Mens Over 55 Stage Two report – Division 1 Promotion Group

9^th/10th March 2013

We were lucky to have a home venue for the Division 1 Promotion Group matches against Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire and Lancashire. Tynemouth Squash Club did their usual excellent job of hosting the event.

The Northumbria squad was unchanged from those who travelled for Stage One other than the arrival of Andrew Wilkinson at no. 2 in place of the unavailable Derek Collins. The full playing squad was:

1 Ronnie Freeman (Alnwick); 2 Andrew Wilkinson (Hexham); 3 John Thompson (Tynemouth – captain); 4 Steve Blake (Hexham); 5 Colin McNestrie (Tynemouth); 6 Alan Coates (Eldon Square); 7 Mike Cherryman (Consett).

Playing our top 5 in the 1^st match against Leicestershire, we secured a clean sweep win by 5-0 (20-0). Steve was rested for the 2^nd match against Nottinghamshire, which was again a comfortable 4-1 (19-4) victory, with Alan and John giving the team a good start, and Ronnie “the Rocket” and Andrew playing with great pace and sharpness to win quickly, whilst Colin (who had won convincingly earlier) went down only by the narrowest of margins after being 2-1 and 8-4 up (it seemed he was already on the plane to Vegas…). Meanwhile Lancashire had secured the maximum 40 points from their two matches, meaning that whoever won the final match would gain promotion.

Against Lancashire, Steve returned at no 4 and secured his second victory, and John made it 3 wins out of 3 at no 3, but Alan and Ronnie found it tougher going against wily opponents, so the match stood at 2-2. Andrew then proceeded to play an absolute blinder, winning 3-0 for the third time to clinch the match and promotion to the dizzy heights of the Premier Division!

Congratulations to the whole squad for this well-deserved success!!

Results

Match 1

	NORTHUMBRIA	v	LEICESTERSHIRE	Score	Games
1	Ron Freeman		Rob Clements	3-0	9/0 9/2 9/4
2	Andrew Wilkinson		Alan Frew	3-0	9/3 10/8 9/2
3	John Thompson		Richard Balme	3-0	9/3 9/6 9/0
4	Steve Blake		Hans Billson	3-0	9/1 9/1 9/5
5	Colin McNestrie		Tony Everett	3-0	9/1 9/7 9/0
			Result	20-0

Match 2

	NORTHUMBRIA	v	NOTTINGHAMSHIRE	Score	Games
1	Ron Freeman		Richard O’Connor	3-0	9/2 9/0 9/0
2	Andrew Wilkinson		John Limb	3-0	9/0 9/5 9/2
3	John Thompson		Alan Turner	3-0	9/2 9/4 9/6
4	Colin McNestrie		Murray Frew	2-3	7/9 9/8 9/5 9/10 9/10
5	Alan Coates		Dave Hardern	3-1	9/4 9/0 4/9 10/8
			Result	19-4

Match 3

	NORTHUMBRIA	v	LANCASHIRE	Score	Games
1	Ron Freeman		Allen Barwise	0-3	5/9 3/9 2/9
2	Andrew Wilkinson		Doug Smith	3-0	9/2 9/7 9/7
3	John Thompson		Phil Shacklady	3-0	10/9 9/6 9/5
4	Steve Blake		Bob Houldsworth	3-1	9/3 9/1 3/9 9/3
5	Alan Coates		Gary Biggins	0-3	5/9 0/9 1/9
			Result	14-7