Weald 3 v East Grinstead 3 - a great win to finish the year

The last match of the year for the Weald squash thirds was a very satisfying 20-0 win against East Grinstead 3; the first match the team has won without dropping a point! 

The start of the match was very fast, with Simon Young beating an inexperienced Bernie O’Connell 9-3, 9-1, 9-0 in almost the same time as it took Mike Crisp to complete one game of his match.  Despite the longer game, Mike only had to win the first 9-2 before his opponent pulled up with a strained hamstring.  The next wave of players scurried off to get changed and Bill Baxter went on next to play a thoughtful, strategic game against Andy Norris, moving him around the court to make sure his drops were winners.  The strategy succeeded with Bill winning in three 9-7, 10-8, 9-4.

Steve Bodsworth kept up the momentum as he also won in three 9-2, 9-1, 9-2 in a controlled game, and Dave Beecroft played a relatively slow  game which nevertheless produced another good result as he won 9-3, 9-3, 9-4.  With an early finish there was time to watch a few of the Business League matches held that night at Weald, with the home team Planet Partitioning facing some tough opposition which resulted in some very high quality matches.

At the halfway point of the season, the night’s result kept the thirds in the top half of their league, a huge improvement on this time last year.  The Weald firsts are lying second after some good wins, while the second team is second from bottom – not an unexpected result for the newly promoted team!