Newport get a win at last

Peter Creed reports

It was a dark wet Tuesday night, in the well-supported squash club that Newport’s PSL team were seeking their first win.  With a slightly weaker side that usual the Pontefract players made the long treacherous drive to the Welsh team for a bottom of the league clash. With players like James Willstrop, Lee Beachill and Saurav Ghosal missing from their starting line up, Greg Tippings picked a worthy side to gain that crucial win that could take the Port off the bottom.  6:45 approached, and still no away side was present. Was the first win really going to be a walk over? No, the young Pontefract team arrived and within 20 mins the teams were announced and the first matches were starting.

Stacey Preece vs Anna Santa-Maria were the 1st match on court 2. Both players started off very tentative, with rallies being won quite quickly due to nerves of their first appearance being very evident. Stacey began to take control around the middle parts of the each game, and broke away playing the important points better than her opponent. Anna has a good variety of shots, but errors at crucial times cost her the match, as Stacey continued to apply good pressure to win 3/0 (11-7 11-7 11-6). A good performance, and it’s a shame Stacey doesn’t get the chance to play more Wispa events due to other commitments, as the effort and quality is there.

David Haley Vs George Wileman was a battle of the youngsters on court 3 “Sam Williams Court”. Dave began well and took an early slender lead of 6-3 producing some good control around the middle of the court, followed by some quality finishing shots. A minor lack of concentration allowed George to take advantage of a few errors from Dave, as he began to react instead of taking the initiative. George’s confidence began to grow, and Dave’s movement and confidence started deteriorating. The Pontefract youngster seemed to notice this, and took his opponent in short when possible, which paid big dividends as he took the match 3/2 (11/13 11/9 11/4 9/11 11/6).

Number 3 String was between myself Peter Creed and George’s older brother, Sam Wileman on court 2 the “K Newall court”. The first game was a well-fought affair, where although the score was close, Peter didn’t deserve to even take the game to tie break. After a few minor adjustments and some stern words from C.Robertson, Peter started to hit better length and applied more pressure on his opponent. Peter continued to take more control after this and the errors for Sam began to grow.  A few scrappy rallies, rugby tackle from Sam on match ball gave the crowd some joy, before Peter Closed out the match 3/1 (12/14 11/7 11/3 11/6).

Rob Sutherland Vs Karen Malik was a very quick encounter as Rob minced the opposition in 16 mins. I didn’t get to see most of the match but the points I did catch Karen wasn’t the most energetic and gutsy player I’ve seen. After watching quite a few Indian PSA players who play with their heart and run everything down, I was quite surprised to see a lack of effort from the 17 year old, maybe he wasn’t 100%? Bob took the match 3/0 (112 11/4 11/3).

Last on court was Campbell Grayson “GB” our adopted Welsh Kiwi who has been living at the WIS for the last few months, against an out of sorts Harinder Pal Sindu. This was a very fast paced match where both players attacked at will. Campbell’s quick hands got him out of ferocious rallies many times, and although Harinder hit a lot of accurate kills and volley drops, his error count was also to high to compete with the Kiwi looking to put a good performance on his last match for Newport’s PSL team. As Campbell said “ay I was on fire then ay”, and came out with the win 3/0 (11/3 11/5 11/8).

This concluded the night and Newport’s first win in their debut PSL season, which took them above their opposition and off the bottom of the north group. Thanks to everyone who came to support and all the sponsors and organisers for a good night.

Newport still seeking first win

Jethro Binns reports

Chapel Allerton made the long journey south to Newport this evening for Newport’s first home match of their debut season in the PSL. After receiving a text from Shaun Le Roux telling me they had left this morning chapel A arrive this evening bemused to find that Newport was actually south of the M4 and still in the Northern Division.

 

On paper this evening was always going to be a bit of a tough ask for Newport who were missing Rob “I don’t want to let the ball bounce” Sutherland who is away playing the Austrian open. This meant that as suspected Greg Tippings came out of retirement to show the young ones how to do it……

 

Greg went on first and as it transpired he did show the youngsters how to play both opponent and referee. Greg reached 69 in the world when he was full time and used all his experience to win the match 3-0. His young opponent described Greg as being “awkward” to play which I think is putting in nicely as anyone who has had the joy of playing tips will testify.

 

Deon Saffery knew that it was always going to be tough playing world number 6 Jenny Duncalf and found herself 9-0 down in the first. From this point on the match became a little more contested as Deon began to cope with the pace a little better but the outcome wasn’t really ever in doubt as Jenny ran out a winner in 3.

 

I went on against Shaun with the match stood at 1-1. Having lost all four of our previous meetings I was hoping to turn things around but it wasn’t to be. Feeling slightly under the weather and half a yard off the pace Shaun gave me a guided tour of the back corners as he hit “joke length after joke length in it”. I didn’t really make any impression on the match as he hit the ball to the back with such severe pace and accuracy that I wasn’t able to compete around the middle and he hit picked me off as and when he liked.

 

The Crystal Ball had us down for a 4-1 defeat but I though that it would 3-2 and felt that Campbell Grayson stood a very good chance against Chris Simpson. Having only flown back form Hong Kong on Saturday Campbell looked in control during the first two games as he took them 11-9 11-7. Hitting some outrageous winners on the volley Campbell hit what he described as “the best shot I have ever hit”  as he slammed the ball in to the nick with a cross court volley. I thought it was something to do with the fact that his string broke as he hacked at the ball forcing it to come off weird and bounce a bit funny but he maintained that it was deliberate. Simpo fought back to take the third as campbell got a bit excited and tried to play everything in front of the short line. The fourth saw Campbell get a good lead only for Chris to pull it back to 7-7, at which point Chris played a drop, didn’t clear too well, Campbell ran through and knocked Chris’ racket out of his hand before hitting a crosscourt drive. The point was disputed with Chris suggesting that his New Zealand opponent was perhaps getting a little too excited about the forthcoming Autumn rugby internationals. However the referee felt it was Chris who had caused the interference and the point went to the All Black. The crowd were very vocal and got behind Campbell in a big way. He gave them what they wanted as he took the game 12-10 and tied the match at 2-2.

 

The deciding match came down to Ali Walker and Aaron Frankcomb who regularly train together in Leeds. Aaron keen to impress his home fans got off to a great start hitting some fabulous winners as Ali found the tin too may times and won the first game 11-9. The crowd sensed an upset and a first win for the PSL newcomers but it wasn’t to be. Ali decided he would volley everything and try and play at 276mph which unfortunately for Aaron he succeeded in doing  With pacey length after pacey length and volley winners from anything that wasn’t skinned Ali took the last three games fairly comfortably.

 

So Newport left still seeking their first win in the League whilst Chapel A left with the prospect of a 4 hour drive “back t’ north” . The crowd went home slightly disappointed but impressed to have watched such high quality squash. The players commented on how good the fans were and all look forward to future matches at Wales’s premier club……

Jethro Binns