Mens team progress to promotion group

Venue – Tynemouth Squash Club

Team – Dave Barnett, Paul Lord, Jon Tate, Andrew Staley, Liam Gutcher and Richard Shellam.

First match was against local rivals Durham & Cleveland. At this stage last season they handed out a 5-0 defeat on their home courts so revenge was sweet as Northumbria won 4-1 although not too comfortably with both Paul Lord and Jon Tate winning closely in 5 games.

Second match was against Ulster. They had lost their first match against Yorkshire and were looking to keep their qualifying hopes alive. It all came down to the number 2’s with Lord playing another ex-pro Graeme Stewart to decide the match. Lord started slowly and was struggling to keep up with Stewart early on but soon came into his own taking the tie 3-1 and clinching a 3-2 win for Northumbria.

The final match was to decide who won the group as Yorkshire had also won their first 2 matches. Both teams were a man down on the Sunday with Paul Lord missing and Yorkshire number 1 from the first day Laurence Delasaux missing. It proved to be very close with Yorkshire just edging it with 3-2 victories at numbers 3,4 and 5 to leave Yorkshire topping the group but Northumbria progress to the promotion group in February.