Surrey Storm narrowly lose out again.

Graeme Williams reports

For the second time this month Surrey Storm fought valiantly but were unable to take the spoils on the road at Bristol.  Making his debut in the PSL was Mohammed Ali Anwar Reda to add a bit of spice to the top of our order.  He came in with Gilly Lane unavailable so we looked stronger than before. 

First up was a more relaxed Victoria Lust who had another tough match against Laura Lengthorne Massaro.  Victoria fought well against Laura’s class and in all the game was competing until Laura pulled away to take the first two games 11/6, 11/7.  In the third Victoria stayed with her for longer creating a game ball at 10/9 but Laura came back well to win 12/10.

On the show court Stacey Ross was getting the better of David Evans although both players were feeling a little of the base but Stacey won the big points to take a 2-0 lead.  In the third Stacey looked to be moving the better and reading David’s game to pull off some stunning winners and took the third 11/6 to level the match 1-1.

Surreys very own Peter Pan, Steve Meads was grinding down Hadrian Stiff 12/10, 12/10 before Hadrian had to withdraw due to feeling faint.  Again Surrey Storm had managed to move 2-1 ahead with the dogged determination and quality form the elder statesman of the team.  Next up was Jesse Englebrecht against the inform Mohammed El Shorbagy.  The first game was played at a high pace which suited the Egyptian as he reeled of exquisite winners from all areas as Jesse struggled to move him around as he would like.  In the second Jesse improved slowing the pace down and finding his range but at 8 all Mohammed pulled away to take a 2-0 lead.

In the third Shorbagy returned to the brilliance of the first and closed out the match 11/2 setting up a decider between the new boy Reda and the experienced Adrian Grant.

In the first Reda was too lose and had no answer to the control of Grant.  The second saw Mohammed tighten up and get in front a little more and he took it 11/8.  We were getting excited and dreaming of a first Victoria of the season but Adrian showed his experience taking the next two to seal the match for Bristol.

The nigh was a fantastic advert for the PSL with competitive games and played in a great spirit.  Bristol put on a great show with a fantastic crowed so we thank them and look forward to returning the favour next half.

Finally good luck to Stacey up in Manchester and hopefully our first win is not far away!

Guirey arrives home

Neil Guirey arrived for his morning coffee at Chapel Allerton at 9.30am. My first question to him was, “what time did you get in?”. “Three” was the reply and I left him to his coffee.

So after the long journey Chapel A returned home with a 3-2 victory. This was the score-line predicted by the team Managers and puts Chapel Allerton to the top of the table.

A special thank you goes to Peter & Sally Merchant and their son Ben Merchant for travelling to Newport to support the Chapel A side. Ben Merchant at 9 years old has recently won the Yorkshire u11 Championships (Lee and James have won this in the past).

He is coached by Neil and is a huge fan of the Premier Squash League. The Merchants were trying their best to drown out the Welsh support last night.

Next match is against Duffield at Chapel A on the 27th October.

Mike Dickens

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

St George's take the spoils

Mike Phillips reports

Last night Covers Team Chichester played St George’s Hill, Weybridge in the first home tie of the Premier Squash League season. 

First up Chichester’s Dominique Lloyd-Walter (No. 6 England and World No 22) played St George’s Hill’s new signing, Lauren Briggs who is a world top 20 player.   The first 2 games were evenly shared, 11/7, 5/11.   The 3rd game was nip and tuck all the way which Lloyd-Walter narrowly took 12/10, having previously saved several game balls.

The momentum was now with the Chichester player and she confidently started the fourth game with some good cross court drops to send her opponent the wrong way on several occasions.  Lloyd-Walter ran out a comfortable 11/3 winner to put Chichester 1.0 up.

 On the glass-back championships court, Chichester’s No 3 string, Tim Vail, played Hungarian No.1, Mark Krajcsak.   During the first game the capacity crowd enjoyed good all court squash from both players.   Vail hit several of his renowned, trade-mark nicks but unfortunately, towards the end, he twisted his ankle and narrowly lost the game he much needed, 14/16.   Krajcsak forged ahead in the second to take a 2.0 lead.   Vail showed spirit and valiantly fought back to take the next game 11/7.    In the fourth Vail battled to stay in contention and despite a tremendous effort saving a couple of match points he eventually was defeated 9/11.

1.all on the night.

Next on court Robert Downer, making his debut for Chichester, played former British Junior Champion, Joe Lee.  Downer battled well throughout but Lee’s shot selection, ability and experience, on the professional circuit, ensured he always had the upper hand.    Lee won 6/11, 3/11, 7/11

2.1 to St. George’s Hill

Chichester’s Robbie Temple played Tom Richards (St. George’s Hill).  Temple faced a tough task with approximately 30 world ranking places between him and Richards.   Richards showed he was more consistent in the rallies when it mattered most and took the match 7/11, 8/11. 8/11.  Temple, however, was involved right to the end; the only difference was that he hit too many tins.

3.1 and the match to St George’s Hill

Last match on court, in what was a dead rubber, the No.1 strings Mo Azlan Iskandar (World No.20) battled against Daryl Selby (World No.21).  In a scrappy first 2 games Selby could have been 2.0. up but in some ways Iskandar was fortunate to be at 1-all.  Both games were the same score line; in the first Iskandar lost it 10/12 after being at 10-all and in the second he managed to hold on and win 12/10.  Iskandar then gained some momentum and took the third 11/4 to put Chichester 2.1 up.  At this point the Chichester man seemed to tire quickly.  Selby’s game of moving the ball around well matched with his good physical and mental strength proved too much for the Malaysian and Selby went on to win the match 5/11, 3/11 to give St. George’s a 1.4 win on the night.

With two 1.4 defeats so far Chichester will be at full strength at the next round which takes place next Tuesday.  Covers Team Chichester will be taking on the might of Surrey Health & Rackets and a win is desperately needed.

 Mike Phillips - Team Manager

Chapel A on the Road

Mike Dickens sends his team off to Newport

Co-Manager Neil Guirey has embarked on the long trip to Wales for tonight’s game against newcomers Newport. Looking closely at the squads and fixtures this year there are strong challengers from all teams.

The crystal ball has us as 4-1 winners tonight but we feel it may well be closer.

Alister Walker returning from Hong Kong faces ex Chapel Allerton player Aaron Frankcomb. As these two have trained many times together they will know each others games very well.

Making his first start for Chapel A this season Chris Simpson has a tricky tie and again has been travelling over the past weeks.

They will be backed up by Shaun Leroux, Adam Murrills and Jenny Duncalf. Lets hope the crystal ball is right as this will be a great start to the season.

Good luck with the journey!!

Mike Dickens