The 2015-16 Masters Squash and Racketball event was held at the Nottingham Squash Club over 2 days in April 2016 with 19 entrants.
In the Masters squash there were 4 Mens Age group events and 2 Ladies events. The plan had been for the Squash Age groups events to run over the 2 days with the Racketball event taking place on the Saturday. However, due to the entry size in each Age category these were almost all completed on the Friday. This meant that squash players could be offered the opportunity to play in the Racketball event on the Saturday or to continue playing squash with an All-comers event combining all age groups and sexes. By Saturday afternoon all entrants were suitably replete with enjoyable competition, played in a friendly but competitive manner.
All the Mens Age group events were played as Round robins with all playing all. The largest entry was in the Over 35 event where there was strong competition between all the players. The winner was Craig Blurton retaining his title, though 2nd place Imran Bashir pushed him close in a 5 setter match. Regrettably Paul Lane pulled a calf muscle in his last match or he might have improved on his 3rd place.
In the Mens Over 45 event previous CSSC team player, Simon Amery, made a welcome return to the CSSC events as a Veteran and showed his considerable skill and fitness in defeating the other contenders to take his first CSSC Veterans title. John Falkland was the runner up in this group with Jim Fay 3rd.
The current holder of the Over 55 group, Peter Windram was not to be stopped from retaining his title overcoming both Nigel Williams and Charles Walsmsley by 3 games to 1. Nigel took 2nd place.
In the Over 65 event, CSSC Secretary, Peter Lee, came out of retirement to challenge for the newly named trophy “The Tony Claydon Cup” in memory of our colleague Tony. Despite rarely playing nowadays Peter had not lost his skill or court sense and duly despatched the opposition to win the title and the new cup.
The Ladies Squash events had 4 entrants in the two age groups. Shena Ferrie beat Deborah Atkinson to retain the Over 40 trophy with Marian Holmes defeating Susan Gillam for the Over 50 title. Winner / loser matches followed with Shena and Deborah emerging successful.
On the Saturday squash players were offered the chance to play in the Racketball competition. Two groups of 5 players competed in Round Robin formats with playoffs between the groups for all places.
In the Racketball Final the current holder Ian Frampton played Simon Amery. This was an interesting match to watch as it showed the difference between someone with Racketball skills (Ian) against someone with supreme fitness but less Racketball experience (Simon). After long rallies and a very tight 2nd game Ian emerged successful to retain his title. Fred Saunders took 3rd place.
Squash players not wishing to play Racketball on Saturday played an alternative “Allcomers mix-in” event in 2 round robin groups. In the A group Peter Windram emerged the winner over Nigel Williams. In the B group Jim Fay emerged the winner over Deborah Atkinson, runner-up.
In addition to the events on court, many of the players enjoyed a social evening with supper and quiz on the Friday evening in the club bar. As always the club looked after us well and we are grateful for the use of their excellent facilities.