The CSSC National Team Squash Event has once again returned to the popular Nottingham Squash Club which is now under new management. This year six teams entered with HASSRA once again fielding a strong line up of three teams in an attempt to retain the Title they had won last year. Last year’s runners-up North West however had arrived with a strengthened Team in the form of a new number one player Craig Webb and had plans of their own to steal the Title away from HASSRA. The remaining two teams saw the long-awaited return of DSTL together with a new Team “Spare Rackets”, Captained by our CSSRA President Marian Holmes. The Event was run on a Round-Robin basis of three teams formed into two separate groups giving all players two games to play on the Friday. On the Saturday the Winners of Group A would play the Runners-up from Group B and similarly winners of Group B would play the Runners-up of Group A. The winners of these matches would face each other in the Final whilst the two losers would play each other for third place. The two teams placed third in Friday’s games would face each other in a play-off for the Plate Trophy.
In Group A the opening matches saw HASSRA A play their C Team which despite Mickey Gallagher, Jim Fay, Jo Jones and Rob Frame’s valiant efforts went predictably to the A Team with a 5-0 result. HASSRA C’s next match against DSTL was a more hard-fought affair but ended with a similar 5-0 match score line against the in-form DSTL’s Stu Scourfield, Ian Frampton, Kevin Walters, and Carol Stone. DSTL’s success against the HASSRA C Team however was never going to be enough against the HASSRA A’s strong line-up, although Ian, Kevin and Carol did all pick points before going down to a 3-1 score line. The overall match result was another 5-0 to the HASSRA A Team.
In Group B the opening match between HASSRA B and Spare Rackets was a hard-fought affair, the standout game being between the second-string players which saw Spare Rackets’s Craig Blurton edge past HASSRA’s Chris Rowsbury in a thrilling five game match. Further wins by Joe Shill and James Dand secured their Team’s overall win 3-2. Spare Rackets then had to face last year’s Runners Up Northwest. Spare Rackets’s earlier taste of success was soon to be dampened when they went down to a hard fought 5-0 score line. The final match between North West and HASSRA B produced another 5-0 score line for the Northerners, although HASSRA’s Carol Whittington nearly chalked up a win for her Team when eventually only losing in a superb match 9-11 in the fifth game to Shena Ferrie.
Saturday’s first semi-final saw HASSRA A play Spare Rackets. This proved to be an uphill battle for the Rackets Team who went down 5-0. Rackets Team Captain, Marian Holmes however did put up some excellent opposition to HASSRA’s Ruth Sleigh eventually losing 3-1. The second semi-final between North West and DSTL was a hard fought match which produced a 4-1 victory for North West to progress into yet another Final. DSTL’s Ian Frampton was their only winner against Dan Willets whilst DSTL’s number one player Stuart Scourfield did also put up some spirited opposition against North West’s Craig Webb before losing 3-1.
The final between HASSRA A and North West saw the two strongest players in the Tournament face each other. North West’s Craig Webb got his Team off to an excellent start by taking the first game 11- 6 against James Earles who is currently ranked 40 in the England Squash rankings. That success was however turned around when the next three hard fought games went to the HASSRA player. This pattern was repeated when both Jonathan Simpson and Imran Bashir produced excellent wins against Dan Willetts and Paul Lane. North West’s Shena Ferrie had a close match against Ruth Sleigh eventually going down 3-1 whilst HASSRA’s ever reliable Sian Hughes chalked up another win against Deb Atkinson to retain HASSRA A’s Title with a 5-0 match score line. HASSRA B continued to highlight HASSRA’s overall success story by defeating HASSRA C in the Plate Final. In the third and fourth playoff DSTL defeated Spare Rackets 3-1.
Congratulations once again go to HASSRA and their Team Captain Sian Hughes for assembling such strong line ups to win both the Main Event and the Plate Competition. A special thanks goes to all the players who participated and in particular to James Earles’s first outing in a CSSC Squash Event - he is bound to add strength to our National CSSC Squash Team. Thanks also to Nottingham Squash Rackets Club for both hosting our Event and for providing their support. Thanks to Linda Parsley for once again running the Friday Evening Quiz and to Jackie Codman for her help in running this Event. The prizes were presented by the CSSRA President Marian Holmes.
The next CSSC Squash Event will be the National Squash Masters and Racketball Open Competitions on the 19th and 20th May 2023 at Nottingham Squash Rackets Club.
Top Left:Marian Holmes presenting the winners trophy to HASSRA's captain Sian Hughes Top Right:HASSRA A's winning team: Imran Bashir, Ruth Sleigh, Sian Hughes, Jonathan Simpson & James Earles Bottom Left:North West Runners Up Team; Deb Atkinson, Craig Webb, Paul Lane, Dan Willets & Sheena Ferrie Bottom Right:HASSRA B Plate winners: Chris Rowsby, Michelle Hodds, Carol Whittington, Peter Fielding (Marion Holmes) centre
2023 Players and Organisers
