The seventh annual Festival of Squash organised by the GB
Vets was held at the RAC, Woodcote Park, Epsom on Sunday
3rd November.
By 9.30 a.m. groups of keen players, with ages spanning
from 25 to 85, representing the GB Vets, the Army and the
Escorts, began arriving to join the players from the host
RAC team.
The Army team was somewhat down on numbers given the
absence of Phil and Yvette Ashman. The former has left the
Army but has taken on the job of running the Army’s
overall sports- so squash is now only one of his sports…
However, in the spirit of the Festival of Squash, the GB
Vets loaned Nick Sheppard for the Singles, and (Lt. Col)
John Woodliffe and Lance Kinder for the Doubles! John and
Lance won one of their two matches with a large gallery
impressed by the amazing staying power of a pair now
aggregating over 168 years!!
Richard Green and Len Westover (The Army) were the overall
stars in the Singles, winning all three of their matches.
In the Doubles, Mandy Akin and Karen Hume (GB Vets) won
all three of their matches, whilst Alan Thomson and Dave
Clarke played four matches and won them all! Mike Stewart
and Karl Newland (RAC) won two of their Doubles matches
whilst James Dubois (RAC) won three of his Singles
matches… although he essentially played Nick Sheppard
twice- with Nick representing both GB Vets and the Army in
the same match! That really is the spirit of the event!
Shayne Baillie (RAC) had a fine day, narrowly losing to
Richard Green whilst winning her other two matches. Dean
Newberry (GB Vets) and John Goodrich (GB Vets) again
performed strongly with both winning two of their Singles
matches, whilst Jeremy Wilcox (Escorts) did likewise.
However, perhaps the tour-de-force for the day was Rick
Prior (Escorts) who played four Doubles and two Singles
for the Escorts scoring 9 points!
Over the whole of the day, 86 games were played in the 24
Singles matches, and 64 games in the 18 Doubles matches.
The result of the overall competition went down to the
wire with large galleries watching the final matches which
proved to be key to the final positions.
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 another close competition
with the Army turning the tables on the 2018 winners GB
Vets by just FOUR points:
The Army: 60
GB Vets: 56
R.A.C: 43
Escorts: 21
Shortly after the final matches finished, hot and cold
canapés, were served with wine for both players and the
guests who came to support their teams. 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 and Di for their hard work orchestrating the matches
for the four courts throughout the day. He also thanked
Berge Kay (Escorts), Phil Croager (The Army), Nigel Belle
(GB Vets) and James Dubois (RAC) 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 Festival of Squash Trophy for 2019 was then presented
to Phil Croager. Finally, Phil 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 when we can celebrate our great
sport.
See you all on Sunday November 1st 2020. Put it in your
diary!
Tom Hendry
Chairman, GB Vets.
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