Victories in Tuesday’s seventh round of the National Squash League have put Manchester-Pontefract and TVS Broxbourne firmly in sight of places in the semi-final play-offs in March.
Round 7 Results & Tables
The Hertfordshire club extended their lead in Group B with a resounding 5-0 home win over struggling Oxfordshire newcomers SWSA Bicester, while the joint Lancashire/Yorkshire cooperative maintained their unbeaten run this season in Group A with a narrow 3-2 home win against former champions FPD Savills Nottingham.
World No2 Natalie Grainger flew in from her US base in Washington DC to concede just a single point to SWSA’s Kate Hill as Broxbourne pressed home an early advantage. Host team captain Mark Chaloner made it a whitewash for the team with a 9-4 9-7 9-4 top string win over the visitors’ Scott Handley, just 48 hours after the Oxfordshire club’s No1 had fought in the final of the Rocafort Open in Barcelona, Spain.
The Broxbourne star, however, was last-minute No2 Alex Stait, who arrived at the club having caught the first flight out of Calgary in Canada after reaching Sunday’s final of the Bankers Hall Club Open. Arriving in Hertfordshire via Chicago and Manchester, Stait had gone for 48 hours without sleep – yet pulled off a valiant 9-3 4-9 10-8 6-9 9-2 win over the SWSA second string Chris Clare.
Elsewhere in Group B, UniSport Guildford celebrated a notable 3-2 win over second-placed Chichester – the hero of the night being the recently-retired Stephen Meads. The Surrey University team No1 has capitalised on his extra time by “training harder than ever before” – and came back from 2/0 down to overcome full-timer Peter Genever 4-9 5-9 9-5 9-7 9-4 in the fifth match decider.
Group A leaders Manchester-Pontefract came back from 1/2 down to beat their Nottingham visitors. The game of the night was an all-Yorkshire clash between the hosts’ James Willstrop, the 20-year-old world junior champion now ranked 18 in the world, and Nottingham ‘veteran’ Simon Parke, the 31-year-old former world No3 who is now just inside the top 30. Parke saved a match ball in the third game to go on to level the match. The youngster piled on the pressure, however, to win 9-5 9-6 9-11 6-9 9-7.
The decider saw Willstrop’s team-mate Lee Beachill, the world No4, save a game-ball in the third to go on and clinch victory for the team with an impressive 9-5 2-9 14-12 9-5 win over Nottingham’s world No2 John White. “Tonight’s victory makes me feel confident that we’ve almost certainly now done enough to secure our place in the play-off semi-finals,” said Manchester/Pontefract team captain Yawar Abbas.
Title-holders Edgbaston Priory strengthened their second position in the Group A table with a 4-1 home victory over a seriously weakened Manchester Northern squad. The visitors’ 20-year-old Laura-Jane Lengthorn, however, claimed a significant scalp – and a welcome point for her team – when she fought back from 2-1 down to beat France’s world No14 Isabelle Stoehr 9-4 6-9 0-9 10-8 9-2.
Derbyshire’s Benz Bavarian Duffield also secured a 4-1 home win – and moved ahead of Nottingham as a result – by beating bottom-placed Wolverhampton. The visitors’ Dominique Lloyd-Walter can claim more pride than the scoreline suggests as she fully tested Duffield’s Cassie Jackman, before the world No3 from Norfolk recorded a 9-2 9-4 9-2 win. Irishman Liam Kenny secured Wolverhampton’s lone point – beating Duffield stalwart Paul Hargrave 12-10 9-3 1-9 10-8.
Round 7 Results & Tables
