Posts Tagged ‘Tours’

Stamford Squash Club achieve 5-1 success against Portuguese

Although many squash clubs find their activities somewhat curtailed during the summer months, with many players opting for the fresh air activities of golf and tennis, Stamford Squash Club seem to be taking the opposite tack.

Having recently returned from a stimulating tour in Edinburgh they found themselves on the receiving end of a challenge from the Monte Aventino Squash Club from Porto, Portugal, currently touring in the UK.

The fixture against Monte Aventino S. C. was arranged by Carlose Correia, of the Peterborough District Squash League. Carlos met Monte Aventino’s No. 1 player and coach Paulo Pinto five years ago when playing in Porto, where Paulo runs his own squash school and since then Carlos has taken several squash teams over to play in Portugal.

The match was played on Friday 2nd June at the Stamford Squash Club courts. The teams, consisting of six players each, were played as follows:

Monte Aventino Squash Club, Porto:
1 Paulo Pinto, 2 Paulo Amorim, 3 Pedro Silva, 4 Francisco Lupi, 5 Luìs Carvalho, 6 Felipe Vitorino

Stamford Squash Club:
1 Alastair Gunn, 2 Glynn Williams, 3 Richard Barker, 4 Ian Burnham, 5 Martin Shippey, 6 Dave Spooner.

Dave Spooner and Felipe Vitorino were first to play, Dave very quickly taking the first game 9-4, and in spite of a very spirited and energetic defence from Felipe, took the next two games 9-3 and 9-3.

The next game, between Martin Shippey and Luìs Carvalho began in much the same way, with a score of 9-3 to Martin, but Luìs, taking better advantage of his speed and agility in the second game, took it 9-6. The third game looked as if it might also go to Luìs had Martin not slowed the pace right down. Lobs and drops produced the desired effect and he took the next two games 9-4, 9-3.

Two games played and two decisive wins to Stamford.

The third game, Ian Burnham against Francisco Lupi, proved itself to be the longest match of the six played. Ian, sensing the younger player’s stamina advantage, decided to play a game of alternating attack and defence. The first game was played with dazzling speed and ferocious drives from Ian, who backed off in the second, allowing Francisco to take an easy game. Ian, coming back in the third with more speed and powerful drives, again backed off in the fourth, giving another easy one to Francisco, and on to the gruelling and crucial fifth game. The final scoreline clearly illuminating Ian’s strategy; 9-7, 0-9, 9-3, 2-9, 9-7 and another win for Stamford.

Playing in the third position, Richard Barker and Pedro Silva exhibited squash playing at another level, this game being characterised by long stamina-sapping rallies, astonishing retrievals, clever reversals and heavily disguised drops and drives, but in the end Richard’s strength proved decisive, giving him a 9-4, 10-8, 9-0 win.

In the second position, Glyn Williams was drawn against Porto’s Paulo Amorim, in Glyn’s words “the craziest squash player Portugal could produce” After Glyn took the first game convincingly, Paulo pulled out an array of court dives to snatch the second 10-8. The third was also closely fought with Paulo, now bleeding as a result of grazes sustained during the dives, taking an early lead. However, Glyn managed to claw the points back and win 10-9. At this point Paulo retired from the match due to his ‘injuries’, giving a final result of 3-1 to Stamford.

So far, Stamford remained unbeaten, but there was one match remaining to be played, against top Portuguese coach Paulo Pinto, who is also nationally ranked. Could Stamford’s no. 1 Alastair Gunn hold the line against a player of such formidable standing?

The first game was played carefully, each player sounding the other out, looking for opportunities and weaknesses, of which there were few on either side. Alastair’s game, which combined superb anticipation with always-disguised and deadly accurate drives down the walls or cross-court, saw him through the first game with a 9-7 win. Paulo came back in the second, relentlessly chasing everything down, returning everything with pace and precision, leaving nothing to chance and in the end just edging a 10-9 win. Having seen what worked, Paulo stuck to his guns, and continued to pick off point after point through the third and fourth exhausting games, the final scoreline of 9-7, 8-10, 2-9, 5-9 telling the tale of Alastair’s elegant and intelligent game being inexorably ground down by technical and tactical excellence.

At a brief award ceremony which took place at The Dolphin, the Monte Aventino Squash Club team showed themselves to be extremely polite, sportsmanlike and good natured representatives of their country. Cups and medals were awarded to both teams and it was agreed that a return match in Porto would be arranged soon.

Following Stamford Squash Club’s success in the Peterborough District League in which all three teams gained positions in the top three in each division, a tour to Edinburgh over the weekend of 19th – 21st May was arranged.

Matches were to be played against the Edinburgh Squash Club on the Saturday, and following a rest and relaxation period overnight in Scotland’s capital (aka “a night on the town”), a further series of doubles games on Sunday before returning to Stamford.

All places on the tour were filled within days of the notice being posted and a squad of 16 players duly made their way to Peterborough station on Friday morning for the three-and-a-half-hour journey to Edinburgh.

Karen Cozens has supplied a superb banquet for us to enjoy on the way up! The 2 organisers Dave Spooner and Lawrence Ball did all they could top make it an entertaining journey splitting the 16 of us into 2 teams – the competitive nature of us all had started!

Once we arrived at Edinburgh, there was bowling arranged and a few other competitive games, so it was a quick look at the view from the hotel and then straight back out!

First off was the bowling, with the 2 teams – there was a competitive match between all, with Jason Rudkin winning the fastest speed just short of 25mph.

Next up was a bit of light entertainment, Air Hockey, Dancing, Shooting and more….

Later on that night Paul wonders if his training regime is such a good idea. Anyhow after managing to get back to the hotel it was a day of squash to follow.

While Stamford may well punch above its weight in the Peterborough District League, the opposition north of the border proved a little tougher. The excellent facilities of the Edinburgh Squash Club were more than matched by both the hospitality and the high levels of skill demonstrated by its squash playing members.

When play commenced on Saturday, in what turned out to be an indication of things to come, Stamford’s no. 1 Jonathan Hand went down in a decisive 3-0 victory to Edinburgh’s Simon Boughton, both players demonstrating superb levels of accuracy and inventiveness.

At No. 2 Alastair Gunn’s skilful and deceptive game achieved no better against Richard Snowden at 0-3, while Glynn Williams at No. 3, almost tasting victory at 8 points to 3 in the fifth game against Adam Ralston, saw his lead slowly whittled away to finally lose 10-9 for a slightly more respectable (for Stamford) 3-2 result to Edinburgh.

Paul York, at No. 4, produced his usual flashes of brilliant and quicksilver play but failed to clinch the fifth against Graham Lind – another closely fought 3-2 to Edinburgh.

At No. 5 Simon Barker’s hard cross court drives and blistering boasts won him no more than a 1-3 defeat at the hands of Edinburgh’s Charlie Robertson, while brother Richard Barker at No. 6 achieved a slightly better 2-3 against Richard Melliso.

Six games played and only three near-misses for Stamford – the pressure was building up for the remaining ten to achieve a win.

At No. 7 Martin Brewin’s unconventional game of lobs, back wall boasts and outrageous deception finally achieved a 3-2 scoreline against David Ireson – Edinburgh 6, Stamford 1 – was the tide turning?

Peter Hand, on at No. 8, while failing to keep the winning streak going, did achieve 2-3 against Dave Shaw in this the first of two matches played, heroically achieving a 3-2 win in his second match, this time against Les Wilson.

At No. 9 Dave Spooner, while taking Eric Hogg to a fifth game with his hard left –handed floor-skimming cross-court drives, failed to close his opponent out; another 3-2 to Edinburgh.

Lawrence Ball at No. 10 achieved no more than one game against a determined Bruce Johnson; 3-1 to Edinburgh, while Ian Burnham at No. 11 fared even worse against a confident Ashley Mears: a 3-0 result to Edinburgh; the tide was turning back!

Martin Shippey, playing at No. 12 managed a 3-1 win against Edinburgh’s Moira Atkinson, a score which husband Paul Atkinson promptly avenged by beating Kim Cozens, playing at No. 13, 3-0.

Finally, Ferlin Barnard, benefiting from his intense training regime during the weeks prior to the tour, achieved a well-deserved 3-2 against Edinburgh’s Keith Barwell.

The final result for the day.

Squad members Tim Prior and Jason Rudkin, although not playing because of injuries gamely supported their team from the balcony, so with a total of 15 games played Edinburgh won 11 and Stamford 4; certainly a decisive win for Edinburgh, but with 8 of the scorelines at 3-2, clearly a hard-fought tie.

After hard squash games – some had a snooze – they will remain nameless, though pictures tell no lies! AND look what it says on his t-shirt, — PARTY!!

The local drinking establishments were waiting for us and so a tour of the city followed….

The following day doubles game was played by all – and cracking matches resulted without too many injuries!!

After lunch it was time to leave Edinburgh and head back to Stamford but a great time was had by all – much due to the hospitality of our hosts at Edinburgh Sports Club!

Finally, as mentioned earlier in the report – we were split into 2 teams and the photos taken at the beginning really did show who were going to win all the way along……
- the team that know how to position themselves for a photo!!

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.

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.

Nine members of Stamford Squash club embarked on the Millenium tour to Holland playing two top clubs in the Amsterdam area.

The tour was open to all members of the club, however the party was made up of experienced players all of whom regularly play in the Peterborough District Leagues for Stamford.

Stamfords first match was against the Alkmaar Club situated on the outskirts of Amsterdam. They had 600 members with an impressive 12 glass back courts.

However, undauted by the size of the task, the Stamford team played with great skill. Brothers Richard and Simon Barker providing skilful performance overcoming their opponents both with a scoreline of 3-0. Paul York underlined his status as Stamford number one with a good 3-1 win over the Alkmaar number one. Jonathan Oakley overcame his recent groin injury and produced a stirring 3-2 win over a very fit opponent who took Jonathan to a nail biting 10-9 in the final game.

Unfortunately with 4 of the other team members losing it was left to Simon Richardson to see if Stamford could take the tie. Although Simon hadn’t been unable to play much recently he took the first game with ease 9-3.
The tension then rose as Simon gifted the second but reasserted himself to take the next two games 9-7, 9-5 to decide the tie in favour of Stamford.
The highlight of the day was a doubles match in which the unbeaten pairing of Paul York and Mark Smith took on a formidable Dutch pairing one of whom was a former North Holland District player.
This match created great interest in a gruelling contest which lasted 1 hour 15 minutes with the Stamford pair remaining unbeaten taking the match narrowly 3-2.

The next days contest saw Stamford take on the Amstel Park club from Amsterdam which is a spitting distance from the famous Amstel Stadium. This time Stamford faced a team which had been depleted by injury and other commitments.
Again Stamford took to the task this time Ferlin Barnard coming out victorious 3-0 against his opponent. Kim Cozens and Martin Brewin emulated him with solid 3-1 victories.
The toughest match involved Mark Smith and the Dutch clubs semi professional, ‘Skipio’.
The dutchman took the first game with ease but Smith used all his experience to slowly come back although he lost the second it was soon becoming a closer encounter.
The Stamford man was able to probe weaknesses and identifying that his opponent over played the front wall trickle boast. Smith eventually won overcoming severe fatigue after the encounters of the weekend. Stamford took this tie 6-3 underlining the playing strength of the club.

The opposing Captains were given Tour shirts and prints of Stamford kindly donated by club member and local artist Graham Wright.