Hunts County Squash Club hosted the Men’s Over 60 and Over 50 Harris Inter County Finals weekend. A new venue for Harris Inter County Finals, this England Squash Gold Chartered club, who will also host the British Under 23 Championships 24-26 April, is close to the market town of St Ives in Cambridgeshire. It proved to be a very popular choice with great facilities and extremely hospitable staff and volunteers – the under floor heating system was also a hit on a cold January weekend!

Saturday was semi finals day. The morning fixtures paired reigning champions Kent against Lancashire and this was a very close affair with us going through to the final 3-2. The other semi-final resulted in Durham coming from 2 matches down to beat Bucks 3-2.

Sunday morning was 3rd / 4th play off time, Bucks narrowly missed out again for 3rd place for the second year in succession losing 3-2 to Lancashire.

Trevor Grant, father of England International Adrian, got the ball rolling for Kent in the Over 50 final as he beat Brian Duke 3-0 at 3rd string. Kent looked as though they would cruise to a 2-0 lead with captain Terry Easton 2-0 up, but his opponent Colin Shields had other ideas and battled back to 2-2 and 6-3 up. A real captain’s effort however saw Terry triumph 9-6 in the fifth. Kent took an unassailable lead when Gordon McManus clinched a hard fought 3-2 victory, coming from 2 games down to take the 1st string match. At 2-0 up Philip Crane was awarded the match against Norman Turnball who retired. James Larcombe recorded the only victory for Durham as he battled for a 3-2 win against Gary Marshall in a competitive dead rubber.

Kent dedicated their Over 50 victory to Ian Wright lynchpin of Kent squash for over 40 years in his roles as county secretary, treasurer and council member who sadly passed away early in January.


SEMI ONE
LANCASHIRE 2 KENT 3

1 Ian Bradburn beat Gordon McManus 3-1 9/1 7/9 9/4 10/9
2 Dave Swallow beat Gary Marshall 3-1 8/10 9/7 9/4 9/2
3 Geoff Cross lost Trevor Grant 1-3 5/9 9/4 8/10 0/9
4 Steve Dycza lost Phillip Charles Crane 0-3 1/9 1/9 4/9
5 Chris Hughes lost Terry Easton 0-3 1/9 8/10 9/10

SEMI TWO
DURHAM & CLEVELAND 3 BUCKINGHAMSHIRE 2

1 Dave Lumsden beat Mark Mellett 3-1 3/9 9/5 9/7 9/2
2 James Larcombe beat William Priest 3-0 9/7 9/0 9/2
3 Brian Duke lost Steve Lewis 0-3 5/9 6/9 3/9
4 Norman Turnball beat Ian Burge 3-1 9/1 2/9 9/7 9/6
5 Colin Shields lost Chris Gildersleve 1-3 9/6 5/9 4/9 6/9


3rd / 4th PLAY OFF
LANCASHIRE 3 BUCKINGHAMSHIRE 2

1 Ian Bradburn beat Mark Mellett 3-0 9/0 9/4 9/0
2 Dave Swallow beat William Priest 3-0 9/1 9/6 9/3
3 Geoff Cross lost Steve Lewis 0-3 6/9 7/9 3/9
4 Steve Dycza beat Ian Burge 3-0 9/5 9/6 9/6
5 Chris Hughes lost Chris Gildersleve 1-3 0/9 9/5 5/9 5/9


FINAL
KENT 4 DURHAM & CLEVELAND 1

1 Gordon McManus beat Dave Lumsden 3-2 0/9 7/9 9/1 9/0 9/5
2 Gary Marshall lost James Larcombe 2-3 9/6 6/9 9/4 3/9 2/9
3 Trevor Grant beat Brian Duke 3-0 9/5 10/8 9/1
4 Phillip Charles Crane beat Norman Turnball 3-0 9/5 9/6 RET
5 Terry Easton beat Colin Shields 3-2 9/4 9/0 8/9 4/9 9/6




See the presentation with a dedication to Ian Wright at this link.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=0WwK5Q1JJpA