The venue for the 2012/13 CSSC Squash Championships was again the popular Nottingham Squash Club. Many of the main Departments were represented with 35 players from all over the country competing in mixed teams of 3 men and 2 ladies. The competitiveness of all the players was apparent with all levels of squash in evidence.
Last year’s Champions, London region, had been unable to raise a team this year, The seven teams that entered were divided initially into 2 groups, one of 3 and one of 4 teams, playing in a ‘Round Robin’ format, with the top two teams from each group progressing to semi-final stages of the main event.
In the first group, many times winners, DSRA (Defence) came top with wins over HASSRA ‘B’ and SPARTA. SPARTA, the Department of Transport team, lost to DSRA in a close tie 2-3 with just 2 games separating the teams and took the 2nd place slot to move into the semi-finals.
In the second group DEFRA, with a strong all round team, beat the three other teams to emerge as the winners with HASSRA ‘A’ runners up. There were close 3-2 ties between HASSRA ‘A’ and both DEFRA and Team8 who came 3rd. Team8, a team made up of individuals from no particular office or department, had some good results losing 2-3 to HASSRA ‘A’ and 1-4 to DEFRA, beating Land Registry 4-1. Land Registry struggled against the top 2 teams but had a good tie with Team8, showing their customary team spirit, sportsmanship and effort.
The first of the semi-finals saw Defence play HASSRA ‘A’. The strength of the HASSRA ladies, once again played a crucial part. HASSRA’s captain, Sian Hughes, started with a win over Lisa Wallbank, who unfortunately had to retire with a pulled calf muscle and HASSRA’s Jackie Codman was too strong for Lorna Riggs leaving the Defence men to fight to win the remaining matches. DSRA no’s 2 and 3, John Ashton and Simon Amery had good wins over newcomer Tom Foster and Chris Beldon leaving DSRA captain Marc Aldridge to take on the challenge from Jonathan Simpson. Jonathan took the first 2 games 9/5, 9/5. Marc then turned the match with a 9/1 game followed by a 9/7 game to get back into contention The outcome was always uncertain but Marc finally pulled off a win taking the 5th game, the match and the tie, taking Defence through to the final.
The second semi-final between DEFRA and SPARTA in a similar way saw the strength of the DEFRA ladies as being crucial to their potential success! Although they won both, the DEFRA men could not match the strength of the SPARTA men, losing all 3 matches 3-0.
So the final would see Defence, line-up against SPARTA. Defence had won their meeting the previous day in the group stages, but with Defence conceding the no. 5 ladies spot, it would be a different situation for the final. Nicola Beachill playing at no.4 for SPARTA won her match with Lorna, so the Defence men had to win all the three men’s clashes. The earlier match between the no. 2’s, John Ashton and SPARTA’s captain Mike Nichols, had gone in favour of SPARTA. However this time, John played a tight match to achieve a 3-0 victory. Unfortunately neither Marc at 1 or Simon Amery at 3 who had previously won their matches could repeat their success, Marc losing 3-1 to SPARTA’s Adam Curry and Simon losing 3-1 to Roger Camp. So a well deserved win by 4 matches to 1 for SPARTA who, after being runners-up for the past two years, had won their second Championship
The Plate competition for the 3rd and 4th place teams in the groups was played as a Round Robin and was won by HASSRA ‘B’ who defeated Team8 by 4 matches to 1 and Land Registry 5-0. Repeating their highly competitive match of the previous day, Team8 and Land Registry were locked in battle for a considerable period with Team8 emerging 3-2 victors.
The previous night, HASSRA ‘A’ had a victory in the Team Quiz when they saw off all other teams convincingly in an enjoyable social evening. Land Registry took 2nd place. Trophies and medals were presented by CSSRA’s President Marian Holmes, who had competed in the HASSRA B team and presented herself with a Plate medal! Organiser, Linda Parsley thanked both the Nottingham’s Squash Club for once again providing us with their excellent facilities and the players for their sportsmanlike attitude over the 2 days of competition. Player’s comments were encouraging with friendliness, social aspects, standard of facilities and organisation being key enjoyment factors.
The next Squash Event will be the Masters (Age Group) Tournament, to be held in Nottingham on the 26th and 27th April 2013 combined with a Racketball competition on the 27th April at the same venue. Information on this and other CSSC squash events can be found on the CSSC squash website – www.cssc-squash.co.uk
After that, next season gets off to a great start with the Squash Singles being held as part of the CSSC Games at Loughborough on 12th & 13th September 2013. This will be a graded event to cater for all standards. Being held in the Games means that there will be a fantastic atmosphere with lots of social events provided by CSSC. Get your entry in early. Details on the CSSC website – www.cssc.co.uk
