The fifth annual Festival of Squash organised by the GB
Vets was held at the RAC, Woodcote Park, Epsom on Sunday
5th. November. By 9.30 a.m. groups of “keen, fit young
players” from the GB Vets, the Army and the Escorts, began
arriving to join the players from the host RAC team. Each
side fielded four singles and six doubles players. As the
day wore on, several players including Phil Ashman (for
the Army) and Keeley Johnson (making her debut for the GB
Vets) played both singles and doubles whilst Nigel Belle
demonstrated the spirit of the event by volunteering to
play singles for the Escorts when they lost one player.
Nigel had a great 3-2 victory over James Dubois. You can
read elsewhere that this Nigel took this form to the
Midlands Masters in Edgbaston the following weekend when
he won the Over 75 event!
It was great to see several GB Vets make their debut at
the festival including Dean Newberry and Chris Goodbourn
in the Singles, Alan Thomson and Dave Clarke in the
Doubles and Keeley Johnson in both Singles and Doubles.
Alan and Dave won two of their doubles, while Keeley won
her singles match and teamed up with Mandy Akin to win two
out of their three doubles. However, it was the Robert
Smith and Karen Hume team that surpassed themselves to win
all three of their doubles! Chris Goodbourn matched this
great performance by winning all his singles matches. In
the other singles, Dean won two of his matches (and looks
like a fine addition to our team for the future). Sadly,
Philip Ayton was injured in his second singles, after a
winning his first match, and had to retire. Keeley stood
in for Phil’s final match which she won. Nick Sheppard put
up strong resistance in his three matches but was not able
to post a win.
Over the whole of the day, 92 games were played in the
24 Singles matches, and 74 games in the 18 Doubles
matches. For the Army, both Nick Palmer and Craig Webb won
all of their three singles, whilst Ross Gardiner (with Jay
Piggot and Brad Allan) won all his three doubles matches
for the RAC.
The result of the overall competition went down to the
wire with a large gallery watching the final doubles match
between the Army and Escorts which went to an exciting
fifth game. After the splendid Jane Belle and Di Hendry,
who had managed the timetable through the day, had
reckoned up all the points, the result showed the closest
competition since the event started in 2013:
The Army: 66
GB Vets: 62
R.A.C.: 41
Escorts 33
Shortly after the final matches finished, hot and cold
canapés, were served with beer and wine for both players
and guests. Finally, the GB Vets Chairman, Tom Hendry,
thanked James Dubois and the RAC for their generosity in
making it possible for the event to take place in such
fine surroundings. Tom then thanked Jane Belle and Di
Hendry for their hard work orchestrating the matches for
the four courts throughout the day. He also thanked all
the team captains for assembling their players and
congratulated everyone for both turning out and
exemplifying the spirit of the event -that participation
was much more important than the result!
The 2017 Festival of Squash Trophy was then presented
to the Army’s captain Phil Ashman for the fourth year in a
row. Finally, Phil Ashman thanked his players, opponents
and the organisers for another great event and spoke for
all present, stating that they could not wait for the next
festival.
See you all on Sunday November 4th, 2018!
Tom Hendry
Chairman, GB Vets.
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