Cambs Squash

Report: Inter Counties 1st Division SOUTH.
Location: Amersham.
Date: 15th/16th November 2008.

Match 1: Cambridgeshire v Buckinghamshire.

After being relegated from a tough Premier relegation group last year the team were keen to stop the slide in fortunes and start working their way up the Inter County pecking order. With a slightly weakened team hopes were still high of finishing in the top 2, to progress to the next promotion weekend.

Things started well with Captain Rossin taking on the World number 2 at Racketlon. Racketlon encompasses all 4 racket sports; Rossin’s opponent plays all 4 at county level, however Rossin’s attritional game on a hot court was too much for Struther’s. Cambridge made a good start winning 3-0. Ahmed brought in for his 1st cap made a slow start at 5th string. There was some talk, back in the ‘shires’ that the young Egyptian was not up to playing County senior squash. This was not evident, with Ahmed battling hard against a handy opponent, winning 3-1. All that training with Peter Marshall (former World no. 2) was obviously benefiting the hard-hitting El Referee.

With Cambs 2-0 up, it was up to the 4th and 1st strings to finish the job. Sammy went on at 1, against a former England junior Tom Phipps. Phipps is still a class act and Sammy struggled a little in the first 3 games, finding himself 2-1 down. However after a stirling team talk form Steffan Morgan (Cambridgeshire’s very own Peter Pan of Squash), Sammy started to play some excellent squash, constructing long accurate rallies, working his tiring opponent into all 4 corners. Sammy piled on the pressure, winnning the last 2 games to take the match 3-2.

Meanwhile Kullar was battling against another hard hitting opponent. On a hot court with both players having similar styles, it was always going to be a long battle. Kullar stuck in well, hacking the ball with good length to the back. After about 50 mins, Kullar was victorious 3-0.

With the team 4 up in rubbers, it was up to Morgan to complete a white-wash. Now Steffan has recently chosen a career in teaching. Unfortunately due to the nature of the hectic training course Steffan was lacking match practice. This was very evident in the first game with Steffan struggling to find a length. Howeverat 2-0 down the old Morgan started to reappear chasing everything down and putting a few volley 'frames' into the nick! Steffan won the 3rd and should have won the 4th, being 10-7 up. However tiredness and exertion kicked in, so the match was lost 3-1. So all in all a decent start.

CAMBS BEAT BUCKS 18-6.

Match 2: Cambridgeshire v Nottinghamshire.

So onto the evening match. Nottinghamshire we always going to be the favourites for this particular group. However with a weakened side there was a possibility of Cambridgeshire pulling off a shock victory.

Ahmed went on at 5 against a Loughborough University bursar. Ahmed was clearly fired up for the occasion starting strongly and dominating the match from the onset. Ahmed destroyed his opponent in 3, justifying his place in the team. At the same time Rossin was taking on one of his ‘rivals’ from Nottinghamshire squash, Johnny Underhill. They had been involved in many battles before, however Underhill was clearly the fitter on this occasion. Despite the games being close and Rossin having 4 game balls in the 2nd, the match went to Notts 3-0. Rossin needs to work on his squash fitness and pack in the ‘running’ training.

So with the honours even at 1-1, it was looking like the tie was hanging on a knife-edge. Sammy went on against Eddie Charlton (World 126). Sammy battled extremely hard and at points had Charlton scrambling around. However in the end Charlton’s subtle deception and hold was too much for the ‘great white hope’ of Cambridgeshire squash. It was down to Kullar to attempt to even the scores. Again Kullar was pitted against a player of a similar style. The match was long and hard, full of hard-hitting intense squash. Despite all 3 games being close, the tie went in the favour of Notts 3-0.

So it was up to Morgan to salvage some much needed points. Again it was always going to be a struggle for Steff, as his opponent Mark Fuller is a fitness machine and full-time. However Steff dug in really well and showed his experience winning the second game. Unfortunately Fuller then increased the pace to take the final two games against a flagging Morgan, losing 3-1.

CAMBS LOST TO NOTTS 4-17

A disappointing result. After 2 matches Notts were dominating the group. Cambridgeshire had to beat Norfolk in order to progress onto the ‘promotion’ weekend. The pressure was building ……………………….

Match 3: Cambridgeshire v Norfolk.

With all to play for the Cambridgeshire boys were confident of beating Norfolk and confirming their place in the promotion weekend. Ahmed went on first at 5th string. After a difficult journey; leaves on the line and the usual British rail excuses, Ahmed was very slow out of the blocks, losing the first game in minutes. However the boy dug in deep with some entertaining squash to level the match at 2 games all.

Meanwhile Rossin was taking on one of the talented Cowie brothers. After a characteristically slow morning start; Rossin losing the first game 11/9 he managed to settle himself and get stuck into an attritional battle. His opponent was skilful, however quite fond of fishing and blocking. After about an hour of controversial decisions, blocking, man-handling, arguments galore, Rossin had 3 match balls at 10-7 in the fifth. After a gruelling rally the ball flew into the middle of the court, Rossin ran round his opponent and was clearly out the way, yet again his opponent was, ‘trying to catch a salmon’ and asked for a let, which was debateable anyway … so the Norfolk marker gave a ‘stroke’. Rossin lost the plot, the whole balcony, even the opposing team couldn’t believe the decision ... Head gone Rossin proceeded to lose the next 4 points to lose the match 2-3. Minutes before Ahmed went down 2-3, leaving the team with an extremely big mountain to climb!

Anyway Sammy and Kullar went on confident of evening the team scores. Sammy was playing the elder Cowie brother; similar to his brother; skilful, talented but an absolute idiot. So battle commenced, yet more pushing, fishing, arguing, blocking ensued. Sammy 0-2 down, managed to dig deep and started to ignore all the antics (some might say cheating) and produced some measured squash to level the score at 2-2. So with the crowd looking forward to an exciting 5th at 1-0, Cowie decided to walk off, saying that he thought Sammy was being too ‘cocky’; he conceded the match. Strange decision, strange man. Anyway Sammy had managed to keep some hope alive of beating the Norfolk team.

Meanwhile on the other court the news was not quite as rosy. Kullar was getting man-handled (common theme starting to develop!) by a former England U19 number one. Despite the Norfolk player seeming to have eaten far too many Big Macs he had a little too much firepower for Kullar, going down 0-3.

This left Steffan to try and salvage some pride for Cambridgeshire at 2nd string. Despite a valiant effort Steffan lost 0-3 to a player who blatantly should have been at 1st string. In summary the team fought well, battling factors entirely out of their control.

CAMBS LOST TO NORFOLK 7-19

FINAL SCORES

1 NOTTS 51
2 NORFOLK 43
3 CAMBS 29
4 BUCKS 23

Next county weekend: 7th/8th March 2009.
Report by Neil Rossin