In the curtain-opener to the new season, the London Civil Service Squash team travelled the short distance to Pall Mall to play the RAF Club. With a solitary victory and two losses to the same side last season, the match was always predicted to represent a tough opening challenge, and the scale of the challenge soon became apparent when the Civil Service's first man out Phil Stamp lost 3-0 to his opposite number, with Tom Lantree's opposition also proving too strong - beating Tom 3-0 - though the scoreline was perhaps a harsh outcome for what was in reality a closely fought game.
The new captain of the side, Jamie Turner, was therefore forced to call on the team's big gun Tim Burrell in an attempt to turn around the team's fortunes, a challenge duly accepted, and accepted with aplomb by Tim, achieving a 3-1 victory in a match dominated by long rallies and crafty nicks. In the next match up Jamie failed however to build on this success, losing 3-0 despite repeated valiant attempts to chase the ball around the court against an admittedly superior opponent. This left Dave to play the match's final game with nothing to gain but the pride of the civil service, but despite his best efforts, the RAF again proved too strong, winning 3-0.
The side now have two weeks to lick their wounds and get in some more gym sessions before welcoming Sheen to Southbank on the 2nd October, where hopefully the home advantage will help the side to their first (of hopefully many) victories in the forthcoming season.