A big crowd from Grove Park gathered at The Northern last Tuesday, possibly outnumbering the home crowd by 2 to 1. They witnessed the best night of team squash of the last few years.
It started slowly with Robbie going down in straight games to James Pickles and Alex Cutts strolling to victory against Northern’s No.4, Paul Runciman. It soon burst into life with Yawar going the distance with Mike Pearson, who is the nephew of David Pearson, the England National Coach and one of the first professionals at Grove Park in the 80’s. From 2-0 up, Yawar couldn’t quite finish it off in the 3rd or the 4th, but capitalised on a few unforced errors by Pearson to scrape home 12-10 in the decider. Next it was the turn of Morgan Hibberd to go 2-0 up, before being pegged back. Morgan was probably lacking court time with studying for Uni exams and ultimately the full time player, Sean Hunter, was just too strong on the day. You couldn’t have scripted it better, with all the other matches completed, the No.1’s walked onto the court with the tie absolutely level at 2 matches apiece and 8 points apiece.
The long awaited match between Andy Whipp and Laurence Delasaux was all that we hoped for. Incredibly tense throughout, with some thrilling squash. It was a game of contrast with Whipp’s power, relentless attacking shots and unbelievable pick-ups. Delasaux using his reach and exquisite racket skills to manoeuvre Whipp all around the court but seemingly having to hit 5 winners just to win a rally. Delasaux sneaked the first game 12-10 before Whipp started to dominate to take the next two games. Delasaux really dug in well to win the forth game 12-10 and force the game into a decider. They traded point right up to 7-7 before Whipp’s strength eventually told, taking the game 11-7 and the match for Northern 16-10.
Despite losing, the First Team moved to the top of the table but Northern and this week’s opponents, East Lancs, are close behind and both have a game in hand. East Lancs have lost just one match this season and that was to Grove Park in the first half. They don’t have a big name No.1 but do have formidable strength right down the order. They mix the experience of Nigel Willis and Danny Massaro and the youth of the very talented 16 and 17 year olds Bradley Smith and Matt Siddaway. The women’s World No.4, Laura Massaro may even make an appearance. If it is half as good as last week it will be well worth coming down for.
Please come down and support the team.