This year's Squash team event took place in Loughborough as part of the third CSSC Games. The No. 1 seeds and defending champions DSRA (Defence) had arrived looking to make it 'three in a row' having won the previous two national squash team events. They were, however, about to be extremely disappointed going out of the main competition in their first match against the Revenue and Customs second team RCSL B. The RCSL B players Andy Robinson, Chris Roberts, Rakesh Bhandari, Kay Dalton and Hilary Craven were rightly elated at the shock result! Alongside them in the draw the composite team of Dstl (Defence Science & Technology Laboratory) crossed swords with DEFRA but were never seriously threatened running out 4-1 winners.
In the bottom half of the draw the second seeds RCSL A took on the opposition of the Newcastle Estates team, NESLC, but were to prove too strong overcoming them 5-0. Previous winners HASSRA A, however, had to work harder in their encounter with Northern Ireland's team, NICSSA. Although HASSRA won the tie 4-1 both Stanley Campbell and Angela Kennedy of the NICSSA team made life difficult for them!
In the first semi-final RCSL B could not repeat their previous round's success losing 4-1 to Dstl. RCSL's Hilary Craven was their only winner beating Carol Stone in a close fought match 3-2.
The second semi-final clash between RCSL A and HASSRA A looked to be in doubt after HASSRA's No. 1 player Mike Nichols had beaten RCSL's No. 1 Lee Hunt 3-0. That was as good as it got for HASSRA, however, and RCSL powered their way on past the spirited HASSRA’s opposition and on into their first squash team final 4-1.
The final itself between RCSL and Dstl looked to be a finally balanced affair on paper and was to prove so in practice! RCSL's No. 5 player Pat High-Comer opened their scoring by beating Carol Stone 3-0. RCSL's No. 3 Darren Nalton meanwhile had to struggle to overcome the spirited resistance of Stuart Scourfield winning 3-1. This meant Dstl No. 1 player Tony Webb had to win against Lee Hunt to keep their title hopes alive. This he duly achieved putting the pressure onto his No. 4 player Helen Townend to beat the England over-40 International Heather Tweedle. This was to prove a bridge too far for Helen with Heather winning 3-0 and with it the Championship. In the final match between the No. 2 players, Dstl's Tim Burrell was to rub salt into their own wounds by beating Mike Brean 3-0 making the overall match score 3-2.
The Plate event for first and second round losers was run on a Round Robin basis with two groups of three teams. In Group 1 DEFRA crept past both HASSRA B (3-2) and NESCL (4-1). The only cloud to their success was the loss of their No. 5 player Helen Hoult to injury. Helen unfortunately had to be taken to hospital for treatment but bravely returned on crutches the following day to follow the fortunes of her team!
The second group was won by DSRA beating both the Rent Office (3-2) and NICSSA (4-1) in an attempt to re-establish some of their lost pride. Again, however, DSRA's confidence took another setback when in the 'Playoffs' between groups 1 and 2 they were beaten into second place by a worthy DEFRA team (3-2).
The event organiser, Linda Parsley, in reviewing the two day's competition was enthusiastic with the competitiveness of the event remarking that out of the 19 team matches that had been played, ten matches had been decided by a 3-2 margin, whilst seven had been decided 4-1. Play had started on the Thursday at 10.30 am and had continued on all five courts through to 5 pm on the Friday. Players had competed in up to five matches over the two days and had done so in an excellent spirit of sportsmanship and friendliness.
The squash trophies and medals were presented by Graham Taylor of OSF (On Site Fitness), one of the Games sponsors (main sponsor being CSiS). Being a part of the larger multi-sport Games, competitors and supporters were able to enjoy a superb range of entertainment and social activities following each days play.
The squash team event is planned again for next season possibly at Nottingham Squash Club. Keep your 'eyes peeled' on the Civil Service Squash Website (www.cssc-squash.co.uk) for further details of this and other squash activities.
