Played on March 10th/11th.
Venue – Fairways Lodge, Lancashire.
A top 2 finish would keep team in division One, relegation if not!!
Team – DAVE BARNETT, JON TATE, LIAM GUTCHER, MATT SAMPSON, JON EVANS and CHRIS CLINTON.
First match was against hosts Lancashire. The first 2 strings were shared with a win for Evans and a loss for Gutcher. The win was then sealed with Barnett and Sampson getting wins at 1 and 4 leaving Tate to battle hard only to lose out 13-11 in the fifth to finish with a 3-2 win.
Saturday afternoon was a match against Merseyside, Chris Clinton came in for Evans at 5 and won convincingly 3-0 and with Barnett winning 3-1 on the other court it was a strong start. Sampson lost 3-1 at number 4 but Gutcher clinched the win with a nail-biting 3-2 win against Mike Beecham which left Tate to consolidate with another 3-2 battle this time winning, 4-1 win in the end.
After the 2 Saturday wins it left the team not having to win on sunday as Division One place was already assured but the team didn’t take it easy and won the match against Merseyside 5-0 to top the group in style.
Divison One squash next season.
Congratulations for winning the league!