Archive for 2003

A comfortable win for Stamford.

James Trewick 2 Vinod Duraikan 3 { 9/3 , 6/9 , 9/2 , 6/9 , 2/9 } (1sts)
Paul York 3 Andy D’Alexander 0 { 9/3 , 9/6 , 9/1 } (2nds)
Mark Smith 3 Ian Blower 0 { 9/4 , 9/6 , 9/5 } (3rds)
Richard Barker 3 Julian Cruickshank 0 { 9/0 , 9/2 , 9/0 } (4ths)
Simon Barker 3 Will 0 { 9/0 , 9/4 , 9/2 } (5ths)

A tremendously close match but Stamford manage to win.

Spencer Beswick 2 James Trewick 3 { 6/9 , 9/6 , 4/9 , 9/2 , 7/9 } (1sts)
Jonathan Hand 3 Paul York 2 { 2/9 , 3/9 , 9/4 , 9/1 , 9/3 } (2nds)
Mat Diedunne 3 Mark Smith 0 { 9/4 , 9/7 , 9/6 } (3rds)
Paul Partington 2 Jonathon Oakley 3 { 9/1 , 7/9 , 9/3 , 3/9 , 4/9 } (4ths)
Neil Hoskins 2 Adrian Hargreaves 3 { 9/2 , 9/0 , 4/9 , 6/9 , 8/10 } (5ths)

Stamford lose at home 3-2.

James Trewick 1 Chris Reeve 3 { 3/9 , 9/6 , 3/9 , 7/9 } (1sts)
Paul York 3 Mark Emery 2 { 7/9 , 9/0 , 3/9 , 9/6 , 9/7 } (2nds)
Mark Smith 0 Colin Usher 3 { 8/10 , 8/10 , 5/9 } (3rds)
Richard Barker 1 Keith Hackett 3 { 4/9 , 6/9 , 9/2 , 0/9 } (4ths)
Simon Barker 3 Tony Gay 0 { 9/0 , 9/5 , 9/3 } (5ths)

Stamford lost 3-2

Simon Gardiner 1 James Trewick 3 { 4/9 , 9/7 , 4/9 , 8/10 } (1sts)
John Hawkins 3 Paul York 0 { 9/4 , 9/4 , 9/3 } (2nds)
Frazer Allen 3 Mark Smith 0 { 9/5 , 9/0 , 9/4 } (3rds)
Paul Austin 3 Jonathon Oakley 1 { 9/7 , 9/3 , 9/10 , 9/3 } (4ths)
0 Adrian Hargreaves 3 {Walkover} (5ths)

After an enforced layoff (I won’t bore you with the details), the scribe is back. And with some gossip to catch up on it seems. The team for tonight’s game was James Treweek, Mark Smith, Jon Oakley, Richard Barker and Simon Barker playing in that order.

We all traveled down together and I caught up on previous matches. Played 4, won 2 and lost 2. A good average and seemingly on track to establish ourselves within the league and crucially to remain up in div 1. The matches appear to have gone well apart from the odd hiccup. A welcome new addition to the team this year is James “Psycho” Treweek taking the pressure of Yorkie (still suffering with major twisted sock injury – sorry, calf injury.

We all traveled down together and I caught up on previous matches. Played 4, won 2 and lost 2. A good average and seemingly on track to establish ourselves within the league and crucially to remain up in div 1. The matches appear to have gone well apart from the odd hiccup. A welcome new addition to the team this year is James “Psycho” Treweek taking the pressure of Yorkie (still suffering with major twisted sock injury – sorry, calf injury.

Anyway I digress, on with the gossip. Recently James was playing in the coveted number 1 slot, of which we all aspire to play at and where we often look to our talented players as mentors and ambassadors of our beloved sport. This was a difficult game for James and after some questionable decisions by the marker James became somewhat aggrieved. (Some would say the plot went completely missing). After some stiff exchanges of words between players (with the marker attempting to regain control of the fight match) the game was completed with James finally completely destroying a perfectly good teddy. Less than a week later playing for the second team at short notice again James was not on best form mentally and proceeded to have a very similar game with much teddy destroying. This was followed by a major sulk and no pub visit for food and drinks. 10.00pm now and transport was a major issue as Oakham is a fair way with no car (the team driver of course was at the pub). I’ll catch a train thought James – nope. Next one is 11.30pm. Ah! Taxi. How much?? Finally James managed to get home after catching a lift from a passing Samaritan (luckily). Which brings me to tonight and after some “mild” banter in the car James admitting he was exceptionally embarrassed by his last two matches behavior stated 1. “I will never question a call again” 2. “I’m too embarrassed to play for the second team again” (if ever asked!!!) and finally after overhearing his opponent talking about him in the dressing room saying that he was concerned that James was okay, James said, after slating himself again “……… and he is such a nice bloke”.

So back to the match tonight. Portugal Place were our opponents. Div 1 champions last year. Barker senior was on first against Rupert Jakes. A tough first game ensued with Simon working the hardest. Some good rallies saw a close fist game just taken by Rupert 9-7. The second saw Simon collapse with some dire squash allowing Rupert an easy 9-2 win. The third Simon finally got his act together and stormed through to take it 9-2. Another concentration failure saw Rupert runaway with the first 7 points and under serious self induced pressure Simon found some shots and started to claw back until finally losing 9-6 and the tie 3-1.

Richard was on the other court to tall Neil Raine. Richard never got to grips with the right game plan and played into Neil’s (large) hands. Unable to exert any pressure Richard last 9-1, 9-0, 9-6. The omens weren’t good!

Jon Oakley went next. Yet another disaster. Jon having the same problem could not apply any pressure to his opponent – Andy Whitam, and though some good rallies were played Jon could not get a game and finally went down 9-6, 9-4 and 9-7.

So with the match lost and some long faces about Mark Smith went on against Aqib Kadar. Aqib was a very handy player and from the off it was apparent that Mark was going to get intimate with the court corners. Sure enough, Aqib went on to win 9-1, 9-4, 9-2 playing some excellent squash and keeping Mark on the back foot. Lastly it was psycho’s James turn against a young lad (12 I think) Chris Killyard. This was tough one with some excellent shots from both players. Hard telling rallies with both players working hard saw a close 1st with Chris stealing it at the end 9-6 then going on to dominate the court and take the next two comfortably 9-1, and 9-1.

A great game but a disappointing match as we were well and truly stuffed. A little worrying was their number 1 was not playing!! However none of us really played to their potential – but we will be back. Can anyone afford to sponsor Michael Ferreira jnr a return flight from the States for the return match??

The team won and again no reporters were at the match. However, they have now won 2 and lost 2. The 2 they’ve won have been at home – will they be able to win away next week?

The team won! Unfortunately no reporters were at the match.

Paul York injured himself the day before this match so it was left to Richard Barker to find a replacement. Chappell and Hargreaves were unavailable so Rich went to the top and asked Tania Bailey if she could play but unfortunately she was going up to Manchester the evening of the match. Who else could he ask that could match Tania’s ability? – ah yes, Martin Brewin of course.

So, the team consisted of James Treweek at one, followed by Mark Smith, Jon Oakley, Richard Barker and Martin Brewin.

On first, was Rich playing Murray Jarvis. Rich started off well only to discover that the tin made quite an exciting sound – so he continued to hit it on a rather too regular basis – resulting in losing the first game, 9-7. In the second game Rich started off badly because he continued to hit the tin but he did make an effort later on and gave himself a fighting chance only to start hitting it out of court for no reason whatsoever – he lost the second, 9-7. Nobody could criticise Rich for not being consistent – he also lost the third 9-7. Clearly distraught with his performance, he said afterwards. “That’s best forgotten”.

Meanwhile on the other court Jon was playing Seth Broadbent – and some cracking rallies were had between the two of them. Seth took the first 9-5 and the battle continued into the 2nd game which was very tight but Jon took it 9-8. The rallies were long and some good shots were played. Seth just had the edge in the third taking it 9-7. Plenty of running was done by both men and Jon levelled it to 2-2 taking the fourth game 10-8. In the fifth, Jon took the lead only to allow Seth to claw it back and ultimately take if from his grasp, 9-6.

On the other court, Martin making his guest appearance, was playing Carole Page. Martin was somewhat rusty, this being only his second game of squash in about 4 months, and his back wall shots were just not accurate enough – leaving Carole plenty of space to destroy him. Carole won the first, won the second and won the third. Martin lost. Afterwards, he discovered that his team mates were having bets on how soon in the match he would hit it off the back wall – for the record it was on his fourth shot.

With the match over it was left to the top two boys to try and salvage some points. Mark was playing Matt Brown who showed some high quality squash in the first beating Mark 9-2. There were some good rallies in this match but you always felt that Matt had the edge and he took the next game, 9-5. In the third Mark dug in and tried a final push but Matt was having none of it and took the third 9-6.

Finally it was left to James playing Rob Baddeley. This was a match all about retrieving and both players picked up some great shots. James won the first and the second games. Many long rallies were being played by both men and clearly both were getting tired but in third Rob called it a day and James took the match.

To summarise, the boys got beaten but hopefully on the return match a stronger squad will be available and maybe the result will go the other way – lets hope so!!

Back Row: Mark Davis, Tim Prior, Adrian Chappell, Lawrence Ball, Mark Smith, Jonathan Oakley Front Row: Kim Cozens, Ferlin Barnard, Martin Brewin, Paul York, Richard Barker.

Eleven members representing the Club were Lawrence Ball, Richard Barker, Ferlin Barnard, Martin Brewin, Adrian Chappell, Kim Cozens, Mark Davis, Jon Oakley, Tim Prior, Mark Smith and Paul York. At the airport there were already complaints from Yorkie who was worried that he was going to be sharing a room with somebody who snored! Friendly banter continued and when reaching the hotel in the evening- it was a quick turn around to go out and appreciate the culture of Dublin. Now is it me or is there more to Dublin than Guiness?

Having enjoyed the previous evening it was time to face reality and play some squash. We were fortunate to be playing about midday so we had time to recover warm up and prepare for the match. We were playing Mount Pleasant and some good matches were had by all – though unfortunately due to the delay of this report not many more details can be remembered. So, if any of the tour members remained sober enough to remember the details feel free to enlighten us!!

The evening was most enjoyable starting off in a Thai restaurant then moving on to the bars and then heading home by either foot or for the lucky few, horse and cart!

The following day we were playing at Sutton Lawn Tennis Club. However, Jonathan Oakley seemed to be delaying matters by always being on the mobile phone – not only that but he had two, one on each ear – photos don’t lie!  Also notice how his instinct is to go and stand near a phone box!! Eventually we were off and arrived at the squash courts feeling fit and ready to go. Again some good matches were seen but alas no details remain of the scores! After the match it was time to recover and order the taxis to head back to Dublin airport and head back home.

Outside the hotel, (left to right) Richard, Mark Smith, Martin, Kim, Lawrence, Mark Davis, Adrian and Ferlin

Well done to Ferlin for putting a lot of effort into organising the tour. The question everyone is asking now is when is the next one!

Finally I leave you with pictures showing the evolution regression of man!!

…and for the fuller pictures see below.

First match of the season after being promoted from Division Two – a win here would be a good way to start life in Division One.

The match was set up superbly by Richard Barker and Jon Oakley – they were both on court first and both won there respective matches. As they said, the match was there for the taking.

What happened next, was not good. Mark Smith lost.

Then Paul York lost.

Finally, James Treweek lost.

The result being that the team lost. Rich and Jon were not happy!