Berkshire Squash Winter League Results

Match reports from the last games in the Berkshire Squash Winter League before the Christmas break. The 1st team were at home to Nuffield 1 whilst the 2nd and 3rd teams were both away to Bounty 3 & Bounty 4 respectively.

Maidenhead 1 vs Nuffield 1

A must win game for Maidenhead 1 to maintain the chase for 2nd spot and although this was a tough set of games, we came through triumphantly in the end.

Darren and Mark went on court alongside each other first and Darren came from 1-0 down to take the next 3 games in a hard fought set of matches. Meanwhile on the court next door Mark had come back from being 2-1 down to even it at 2-2 despite picking up a slight knee problem half way through the 4th game.

Going into the 5th game Mark was playing a little more gentile than as usual due to the knee pain felt in the previous game and this was just enough to allow his opponent who had an extremely hard, low power shot as his favourites shot the advantage to win out 11-7 in the final game.

Next on was the two Steve’s and unfortunately Steve Lansley saw himself up against a strong player who worked the ball well around the court and Steve just couldn’t get his decent shots away to win any of the games and thus went down 3-0. Steve T. however stepped up in his usual positive way and although he was up against a fit player with great reach and command of the court, he managed to seal the deal in the 4th game to win out 11-9 to avoid a 5th game shoot out!

This left the team’s all equal at 2-2 with the final game of the night between Stuart and Neil yet to play at #1. A great game was played by both players with Neil playing stronger than he has previously played when up against Stuart in the past which made for a truly nail biting and exciting game. Such was the competitive nature of the game it made for a tough set of decisions for the scorer who was constantly being asked to judge lets and strokes by both players!

After 4 games the score was 2-2 and everything to play for. Stuart stepped up in the final game, fully aware that we needed to win this game to keep the pressure on 2nd spot and using his speed and fitness to his advantage he ended up with a fairly convincing 11-3 win!

This left Maidenhead winners on the night 3-2 and a total score of 16-10 which was just 3 points short of taking us into 2nd spot but it is all very close and everything to play for during the second half of the season!

Individual Scores were as follows:

Current standings in Division 2B are:

Maidenhead 2 vs Bounty 3

A somewhat chastening result against a strong Bounty team who didn't appear weakened at all by clashes with Christmas festivities, exams, etc. All games were competitive but we couldn't force any upsets.

David, Matt and Jerry all registered a single tick in the.. 'games for' column; Jon and Janak got tantalising close in their second games but no mince pie.

The result leaves us 3rd at Christmas. We know that we have the firepower in the squad we just need the luck with availability when we come up against these stronger teams.

Individual Scores were as follows:

And the current standings in Division 3B are:

Maidenhead 3 vs Bounty 4

As with Maidenhead 2, the 3rd team came up against a very strong Bounty 4 team which proved too much by a 3rd team weakened by injuries and absences.

Every game was hard fought but in all games Bounty had enough quality to seal the wins.

Andrew Essex came closest by battling into a 2-0 lead but was up against a very good opponent who found tactics that turned the game around. Sadly, Andrew couldn't get over the finish line despite battling hard in the final 3 games and narrowly lost 3-2.

Also a special shout out to Richard M who after only starting to play in the Berkshire league this season was thrown in at the deep end this time as our #1 string against a very good Bounty #1.

Completely ignoring the fact that he was supposed to be the underdog, Richard comfortably won the 1st game and looked like he could cause a major upset with some fast and aggressive squash. But his opponent showed his ability from that point on and whilst the next 2 games were hard fought and close, Richard ended up losing 3-1.

So at the Christmas break, Maidenhead 3 missed out on the chance to grab a top 2 place but sit comfortably in 3rd with a chance to grab 2nd spot as the rest of the season progresses.

Individual Scores were as follows:

The current standings in Division 4B are:

Next Matches

The next round of matches take place on Thursday 5th January as follows:

Maidenhead 1 - No Fixture

Maidenhead 2 vs Aldermaston 3 (Away)

Maidenhead 3 vs Caversham PV (Away)