Crown Services Quadrangular Report 2009

Civil Service V Police V Combined Services V Fire Service

The Civil Service Men's Squash Team arrived at Nottingham Squash Rackets Club looking to return to winning ways in this quadrangular tournament. We had another strong side right down the order including a rare appearance from the evergreen John McFarlane.

Our first match was against the Combined Services, with Marc Aldridge and John McFarlane on court playing 3 and 5 respectively. John was convincing and won 3-0 while Marc seemed to struggle against Chris Wilson and lost to the same score. Next on was myself and Tony Webb. Tony played well and won 3-1 beating a very experienced player, while I made hard work of my match but eventually came through 3-2. This meant we had won the match with just Tom Power left to play. Despite his 3-0 defeat against ex-professional Sam Miller, Tom played some marvellous squash with the score not reflecting the closeness of the match. The Fire Service struggled against a very strong Police side and lost 4-1, so the scene was set for the matches on Saturday morning.

At 10am we were due on court against the Fire Service. These morning matches always seem more of a struggle and 4 out of our 5 matches went the full distance. John again paved the way with a gritty 3-2 win while Marc lost 3-2, going down 9/7 in the 5th. Tony won 3-2 whilst I lost 3-2 so with the match at 2-2 the pressure was on Tom. It was nip and tuck with the first 2 games going to Tom and then to his opponent. Losing the 2nd game seemed to kick Tom into gear and he played like a different man in the 3rd and 4th winning both games 9/1. This meant we had won the match 3-2 but more importantly we had 18 points in the bag.

The Police again were very strong and beat the Combined Services 4-1. This therefore set up an interesting encounter for the last match between ourselves and the Police with potentially the winner taking all.

Unfortunately it wasn't to be. As we only had a squad of 5 players it meant we all had to play every game and some of the earlier 3-2 matches had taken their toll. We lost the match 4-1 with Tom as the only winner but were still pleased to finish a creditable 2nd. The Combined Services took 3rd by beating the Fire Service 4-1.

It was another good tournament with some quality squash being played by all 4 teams, the Police, however were strong and it will take a team in top form if anyone is to challenge them next year.

I would like to thank all my players for again giving 100% in their matches. The Civil Service Ladies were very supportive and also played some excellent squash themselves in their Triangular tournament (please see Sian Hughes' report). The Club must also be thanked for some excellent hospitality and for being flexible in our court allocation with a lot of matches played over the 2 days.

Final positions: