The 'C' Event was fiercely contested between the 'young pup' Anth Cummings and the 'old dog' Chris Seal. Although Chris was suffering after his 3/2 encounter in the semi's it would appear that he revels in 5 set matches as this one went the distance as well. The outcome was never certain but the 'young pup' on his young legs finally wore down Chris who left everything on the court. Well done Anth and a special mention to Chris for 10 hard fought games over 24 hours.

If you thought the age gap between the players in the 'C' Event was huge (sorry Chris !) well it was nothing compared to that of the 'C' Plate Event - Clive Lucas (62) against Tom Cornell (10) - a staggering 52 years, give or take the odd hip replacement! Clive got off to a very good start racing to a 7/0 lead before Tom got rid of his nerves and mounted a remarkable comeback to take the game 9/7. Unfortunately for Tom this was to be the only game he would win with Clive hitting his stride and taking the match 3/1. After the match Clive congratulated Tom on his performance and he is certainly one to look out for in the future.

In the Men's 'B' Plate, Mike Paul proved too strong for Andy Smith. Although Andy took the first game, Mike went on to level the match at one all and then took command of the remainder of the match to win 3/1.

Some might have thought that Roland Orton was too good for the 'B' Event but we should bear in mind two facts (1) - he has recently returned to playing squash after being out of the game for six months following an operation on his ankle and (2) - whoever is seeded No 17 in the Pre-Competition Seedings is going to have a good run in the 'B' Event. Roland's recovery after his operation has been exceptional and had we had some 'form' on which to go by he may well have ended up in the main event. As it was his journey to the final was a reasonably easy affair conceding only one game to Rob Rae in the semi-final. Although Jacques Dinsley gave Roland a good run for his money and was certainly worthy of at least one game, Roland won the 'B' Event 3/0.

Two 'young' adversaries met in the final of the Ladies Plate. Josie Barker and Tegan Younger have met each other in numerous competitions up and down the country, in local events and, they train together. In most previous matches they have gone toe to toe with 3/2 results going either way - and on more than one occasion 11/9 in the fifth. This match was no different. Josie got off to a very slow start which allowed Tegan to play her way into the match and take the first game. After a further 3 games the match was (once again) two all. In the fifth, Josie took an early lead and for once Tegan, uncharacteristically, was unable to respond and Josie ran out the eventual winner. Another two good juniors with a bright future in the game.

In the Men's 'A' Plate Final Gary Candlish, (the established 'old timer' in the Men's 1st Team) proved too strong for Sam Birch-Machin. However, Sam is definitely heading in the right direction and I envisage he will be competing in the Men's teams in the not too distant future. Gary won 3/0.

And so to the first of the two major finals - the Ladies Event between Emma Barnett and Sarah Dowson. This turned out to be one of the best fought matches of the night - so much so that neither spectator nor player knew who would become this years' champion. The first four games were shared (12/10, 7/11, 11/4 and 3/11 - Emma's score first) with neither player being dominant. However, Emma got off to a good start in the fifth racing away to an 8/2 lead and she never gave up that lead with her experience getting her past the winning post, 11/5. Whilst Sarah's walk on music was obvious, a lot of spectators didn't understand Emma's - The Wedding by Julie Rogers. I'm happy to report that she is now blissfully married. Congratulations on both counts Mrs Gregson !

The Men's Final saw the No 1 and No 2 seeds meet. Matt Hardy (No 1) and Cai Younger (No 2) put on a display worthy of any club final. Although Matt was the clear favourite he was nevertheless quite nervous and unfortunately (for all favourites) the majority of the 'crowd' was on Cai's side - in particular Gordie Robertson and Phil Purvis were in fine voice urging Cai on at every opportunity. The score of 3/0 to Matt (11/8, 11/7, 11/9) does not really reflect how well Cai played but unfortunately, for him, he did the majority of the running as Matt pushed him to all 4 corners on many occasions with his consistently good lengths, widths, drop shots and excellent volleys. There is no doubt that Cai has the ability to hold the mantle of Club Champion at some time in the future but for this year that honour is bestowed upon Matt Hardy. Well done both on a fine display of entertaining Squash.

The Presentation Night immediately followed the Club Championship Finals and once again the Squash Committee along with the Club Management Team provided an excellent night for those attending.

Compiled by Alex Storey and Derek Collins.