I am going to major on one match out of tonight's ties because, in the view of most present it was possibly the best match that we have seen at the club this season. But before then a few words about the entire evening.

Things got off to a bad start from Nottingham's point of view when Simon Parke's car expired on the car park at Wolverhampton. He brought over two other players, including one of ours and by all accounts it was lucky they made it. Simon prudently is a member of the AA who turned up very promptly but pronounced the car dead. Not a good start.

The next slight problem revolved around which order the Nottingham team would play. Earlier, Phil Songhurst had told me that Tommy Berden wuld not play and that Jethro Binns would play in his place. So I put Jethro in at 3. Phil couldn't make it on the night but Neil Reddington suddenly said that he felt he should be 3. With no Phil to adjudicate it was left to stand in manager Simon to sort it out. First his car then the team order. Could it get worse?

When play began Dominique got off to a great start against Jenny Duncalf and looked like taking the first game. However, a series of long rallies (Ellis please note, private joke) began to tell on Dominique and she went down fighting all the way 9-6. An equally long second game also went Jenny's way and, unforunately the third was a bit of a formality.

On the adjoining court Joey Barrington got off to a shaky start against a very determined Jethro Binns but he pulled himself together and ultimately ran out a comfortable winner.

When Liam Kenny went on court the ladies match was still in its second game and both finished at the same time! Neil ran and ran but was constantly wrongfooted by a series of disguised shots from Liam. The scoreline did not really reflect the effort that Neil put in but certainly showed the difference in style. When Liam is on form he can fool anyone with an array of shots.

Earlier Mark told me that whenever he plays David Evans he always gets to run around a lot. Tonight was no exception and while I was phoning in the halfway scores Mark went one down. Not having seen that game I had to rely on Mark's comments at the end but he tells me that he did a lot of running. The second changed round completely with David making a few errors and Mark getting some good lengths though still doing a lot of running. One all. I don't know whether David is the tallest man in professional squash but he certainly looks as if he might be and uses his tremendous reach to retrieve balls that appear winners. Just to lob him is a major success and Mark achieved this on many occassions. However, the next two games slipped away and left the situation tied at 2 all.

The next game between Alex Gough and Simon Parke was worth the entrance money in it's own right. The first took almost 30 minutes to finish and had a 103 shot rally ay 5-4 and an 111 one at 8-8. This wasn't me counting but the MRC so is undoubtedly right, it certainly seemed like it. Although regularly getting to a winning position in several rallies Alex couldn't seem to put the ball away, often chosing the wrong shot at the crucial point. Simon snatched the first 10-8 and took an early lead that he never let go to take the second. Both players looked a bit tired but Simon the more so but whether that was real or not is debateable. However, Alex came out strongly in the third, moving Simon all over the court and took it 9-3. The fourth was a repeat of the first with Alex in control but Simon retrieving from everywhere and Alex not putting it away. Nevertheless, Alex reached 8-5 and I began to think of the fifth. Somehow he lost it 10-8 and even now, some 3 hours later I'm not sure how.

So we lost the match but we saw the most exciting and entertaining match of the season which, truly, sent the supporters happily back to the bar for last orders.