Bishop's Stortford Squash Club in National Club Finals 2007

Bishop's Stortford Squash Club mens team were unable to retain the National Club title at the weekend (19-20 May) losing narrowly to Colets from Thames Ditton, Surrey 3-2 in the semi-finals held at Nottingham Squash Club.

Colets who have won the National title 7 times in the last 10 years were keen to avenge the quarter-final defeat inflicted on them last year by us and had enlisted the current British Open Champion Nick Matthew and World number 8 to spearhead the team.

First on were the number 3 and 5 string matches, Keith Timms made short work of Scottish International Veteran Alan Thomson securing a comfortable win whilst the all important number 3 string match wasn't going well for Stortford's Phil Barker who was slow out of the blocks against the classy former World Number 10 Danny Meddings, Phil's conventional play was negated by Danny's exemplary racket skills and shot selection, as the match wore on Danny began to tire and Phil was able to take the 3rd game, however Danny established an early lead in the 4th game and held on at the end using all of his experience to take the crucial match for Colets.

1 match all

Once British Under 19 Champion Adrian Waller had settled down and won a tight 1st game he played superbly to go 2-0 up but his opponent was not going to give up easily and put in a sterling effort by raising the pace of the game in the 3rd to win it 9-1 and was going well in the 4th when Adrian staged a comeback from 7-3 down to win 9-7 and put Stortford 2-1 ahead.  

Meanwhile on the Exhibition court in front of a packed crowd of 150 spectators Stortford's Peter Barker stormed into a 1-0 lead playing subliminal squash. Nick Matthew showed his worth and moved into a 2-1 lead and was 8-4 match ball up in the fourth, it was then that the crowd were treated to a wonderful comeback by Peter knowing that all Stortford needed was one more win to secure a place into the Final, each rally became more and more tense ending with a decision required from the referee, both players were now extremely tired and were showing unbelievable fitness levels after 80 minutes of world class squash, Peter got it back to 8-8, Nick sensing that he needed to quell the resistance held on to take the game 10-8 and the match for Colets to make it 2-2.

The Final match was going to be very interesting with Alex Gough's retrieving game a wonderful foil for Bradley Ball's shot playing skills. Bradley went into a 7-1 lead but then Alex started to get into Bradley's head by making some excellent returns and took the crucial 1st game 9-7, after that it was downhill for Bradley as his game capitulated with one error following another as he grew frustrated at Alex's tenacity. Colets celebrated their win and went on to defeat Nottingham in the Final the following day.

Colets now represent England in the European Club Championships to be held later this year in Budapest, Hungary.

Bishop's Stortford vs Colets

1. Peter Barker (WN 16) lost to Nick Matthew (WN 8) 9-1 2-9 2-9 8-10

2. Bradley Ball (WN 34) lost to Alex Gough (WN 21) 7-9 3-9 0-9

3. Phil Barker (Former WN 40) lost to Danny Meddings (Former WN 10) 6-9 7-9 9-4 6-9

4. Adrian Waller (Current British U19 Champion) beat Clive Ewins 10-9 9-3 1-9 9-7

5. Keith Timms beat Alan Thomson 9-1 9-2 9-3   

The club were also involved in 2 other Finals during the weekend, on Saturday morning the Ladies Over 35 team (3 in a team) played Lindum from Lincolnshire in the Plate Final, Late replacement Ceri Why was on court first and battled gamely but was unable to settle and lost 3-0.

Number 1 string Vicky King played England Over 40 International Fran Wallis and was involved in arguably one of the best matches of the weekend, the squash was played at a frenetic pace, the quality was excellent, the commitment from players was unquestionable, Fran won the match 9-6 in the fifth game, the last rally ending with both players hardly able to stand let alone run!! Great effort Vicky!

With the match settled Kath Kemp tried her best to make the score respectable but came up against another England International player and went down in 4 games.

On Sunday morning the Men were involved in the Racketball Plate Final, which is a relatively new game originated from the USA but been modified in England to be played on a squash court. Having been knocked out by last years Champions, the team were determined to do well in the Plate and played a club from Weston-Super-Mare, struggling from the festivities of the night before the team took to the court and put in a amazing performance winning the match 5-0 without dropping a game.  

Some pride for Bishop's Stortford was restored with Peter Barker, Fred Cooke, Jason Foster, Gavin Noffki and Matt Delaney running out as winners. 

Many Thanks to the Stortford 'Barmy Army' of supporters who travelled up to watch the teams play and to Alastair Ambrose and Fred Cooke for the continued support. 

Regards

Jason Foster