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!!