Men’s Over 65’s: Lucky Losers!
The County Men’s Over 65’s came away from their recent Stage One round robin clashes with Berkshire and Hampshire thinking they had missed out on the National Inter-Counties Finals Day in early April. However, a strong showing against the former and a narrow defeat to the latter were good enough to secure the Lucky Loser spot at the showpiece in Manchester.
Hants were strong, as expected, and our chaps had their chances, particularly Aubrey Bell and Robert Warner, but it was not to be. Whilst Aubrey succumbed agonisingly 5-11 in the fifth, Robert (playing at one) was very pleased to nearly triumph (he also went down 5-11 in the fifth!) over a world semi-finalist who had beaten him 3-0 on two previous occasions in the last 6 months.
Berkshire were no walkover, and Aubrey made a convincing effort to clutch defeat from the jaws of victory over an always tricky Ripley Oyler (2-0 and 8-5 up, what’s the problem….?), but he zoned back in, just in time in the 5th. Similarly, Warner nearly stumbled at 2-0 up, with the body reminding him of the tough 5 setter not 3 hours beforehand, but he edged through, 3-1. The Andrew’s (Smith and Wilson) put in good performances against Berkshire and Hampshire respectively, and at 1-1 in each match they could have gone either way, but it was not to be, both losing 1-3.
Some interesting squash to say the least and overall the ties were played with great sportsmanship but very, very competitive. Andrew Wilson noted, ‘I can only imagine that there was serious money riding on the results given the fist pumping and shouting at key moments. The other teams were well presented but we were clearly the best turned out (in their Oxfordshire garb!) and undoubtedly had the best team spirit. Hurrah for Oxfordshire!’
Hurrah indeed and good luck in the 1/4 Final v Lancashire on April 5th.
Men’s Over 35’s
Of their recent Stage One qualifiers against Berkshire and Hampshire played at Abingdon Squash Club, Men’s Over 35 skipper, James Hicks surmised, ‘Overall a very positive weekend for us, we managed to get a good team together despite missing some of our big hitters. The guys that filled in played very well and fingers crossed we can get through as a high placed runner up?’ Sadly, they have not been as fortunate as their Over 65 counterparts and will miss out on the Big Day!
Whilst the Senior Men’s team and the Over 65’s were both able to secure victories over Berkshire, it was quite a different story here. The lowest squash levels the opponents fielded was 6000 so perhaps no surprise that all five ties went 3 zip in favour of our near neighbours. Despite the fatigue felt from this first match though and with just one change to the line up, our lads dug in and despatched Hampshire in the afternoon in a really tough scrap, 4-1.
Alex Cumming, Francois Louw, Donovan Eastes and James Hicks all pushed their individual setbacks of the morning to one side to secure the necessary wins. Great credit should go to the captain who not only made all the fixture arrangements but played back to back matches after 5 months out injured!