CSSC Squash Singles Championships 2004

This years Civil Service Sports Council Squash Singles Open Championships were again held at the Nottingham Squash Club, but over a Friday/Saturday. The event, open to any CSSC member, attracted an even larger than usual entry of 42 players from all over the country for mens and ladies graded, veteran and vintage age group events. The Nottingham Squash Club provided excellent facilities and atmosphere for the event and arrangements with the local Moat House hotel provided a good accommodation package for those who chose to make a weekend of it.

The men’s competitions were run in grades, with the ladies run as single grade events, due to the number of entrants. Both round robin and knock out with plate formats were used, resulting in over 70 matches, giving all competitors a minimum of 2 matches each day, sometimes more.

In the second semi-final, John McFarlane got off to a great start to go 2-0 up. However Mervyn held his nerve and slowly the match swung his way. He led 7-2 in the fifth but John managed to get back to 7-8 before a missed drop shot that allowed Mervyn back to win one of the best matches seen at the championships.

The winner of the Men’s A grade and CSSC Champions trophy was Marc Aldridge, retaining his title and again beating the CSSC men’s captain, Mervyn Davies, to 1st place. This event started as a 16 draw before being split into an A and B event. The quality of the squash was excellent and both semi-finals became high quality matches of endurance. In the first, Simon Amery, a new recruit to the CSSC Squash team, took Marc Aldridge all the way with long punishing rallies, Marc just managing to keep on top to win 9-5 in the fifth.

Inevitably, after such two great semi-finals, the final itself was a more muted affair, with both players running on reserves, but it was an excellent display of squash and fitness, with Marc finally winning 3-1. Mark Bangs, last years B grade winner, convincingly won the A grade Plate event. The B grade event was closely contested and saw Andrew Raine beat Mike Westerdale 3-2 in the final and Chris Dean winning the Plate event. The C grade event for the more social players was won by Paul Lane who beat the new CSSRA Treasurer and last years C grade winner, Jim Fay, in the final. Rob Peters playing social but determined squash won the Plate by winning all his matches in the Round Robin group – well done Rob.

The Ladies event was disappointing in that the number of entries had not increased, but despite this, it was good to see several new faces. Last years champion, Janet Glynn, was unable to defend her title, but a worthy new champion emerged in Sue Beecroft. Sue, a regular player in the CSSC Ladies Squash team beat the current Ladies Captain, Sian Hughes, in the final of both the main and Veterans event, with Lorraine Barnes coming 3rd. Kay Dalton won the Plate.

The Men’s Veterans event for the over 45s was strongly contended by some very fit players, many of whom played in the Main competition as well as the Veterans, and saw Tom Burton this year beating Geoff Irwin in the final of the A grade, a reversal of last year. The Plate was run as a Round Robin and was won by Nigel Williams. Enough entrants enabled a B grade veteran's event, which was won by Dave Kennedy. The Vintage Trophy, for the over 55s, was decided by two highly competitive players in the final match of the Pool “A” group. The combatants Peter Lee and Tony Claydon contested an extremely hard fought match, with no quarter given - although lots of “lets” asked for. Tony Claydon finally won the “nail biter” 10-9 in the fifth game, although both players had chances to win the match. The B grade event was won by the gentlemanly, though competitive, Chris Johnstone.

Linda Parsley, CSSRA Chairman and event organiser, presented the trophies and prizes to the successful players. Thanks were given to co-organisers Paul Angelides and Ian Lockey and to all the players, many of whom had travelled from far flung corners of the country (Devon, Scotland, Wales, Tyneside and Kent) to compete. All players were thanked for their conduct on and off court and their willingness to fit in with a very tight schedule of matches and congratulated on their energy and enthusiasm.

Overall, the tournament was hard fought but played in an extremely friendly environment. It was good to see the number of new players significantly up across all the events and standards, especially among the more socially minded players. This is an excellent tournament at probably one of the best clubs in the country. The addition of the Club’s masseur on hand for treatment for the players helped to ease tired muscles at the end of the day.

A full list of prize winners is shown below: