2022 Civil Service Squash Singles Championships

CSSC Squash, back on the road after lockdown, followed its 2021 National Singles event with an equally successful one in November 2022, held again at the Nottingham Squash Club.

Despite the current mens and ladies captains and several of the top players being  absent, an impressive cast of 22 men and 5 ladies were anticipated at the club on Friday 18^th November, ready to do battle on the court. This included the current 7 times Champion, James Hodson, as number one seed. Along with many of the regular top CSSC players an encouraging number of newcomers had entered and there were players across all grades A to E.   Unfortunately, by the start, injury and illness had reduced the men players to 19.

Three competitions were held – Ladies, Mens combined A,B,C grades and Mens D,E grades. These started on Friday lunchtime and continued through to the finals on Saturday afternoon.

The Ladies event, with 5 entrants was held as a Round Robin with all players playing each other. After a number of hard fought and close matches, newcomer Kristy Watson came through the winner, with Shena Rolfe runner up. A new name on the Ladies Trophy.   

The Mens ABC group was played as a knock-out event. The first round resulted in the losing players dropping down to the B grade event. The successful A Grade players played a further series of knock out matches with the next round losers going into the A Plate event.

In the top half of the A Grade, the semi final was between Chris Mason-Thom and the number 1 seed and 7 times champion James Hodson. James was not going to be stopped in his quest for an 8^th title and he overcame Chris 3-0.

In the other half of the draw, the semi-final was between Jonathan Simpson (who had earlier defeated ex-Champion John McFarlane) and the Number 2 seed Craig Webb, a losing semi-finalist last year. Craig booked his place in the final by beating Jonathan 3-0. However, despite a good effort in the final, Craig was not able to take the title away from James. Eight in a row now for James!! Can he reach John McFarlane’s total of 10?

Losers in the second round of the A Grade event went into a Plate competition, which was won by John Perry.

The BC Grade for losers in the first round consisted of five players and started as a knock out, but changed to a round robin format after the first round.  There were some tough matches played in this group, especially between David Nethercott and Tom Littleton with David’s 3-2 win giving him the B Grade title.  The losers from the B Grade went into a C Grade event. Unfortunately, an early retirement gave Paul Clarke a walkover to the C title.

The men’s DE Grade consisted of 6 players so two Round Robin groups of three  players were initially played.  Louis Cowling beat both his opponents to win one group and . Tom Dodd did likewise in the second group. Tom then went on the win the DE Grade without losing a game..  The 3rd place players from these 2 groups played each other for the Plate, which was won by Gary Butler

All the players in this grade had some hard fought matches. Many were new to CSSC Squash and we hope to see them in other events in the future.

The squash matches were spread over the two days, Friday and Saturday and, as usual, a light hearted Quiz was held at the club on Friday evening with the club providing supper, giving players and organisers a chance to relax..  All in all it was a very successful event –a lot of good squash played in a good spirit.

Final placings