Trowbridge Defeat Swindon to win Cup

Friday, September 10th, 2010 | The Club, Tournaments | 1 Comment

Trowbridge players are : Richard Edwards (2nd on back row), Tom Oatley (4th on back row), Steve Connor (5th on back row), Richard Elsden (2nd on front row), Mark McGuiness (3rd on front row).

(That’s left to right by the way – Next time fellas, let’s just wear our team t-shirts!)

A mention for Bruce Isaac too, a regular member of the team who broke his wrist climbing a ladder, get back soon Bruce!

Trowbridge Squash Club won their first trophy for some years by defeating Swindon’s Wessex Squash Club in the final of the Wiltshire Summer Handicap Tournament.

Even though the Trowbridge team faced a defecit of two points in each match, due to the handicapping system, the five strong team overcame old rivals Wessex to win the trophy.

Taking place on neutral ground at Marlborough College, Steve Connor lost 0-3 to Ian Peters-Phillips, Richard Edwards beat Mark Cains 3-2, Richard Elsden lost 0-3 to John Walker and Mark McGuiness beat Neil Marshman 3-2, meaning the final match of the night would decide where the trophy would go. Tom Oatley put in a powerful performance to overcome Ed Crane of Wessex in convincing style and ensure the silverware came home to Trowbridge.

With teams in Division 1 and in Division 2 of the Wiltshire league, the club, based at Clarendon Sports Centre, is busy preparing for the new season. Anyone interested in playing squash should come along to one of the open evenings held every Monday and Friday – see join the club for more information.

Trowbridge runners up in Wilts Summer League Final

Wednesday, July 28th, 2010 | The Club, Wiltshire Squash League | No Comments

Mark McGuiness (Green T-shirt), Rich Elsdon (kneeling right), Bruce Isaac (right), Tom Oatley (at home with a bag of peas on his sore leg!)

Trowbridge gave a valiant effort in their Summer League final against Chippenham, the latter proving too strong in the end.

Chippenham have been very close rivals for the last couple of winter seasons, and look to have strengthened since our last encounter. Boosted by the introduction of Julian Mitchell and Steve Duffet, they look like a tough team to beat when the season restarts later this year.

In the 5th string game Bruce Isaac played Andy Davies and had an epic match. Bruce delivered some of his best squash despite spending most of the summer playing tennis! Most games where extremely close and could have gone to either player. The 1st four games went 9/7, 1/9, 10/8, 8/10, meaing it was 2-2 with a deciding game to go.

Bruce let Andy get a lead of 0-4 and was 1-6 down before coming back with huge effort, and some great length squash to the back corners, to get to 5-6. Bruce then took the lead serving for the match at 8-6. He served for the match a total of 5 times in the last game, but eventually Andy who had hung in there brilliantly, managed to close the match 8-10 – a fantastic effort from Bruce who really enjoyed the match.

Rich Elsdon at 4 had a tall task taking on Steve Duffet, who’s been playing since the age of 11 and had experience in some really strong leagues including Bristol. Steve won the 1st 2 games pretty comfortably. Rich tried very hard to volley early in the 3rd and take the game to Steve, playing some decisive winners as we’re accustomed to seeing. Rich is battling an injury in his arm at the moment, and hasn’t quite got the weaponry he normally has, and he couldn’t contain Steve’s racket skills in the end.

Mark McGuiness at 3 played Jullian Mitchell, an over 50s county player and was very keen to make an impression. This nearly happened in the 1st with Mark storming to be 4-0 and later 7-3 up. Julian who’s got great experience started to get into his rythmn and managed to get back to 8-8 before closing out  8-10.

From there Julian managed to get Mark moving around a lot and catching him out with accurate cross-courts from the back which wrong footed Mark over and over. Despite some serious trying, Mark eventually lost 2-9, 2-9.

The 1st string game was potentially one to savour, especially for Tom Oatley who had got very close  to beating Richie on several occasions recently, but hadn’t been able to get across the line. He started off extremely well, cracking the ball around the court and having Richie majorly struggling to keep the ball in play, winning the 1st 9-0. The 2nd was a much tighter game, Richie managing to get more rallies going and showing off his renowned fitness, Richie managed to win a very tight game in the end 8-10.

Tom seemed to be struggling getting to the front of the court, and after going 0-5 down in the 3rd suffered a pull to his hamstring and was unable to continue.

So a convinging win for Chippenham in the end, but great effort from Trowbridge to get to the final, and we’re still in the Cup semi-final, so hopefully another one on it’s way!

If you are interested in playing for our team(s) in the Wiltshire league, please drop us an email.

Trowbridge team remain in Wiltshire Div 2

Monday, January 4th, 2010 | The Club, Wiltshire Squash League | No Comments

Team News

This half season was much more relaxed than previous ones for the only remaining team representing the Trowbridge club in the Wiltshire league. All 10 matches were played using the same trusty six players as last year throughout – it is very unusual for a team to play so many matches utilising such a small squad.( Hint Hint – volunteers please).

At the mid-point of the season we were sitting on top of the table. In fairness, we had played a couple of matches more than the eventual winners – South Marston- but this was the strongest performance we had ever achieved in Division 2. Tom Oatley and Rich Edwards were holding their own (though that sometimes made serving difficult) against strong opposition at numbers 1 and 2 and Mark McGuinness had yet to be beaten at 3.

Highlights of the season were probably Mark’s victory against Pat Carty to secure match points against South Marston and Bruce Isaac’s win at 5 over Wessex’s Mark Cains. Both were hard fought 3-2 wins.
The low point was when Mark succumbed to Steve McCourt (Marlborough) in match 9 and lost his unbeaten record. Rumour has it that he was less than chuffed!

We ended the season in fourth place 19 points clear of Chippenham in fifth who in turn were more than 50 points clear of Nighingale in sixth.

All in all a great half season and good fun throughout.

Rich

Ade Warren and Rich Holdway make Wiltshire Men’s Semi-Finals!

Tuesday, January 20th, 2009 | The Club, Tournaments, Wiltshire championships | No Comments

Trowbridge Squash Club’s very own Ade Warren and Rich Holdway had a great weekend at the 2009 Wiltshire Open Championships.

Ade making the semi-finals of the main competition and Rich the semi-finals of the plate competition (for losers in the 1st round of the main competition).

Also representing Trowbridge Squash Club was Mark McGuiness who had a challenging draw (to say the least!) against last year’s (and this year’s) main competition finalist Paul Clarke. Mark worked hard to stay on court for as long as possible, and managed to get 7, 5 and 3 points in 3 games respectively - a respectable effort!

Mark then lost fairly easily to Dean Watkins who was intent on claiming every stroke going rather than do any running! Mark’s game was too loose and error prone to put up a real fight.

Ade Warren’s route to the semi finals went something like this (individual match scores based on memory, so perhaps not 100% accurate)…

1st round match against Ed Harris, a new member to Marlborough and somewhat of an unknown quantity. I tok the first 2 games reasonably comfortably with Ed making many errors to my advantage. The third game saw Ed stop making the errors and force Ade to win his rallies, the game went to 8-8 with Ed looking strong and Ade looking worried, Ade had 5 match points, each of which saw him put the ball into the tin; finally on the sixth time of asking, Ade was able to close out the match. Ed is one to watch though for the future at Marlborough. Think the scores were 9-3 / 9-2 / 10-8

2nd round saw Ade come up against the prestigious and renowned Mike “The Judge” Stannard. I knew this was not going to be a walk in the park and many people pre-warned me of Mike’s game prior to the start.
The 1st game saw Mike on the back foot, not quite getting into his game and allowing Ade to control the rallies, but then Mike woke up in the second and third, forcing Ade to up his game to keep control. Fortunately some early hard rallies had taken their toll on Mike and by the end of the third game tiredness saw some error’s coming from Mike allowing Ade to close out the match. 9-4 / 9-7 / 9-7.

Quarter Finals - Ade vs James Ryan - a young gun from Moonrakers in Salisbury, previously coached by Simon White and now coached by Tim Vale!!! Rightfully Ade was apprehensive of this match, after watching James see off some good opponents in the first and second round.
the first game saw Ade start a lot quicker than James and was then able to dominate the pace of the rallies early on. In the second Ade continued to show his dominance, taking the ball early and keeping James on the back foot. James was struggling to handle the continued change of pace and finally succome to frustration on the third game my making many unforced errors and handing Ade the match. Another one that will be coming up through the ranks in the future though! No idea of game scores.

Semi finals - After struggling to ensure not too many beers were consumed Saturday night, Sunday morning saw the semi finals arrive.
Knowing full well that I was on court with the defending champion and favourite to win, Ade was nervous to say the least!
Ade was off to a flyer in the first by winning the spin for serve and kicking the match off, the was the first and last time Ade was in the lead throughout the match. The first game saw Ade tried to rush Simon into his shots, taking the ball early and keeping the pace fast throughout. Simon was able to cope with the fast pace better than Ade and took the first 9-3.
The second saw a different tactic from Ade, just trying to stick with Simon’s game, Simon’s unbelievable retrieval started to mystify Ade who was witnessing his best shots being picked up and thrown back at him with interest - idea’s were running out!!!
In the third Ade kept it simple, but Simon’s dominance proving too much for him, Simon closing the match out 9-3 / 9-3 / 9-3.

Rich Holdway’s route to the plate Semi-Final….

1st Round.

I came up a lad named Jason Pike, and from what i was hearing he was very good. They weren’t wrong, and even as we hit back to each other in the warm up it was already obvious! Anyway, there was some good rallies right from the off but it was clear he was a far better player than me and he breezed through the first 2. I managed to give him a scare in the third by going 8-4 up but was unable to get that illusive last point, so Jason took the match 3-0.

Plate 1st Round.

Had drawn Ed Crane, a Wessex player who i know pretty well but have never played. I started really slow in this one, couldn’t find any rhythm and before I knew what was going on I was 2-0 down! The third started badly as well, went 5-1 down in no time, convinced I was going out I must have relaxed slightly and started going for more shots, which started working, I managed to claw that 1 back to take it 9-5. The fourth went the same way and as I grew in confidence Ed was getting more frustrated, and started making a lot of mistakes. I took the forth and the fifth reasonably comfortably, to somehow progress to the next round.

Plate 2nd Round.

Antony Denington was waiting for me here. Again a guy I know well, but have never played but I know he’s good. Thankfully in my favour was the fact that he had just had a pretty hard match with James Ryan, and was looking tired early on.  He took the 1st 10-9, but it was a long game, and it soon became apparent in the 2nd that Ant was rapidly running out of steam! I took the 2nd and although the next 2 were close I managed to take those as well. A really good match, from 2 pretty tired body’s!

Plate Quarter Final

This was also played on the Saturday, and to be honest didn’t think I’d get through this as was very tired. I was playing Mike Stannard. From the warm up it was painfully obvious from both of us that this wasn’t going to be a classic! Mike took the first 9-6 I think, but then seemed to rest slightly in the second as I took that one 9-1, the reverse then happened in the third as Mike pushed again and I was unable to respond, Mike taking it 9-3 I believe. This pattern continued as I took the fourth, although during this game it was clear Mike was having problems with his racket hand, and between games he admitted it was cramping up a lot. The fifth started and I managed to take a good lead 7-2 or so, but Mike was having increasing difficulty with hand, and unfortunately had to concede the match.

Sunday Plate Semi Final

After a long jacuzzi, a good meal, a few beers and a sleep you wouldn’t have woke me from even if the hotel had blown up, I felt just about ready for Dave Ridgeway in the semi’s. Dave I know really well and we have played a number of times and although it has always been close- in fact almost always going to 8 all in the fifth- i have never beaten him. Anyway as usual games went back and fourth and it was soon 2 all, with both of us looking tired. I took off in the fifth going 6-1 up and hoping today was going to be mine! Dave dug deep and it was soon 6 a piece, then I was 8-6 down! A few more hard rallies and it went 8 all, Dave called set 2, I got to 9-8, and served for the match, but was unable to take it, 9 all, now Dave has another chance, which he took. Another good knock but he still remains my nemesis, as I went out to him last year as well!! Anyway Dave did go on to win the plate, taking the final 3-0, a worthy winner in my opinion.

Rich Holdway.

Trowbridge 1st Team campaign hampered by injury

Thursday, December 18th, 2008 | The Club, Wiltshire Squash League | No Comments

This season has proved to be one of the most difficult to date. The aim as always was to retain our division 1 status which we achieved a few years ago, and possibly look for a mid table finish.

Our squad of Ade Warren, Tessa Healy, Rich Holdway, Andy Doel and Gary Dawson were all keen to get back into it after the summer lay off. Unfortunately one month before the first match Ade -our no.1- damaged his knee and has had to miss many matches because of it - a huge loss!-. This then seemed to set the tone for the rest of the season as team members started dropping like flies with injury after injury!

Despite this we managed to rally around and find other players to come in, some have joined the team and club permanently i.e. Andy jennings -a good player and a big thank you to him-,  also we managed to borrow players from the club and our other team from time to time, a big thanks to Mark Mcguiness, Tom Oatley, Steve Connor, James Fussel and Jim Conway for turning out when needed. All of which fought hard for the cause, picking up some much needed points!

The league table finished with us in a tie for the bottom spot, but as another team had dropped out in the 11th hour pre season, we were spared from relegation.

Team sprit is as high as ever, and hopefully the Christmas break will help heal some of the walking wounded, and have us back at full strengh for the upcoming season.

Cheers,

Rich Holdway. (Capt)

P.S

Congratulations to the guys of Trowbridge 2 on back to back promotions!!! Fantastic!!!

Trowbridge Squash 2nd Team promoted

Tuesday, December 16th, 2008 | The Club, Wiltshire Squash League | No Comments

Team (left to right): Mark McGuiness, Steve Connor, Tom Oakley, Bruce Isaac, Rich Elsden. Missing through injury in this photo was Rich Edwards.

Having just gained promotion to Division 3, the team members were hoping to consolidate their position in this tougher division.  The team – Rich Edwards, Rich Elsden, Steve Connor and Bruce Isaac – was strengthened early in the new season when Mark McGuiness joined the club and Tom Oatley rediscovered his enthusiasm for tough games and curries.

The campaign started brilliantly and at the halfway stage we were undefeated and sitting at the top of the table. Feelings of excitement, determination, commitment and surprise could be seen regularly.

The second half of the season proved a bit more difficult (an odd injury here and there- more players needed, please.) but the top of the table position was maintained until the final game of the season. We played local rivals Melksham in a battle for the top spot. Tom’s best performance of the season secured a tremendous win in his game but despite heroic efforts by Mark, Bruce and Steve in their games we lost the match.  However with both the top two sides- Melksham and Trowbridge- being some 50 points clear of the nearest rivals we should be playing squash in Division 2 after Christmas*. Now that will be tough!

All in all a fantastic few months. Everybody had a mixture of hard games, easy games and weird games. Great team spirit and a sense of fun were present throughout. Let’s hope we’re still laughing in March.

*Confirmed today that the 2nd Team have gained promotion to Div2 - Congratulations!

If you are interested in joining Trowbridge Squash Club, whether begginer or club veteran, we’d love to welcome you on board. Please see our JOIN THE CLUB page for more details.