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Squash
It was an impressive year
for Summer Fields squash,
with the 1st team winning
all of their matches. We are
extremely fortunate to have
three fantastic courts, now
re-laid and repainted after
the frustrating flood which
put them out of action in the
second half of last season, and
it has been great to see them
being enjoyed again this year.
In the Michaelmas term SRF organised
another two knock-out competitions,
which a large number of boys competed
in. The Junior final was a close affair,
which eventually saw
Sebastian Corso
triumph over
Nick Crawford
. In the
senior competition the final could not be
competed due to injury so honours were
shared between the two finalists,
David
Doughty
and
Jack Barrett
.
The first school match was at Eton
against an under 14 outfit. 6th seed
Theo
Mellor
got the ball rolling wonderfully with
a convincing 3-0 win. Barrett then followed
suit with a very polished display to see off
the Eton second seed. It soon became clear
that our boys were ready for the challenge
and not going to be overawed by the
prospect of playing boys who in some cases
were two years their senior. The overall
result was soon sealed by victories for
Hector Brown
and Doughty, the captain;
both were made to work very hard indeed
for their wins with the latter in particular
using fantastic touch to overcome his
opponent. After a long wait,
Tom Howard
was very impressive, and the last game on
court was perhaps the most entertaining
of the day, as
Freddie Bulmer
played some
superb squash but was turned over (1-3) in
a gruelling contest. The team’s great victory
was all the more pleasing because of the
high standards and fantastic spirit.
With the RGS HighWycombe fixture
unfortunately cancelled at short notice,
we had to wait until the start of the Lent
Term for our next opponents, The Dragon.
Despite the 6-0 scoreline, there were
some particularly well-matched games,
particularly for the top three seeds of
Doughty, Barrett and
Claude Barker
. There
were also good wins for the other three,
Howard,
George Lythgoe
and
Oliver
Crawford
. The highlight was the final game
which saw Doughty coming back from a
game down to win 8-12, 12-10, 12-10 in
front of a crowded gallery. His opponent
was an Under 10 who will definitely cause
Summer Fields some problems over the
next few years!
With a couple of injuries in the squad, it
was with slight trepidation that the 1st V set
off to play Caldicott as this is usually one of
the toughest tests. Lythgoe and Crawford
each lost 1-3 in very tight matches. Then
Barker enjoyed an equally close contest
which he won 3-2. On the next court,
Henry
Daly
secured a more confident victory (3-1)
over their 2nd seed, to set up a deciding
match between the 1st seeds. Doughty took
the opening game 11-9 and we expected a
nail-biter to follow. However, some excellent
serving and a soft touch brought us the next
two games fairly easily, to record an excellent
win for Summer Fields.
The Cothill match was also cancelled,
so the final fixture for the 1st V was at
Ludgrove.We had arguably our strongest
line-up and expectations were high. Howard
contested some exciting rallies but struggled
to find his rhythm and soon found himself
two games down; he succumbed to injury
in a close third game and was forced to
forfeit. Barker played strongly and eventually
overcame his opponent 11-7, 11-8, 11-8. At
3rd seed, Daly enjoyed a very close contest
winning 11-8, 11-7, 11-13, 11-9, and was
immediately called on to take the place of
Doughty who had aggravated his shoulder
injury in the warm-up. He took on the
challenge of playing our hosts’ top seed with
relish! The match could have gone either
way but Ludgrove took it in four games.
Barrett played beautifully to dispatch the
Ludgrove 2nd seed 3-0 to maintain the
team’s 100% record for the season.
This put the pressure on the staff team
for their hotly contested annual fixture
against the Parents. DJCF, MJF, SRF, JERA,
DRW and Miss Power were joined by
Edward Doughty (OS) who we quite rightly
deemed ineligible to play for the parents
as he was not yet one. That he was soon
to represent Eton in the U19 National
Schools finals was simply a bonus for the
staff! Our usual strategy of selecting a few
young whippets to tire out the parents
was thwarted by Mr Mellor, as captain
of the parents, who selected a team of
eleven players. The squash was relentless
and at times of a very high quality.
Competitiveness mixed happily with fun
and laughter.Whilst the staff were keen to
overturn successive defeats in the past two
fixtures it was probably appropriate that
the final score was a 12-12 draw.
Thus a successful season ended and the
team must be congratulated on the clean
sweep of victories. It was great to see the
courts in regular use once again, and my
thanks go to our two outside coaches, Ross
Gore and Kevin Dykes, and to SRF for all his
enthusiastic help and his encouragement of
the boys.
JERA
“the teammust be
congratulated on
the clean sweep of
victories”
S u m m e r F i e l d s
2 0 1 5 – 2 0 1 6
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