Inter County Squash

So Close! Mens’s Inter county report.

On the weekend of 1st/2nd February, at Abingdon Squash Club, Oxfordshire hosted their group section in the Senior Men’s Inter County Championships. Vying for a place at the National Finals in March, County Coach and England International, Jason Varrie led a very youthful and inexperienced side against 3 extremely doughty opponents.

In their opening fixture, our chaps encountered Surrey B. Wins for Ben Hedger (Thame) at 1, Jason Varrie (unattached) at 2, Kacper Kwiecinski (Abingdon) at 4 and James Hempstead (Witney) at 5 contributed to a 4-1 success and set them up nicely for their next encounter against Wiltshire whose team exclusively comprised players from Defence Academy.

2 games in a day at this level for Under 15 Boy’s Champion Kacper was a tough ask and he fell agonisingly short of a perfect record losing 6-11 in the last of a 5-set thriller. Fortunately, all his teammates won their rubbers including James McCouat (University) who bounced back from earlier defeat to despatch Adam Oakley 11-9 11-3 11-9.

The Round Robin now moved into Day Two with a very simple equation, Oxon v South Wales A = Winner to Finals Day.

Sam Greenrod (University) stepped in for Kacper and justified his selection with a 3-0 victory before James Hempstead claimed his third success from three outings prevailing 3-1 at String 4. Unfortunately, our Welsh cousins fought back gallantly at that point and reverses for Ben Hedger (0-3), Jason Varrie (1-3) and James McCouat (2-3, 9-11 in the fifth) left our charges disappointed to have missed out on the Big Show.

Jason best summed up their heroic efforts….’We had 4 young debutants in our squad for this tournament and they all did tremendously well and made Oxfordshire proud.’

And so say all of us.

The Inter County Championships (ICC) is the largest competition run by England Squash with more than 2,000 players representing their counties in 22 categories throughout the season across Senior, Masters and Junior levels.

These tournaments provide competitive opportunities for players beyond club level in a team environment and the opportunity to represent their county.

The Senior (Open Aged) Inter County Championships is split into two Divisions, Division One and Premier, and matches are played across two stages which are each hosted over a designated weekend.

The Masters Inter County Championships is split into the following categories: Women O40 and O50, Men’s O35, O45, O55 and 065

Qualifying Stage 1 will be held on 1st and 2nd March 2025 at venues to be decided

The Finals will be held on 5th and 6th April 2025 in Manchester (The Northern Club and Grove Park Squash Club)

ICC Captains – 2025

• James Hicks – Men’s Over 35’s – [email protected]
• Alex Perry – Women’s Over 40’s – [email protected]
• Jeremy Shayler – Men’s Over 45’s – [email protected]
• Ken MacMillan – Men’s Over 65’s – [email protected]
• Jason Varrie – Men’s Senior Captain – [email protected]

OSRA does contribute to the expenses, both travelling and accommodation, of our representatives. For the details and claim form, go to the Documents page