On 26th/ 27th April it was a welcome return to the prestigious Nottingham Squash Club for the 2013 CSSC Masters Singles Championships . The club as usual giving a warm and friendly welcome to participants and guests.

Entrant numbers were up for a third consecutive year, slightly boosted by the introduction of a new one day Racketball tournament on the Saturday. This year also saw the introduction of a new O65 Squash Event to give the more mature players competition against their contemporaries.

With the regular stalwarts and several newcomers, everyone was kept busy on court for the two days. In addition to the battles on court, a meal and quiz were organised within the club for the Friday evening. Players and their guests were able to relax and enjoy a mental rather than a physical challenge. This particular event saw quiz king and CSSC Squash Treasurer Jim Fay lead a team to victory.

All the events were very keenly contested in a sporting manner and most players acted as markers and referees, some trying their hand at refereeing and marking a competitive match for the first time. With England Squash Referee Paul Clarke amongst the entrants, there was always help on hand to give assistance and advice where necessary.

The inaugural Men’s O65 event was won by the evergreen Tony Claydon with the runner-up spot going to Chris Johnstone. The event was played as a round robin, along with Rob Shepherd and Les House who finished in third and fourth places respectively.

The Men’s Over 55 was also played as a round robin. The winners trophy went to last year’s runner-up Stephen Bullamore with this year’s runner-up being Nigel Williams. Charles Walmsley and Paul Clarke completed the group and finished in third and fourth place.

The Men’s Over 45 Championship was won by Peter Windram, and it’s now four in a row for Peter. Fred Sanders took second place (last year’s O55 winner, dropping an age group to try his hand against the youngsters). Robin Jennings finished third, Martyn Sharp took fourth place with Anthony Wilson and David Barron-Robinson being unable to complete their matches and therefore taking fifth and sixth places.

The Men’s Over 35 saw newcomer Phil Perchard take the title overcoming Glen Appleby in the final.
The Plate competition was won by Paul Wilkinson with the Plate Runner-Up being Jim Fay. The main event was played as a knockout with a round robin for the plate.

Racketball

For the inaugural event the number of entrants and standard of play was encouraging. It introduced some players who take part in UK-Racketball.com national events to CSSC Sport and made it a very challenging event for all entrants. The main event was played as a knockout with the Plate being a round robin. Played solely on the Saturday, some of the squash players also tried their hand. CSSRA Chairman Linda Parsley emerged from exile to participate and was surprised to find that her first round opponent in the top half of the draw was the sixth ranked England O50 Gabriel Uttley. Linda put up a good show but her opponent’s experience, power and skill was a bit too much to overcome.

In the lower half of the draw, Phil Perchard (that’s right the O35 squash winner) showed that he was no slouch at this game either, coming through his quarter and semi final matches in straight sets.
The final itself, was a closely contested affair with Gabriel edging out Phil to take a 2/1 victory 11/9, 7/11, 11/4. Phil finding that combining the two tournaments of squash and racketball on one day can be a little tiring.
Linda Parsleys’ skills shone through as she came through the round robin event to win the Plate.

Radar Gun Challenge

Another fun event for this year was a Radar Gun Challenge to determine who was the hardest striker of a squash ball.

Most of the squash and racketball competitors wanted to try their luck and it was Robin Jennings with a hit of 122mph who obtained the title of being the ‘CSSC Squash & Racketball Big Bash Speed King’.

As ever, it was fun meeting up with old friends and making some new ones.

Feedback from the group indicated that everyone had a busy and enjoyable experience. The event took in two days of squash, a day of racketball, a social Friday evening quiz, and a Saturday lunch.

The next National Squash Singles which will be held at the CSSC Games will take place on September 12th and 13th 2013 at Loughborough University further details and an entry form will be available on the website.

For all things CSSC Squash including match reports and some video from this and previous events see the website at http://www.cssc-squash.co.uk.