Following a nice summer break the club its supporters and sponsors were ready for another action packed season of PSL with the long term goal to one step further than last year.
We welcomed visitors Pontefact who like ourselves had some of the big guns missing due to being in commonwealth games action.
First up was Katherine Quarterman against Kirsty Mcphee. Katherine is a local Oxfordshire girl who now studies and trains out of Birmingham University. The match was very competitive with both players playing at a good pace. Kirsty showed her experience though capitalising on any openings particularly effective were her drops.
Next on came Scott Handley against Sam Wileman. The opening game was very competitive with both players showing great attacking skills when chances came their way. Scott however dominated more of the exchanges and Sam had to work exceptionally hard to keep in the rallies. Scott took the first and second 11-6, 11-5. In the third it was visible the work rate Sam had had to put in with Scott taking the final game 11-2.
The next game was between Chris Ryder another local favourite and squash legend Lee Beachill. Lee came out flying in the first game perhaps in the knowledge that his fitness might not last the full distance. Lee showed why he was a former world number one with exquisite touch and masterful use of the racket. Chris had to be on full alert to the ever present treat and we were treated to some awesome retrieval and counter attacking by Chris. Chris closed out the game by a narrow 12-10. In the second it was clear that Lee was getting tired as he started to have some great banter with the refs and the crowd. Chris still had to be on top form though and managed to close the next two games out 11-5, 11-4 much to the delight of the Oxford crowd.
We next welcomed Ben Coleman against George Wileman. Ben is a new addition to our side and it was great to see him in action for the first time. Both guys started at a great pace with some excellent retrieval and attacking shots.
Ben took a competitive first game 11-6, the next was a similar affair with Ben making fever mistakes and showing some super quick agility to pick up some seemingly impossible balls. Ben took that game 11-4 and in the third George looked like he was trying to find some divine inspiration on how he could beat his opponent losing the final game 11-3. So a great debut win and 3-1 up we knew we had our first win of the season secured.
Next on came Borja Golan and Simon Parke on what was the game of the night and in the view of many one of the best games we have ever seen at Oxford. On paper it looked like Borja would be the strong favourite but following his major injury last year we were anxious to see how his comeback was going. We also knew that Simon would be fit as he recently took part in a master event with squash legends Jonathan Power, Peter Nicol, Alex Gough, John White so we knew he would have been training hard for that.
Both players started strongly with Simon picking up simply everything and Borja applying pressure from all over the court. In a number of the exchanges Simon looked out of the rally but when he gets a half chance blimey he knows what to do with the ball. Borja then hit a patch of making a few errors and seemed to lose his way somewhat. The second started at a ferocious pace with Borja reducing the number of errors he had made in the previous game and in turn made Simon work extra hard. Borja took the game 11-6 and looking at the physical effects the game had had on Simon we expected Borja to take the next two. Simon however had very different ideas pushing Borja all the way to a tie breaker with Borja squeezing that 12-10. Simon just wouldn’t give up in the forth and scrambled and scrapped everything back even when it looked seemingly impossible.
One of the most memorable rallies saw Borja work Simon in every corner of the court and just when you thought Borja had the rally won hitting an extremely hard cross court Simon somehow did a 180 spin hitting the ball from behind his back to get back into the rally. Simon dug deep to take the forth 11-6. The Esporta Oxford crowd now were in for a real treat and no one could call which way it would go. Both players went point for point and with the score around 9 a piece came two incredible rallies with both players going absolutely flat out to the amazement of the crowd.
Luckily for Esporta it went Borja’s 11-9 way but what a game our spectators and sponsors had been treated to a simply sublime game of squash.
Ross Gore
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