Not how they wanted to start new year

Sporting new pairs of shoes and rackets, and a few more inches on the waistlines, the Weald 2nds squash team failed to get the good start they wanted to the new year as they lost 2-3 to Corals 4ths.

Julian Drage played his usual tidy game but was on the back foot against a hard-hitting opponent for the first two games before staying in the long rallies and tightening up his shots to level the scores. However, he could not maintain the impetus, eventually losing the decider.

Dave Jump met his match as his lobs and drops were matched by his opponent as he went down 1-3, while after a slightly scrappy start, Tom Knight pulled his game together to dominate the court and win in three.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Noel Poncelet struggled with his safe game, which played onto the racket of his opponent, whose superior speed and shots earned a 3-0 win.

In another match of marathon rallies, Chris Torney took an early 2-0 lead only to lose the advantage in the third before plugging away with the safe shots and a lot of running to clinch the match 3-1 on a nail-biting tie-break.

With two early wins under their belts from Sarah Naish and James Holloway, the 4ths were confident of a win against Crawley 3rd but had to wait until the very end to clinch the result.

Jim Gowans used his retrieving skills around the court to the full but could not stop the unrelenting returns coming back at speed as he lost 0-3 to a useful opponent.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Trevor Morgan failed to get into his match and despite a few glimmers of hope, lost in three and that left Ben Nelson having to save the day. He relentlessly chased down the ball in a high speed and hard-hitting match, tiring in the third but gamely working his way into the fourth to run out a 3-1 victor of a highly watchable match. Sarah Naish