A new Ladies Champion and another win for James!!

The National Civil Service Squash Singles Championship 2015 was again held over 2 days in November at the Nottingham Squash Club. A successful event, both competitively  and socially, it attracted players from all over the country to compete in a graded event, aimed at players of all standards.

Players were grouped into 4 grades in the mens competition and 2 in the ladies competition. This year all grades played the PARS scoring system,( the top mens grades to 11 points and the others to 15 points) which worked well.

Strong competition for the Mens title

The standard of entries in the top grades of the mens competition was high, with many of the CSSC National men’s team playing. The top 2 grades were combined for the first knock-out round, with winners moving into the A grade event and losers into the B grade event.  Last year’s Champion, James Hodson, had several previous champions and a few newcomers ready to challenge however James showed his skills by duly advancing to the final without dropping a game. His semi-final opponent was newcomer James Whelan who had beaten new team player Ethan Thornton in the previous round.

The seeded players in the other half of the draw were mens team captain, Tim Burrell and Tony Webb, both former Champions. Tim didn’t lose a game in the first 2 rounds, though he was pushed in the first round by Simon Ho. Tony was stretched by newcomer Adam Lavis, dropping the first game but then sealing his place in the semi-final with a 3-1 win. This semi final was strongly contended with both Tony and Tim playing some excellent squash in a friendly but competitive manner. It was a close match with Tim emerging the winner by 3 games to 1.

This meant another final between Tim and James. The gallery was packed and the first game did not disappoint as there was a fine display of excellent squash. Both players played and retrieved the ball extremely well and the outcome was in doubt until the last ball. Unfortunately although Tim had quite a few chances to take the game he was not able to close it out and James took this first game 15/13. After this Tim’s energy and resolve deserted him a bit and James was able to forge ahead and take the title with a 3-0 win.  Congratulations James for a 4^th consecutive title.   

The A grade Plate was a closely contested Round Robin with Adam emerging the winner over Ethan, who narrowly beat Sam Farnham into 3^rd place.

Mens B, C and D Grade Events

The B grade competition had some longer, possibly closer matches with several 3-1 and 3-2 contests. No-one had an easy run. In one half Mark Cullington survived tough matches against Simon Ho and CSSC Over 35 Champion, Craig Blurton, to reach the final. Here he met Tom Littleton, who had been taken to 5 in his semi-final match by Peter Windram (CSSC Over 55 Champion).  Mark started his final quest against Tom with a fine first game win. However Tom rallied to win the next 3 games in a long gruelling match to take the B grade title. Even the 3^rd/4^th playoff in this section was long and hard with Peter Windram emerging the winner over Craig Blurton by 3 games to 2. Simon Ho took the Plate title though only after a long 5 setter with Dan Willets. Dan followed this with a starring role marking more than his fair share of matches.

This year there were fewer entries in the C and D grades. These were initially combined and a series of Round Robins and playoffs were used to decide the winners.  In the first group Matt Thomas won all his matches to progress to the final, where he played John Frankland, the winner of the second group. Matt, however, was not to be denied the title, taking the final match with another 3 -0 win. Charles Walmsley, who had narrowly lost his match in the group with John  then beat Jim Fay to take the Plate title. The D grade event was settled with a match between Graham Cole and Richard Kendrick, which Graham won 3-1 in some close games.

Ladies events

The ladies entry was disappointingly low, though the quality of the squash was high. The 2 grade events were finally combined into one when only 4 players arrived on the day. The event was played as a Round Robin and some fine matches resulted. Newcomer Becky Campbell took the 2014 Champion, Keeley Grindle, a bit by surprise in her first match and with the games swinging first this way and then that, it was Becky who emerged the winner in the fifth game. This set the bar for Helen Midgley, the 2013 Champion, but despite all her efforts Helen was not able to hold back Becky from a fine 3-1 win and the Ladies Championship title. Helen then went on to take 2^nd place with a win over Keeley. The 4^th member of the group, Shena Ferrie, (CSSC Ladies Over 40 Champion),  had initially entered the C grade, but gamely chose to play with the big guns, and had a great couple of days with fine results against the other girls taking games off both Keeley and Helen.

Plate events were run where possible keeping everyone busy on court both days. A list of prize winners appears below with full results available on the website.

CSSC National Squash Singles Championship, November 2015 – Prize winners

CSSC Squash organiser Linda Parsley presented prizes and trophies. She thanked Nottingham Squash Club for their hospitality and excellent facilities and also the players for their sportsmanship.  The Friday evening Quiz had again been popular and provided players with the opportunity to relax and socialise after a day’s squash. The feedback from the players was positive with the squash, excellent facilities and friendly atmosphere alongside competitive spirit being noted as key aspects of players enjoyment. 

The next CSSC Squash event will be the Team competition in Nottingham on 5^th/6th February 2016. The Masters (Age Group Singles) event will take place on 22^nd/23rd April, with a one day Racketball event on the 23rd April, also in Nottingham. Please see our website (cssc-squash.co.uk) for further details and entry forms.  Details of our events can also be found on the CSSC website (www.cssc.co.uk).