Ian Robinson reports

Another evening of bitter disappointment beckoned in the opening match of the second half of the season for UniSport Guildford. All new year's resolutions went by the wayside after the initial success of Alison Waters. The loss of Jesse Engelbrecht to the World Tour was always going to make this a mountain to climb as he had been pivotal in setting up the win against south coast rivals Tinos Homes Chichester in the first half of the season. Chichester, led by veteran player/manager Tim Vail, are a strong team and although only one place above UniSport in the league table were far too strong on the night.

Alison Waters 3-0 Line Hansen            9-1, 9-6, 9-3

The outstanding match of the evening as far as UniSport were concerned was first on the championship court with World number 10 Alison Waters of UniSport matched against the Dane, Line Hansen. Waters was altogether too dominant and controlled the match from start to finish. This did not stop Hansen putting up some tough defence but that on its own was never going to be enough and Waters conceded 10 points in total in easing her way to a first Premier League win of the second half.

Waters has been highly active on the World circuit and with no little success, so it was fascinating for home fans to have the opportunity to see the new improved version since her last home appearance. It was no less encouraging to see the first point go on the board at this early stage of the evening.

Alex Ingham 1-3 Tom Pashley             9-11, 2-9, 9-4, 5-9

On the outside court young Alex Ingham a year or two younger than his 'senior colleague' in the England Junior squad found the challenge of Tom Pashley well within range. However falling behind to a significant early lead through errors, Pashley was able to cruise to a game ball playing solid squash.

It was at this point that Ingham started to play more accurately and force the issue to a tie breaker. Once on equal terms the initiative swung back to the visitors and the first game was in the bag for Tinos Homes Chichester. The second game started disastrously for home liking, as there was an immediate 6 - 0 deficit which always proved too much to overhaul.

2 - 0 behind is always a bad place to be, but at this stage Ingham found much better range and his drives were finding the target more often and allowed him to play more from the mid court area and produce some accurate and effective winners. But while the third game gave hope to home fans it was soon to be taken away again as after another bad start Ingham fell behind never to catch up again.

This is invaluable experience for the home youngster and he is in no way overawed by it, but there are too many mistakes which are making the business of winning games an uphill struggle for the moment, but this will change in time. The match was now poised at 1 - 1.

Phil Rushworth 1-3 Tim Vail                  6-9, 3-9, 9-1, 7-9

Phil Rushworth has been a regular attender at UniSport training sessions recently and has looked in good form. This was only his third appearance in home colours and his first at home. It was a tough ask to expect much headway against the vast experience of his opponent, Tim Vail. The one common denominator was that both had sustained niggling injuries against the same Surrey player in successive weeks in county league.

Rushworth had a week longer to recover, but there was the suspicion that the visitor was carrying a more serious injury than was good for him. If that was the case, it was not apparent on the court as he moved well enough although having to keep his wits about him in order to restrain the admirable enthusiasm of his younger opponent. In the first two games Vail always had something in hand, but losing his concentration at the start of the third Rushworth seized on it and headed for home with a flurry of winners of his own aided by some errors as well. The fourth game was again closely fought and perhaps supported the view the Vail was not moving that well, but in contrast Rushworth was chasing down everything he could humanly get to - his speed around the court was impressive.

In the end at 7 - 8 with the Guildford player serving there was a long rally which ended with a low hard penetrating drive cross court, which Vail managed to catch at the top of his strings, arm out-stretched, taking the pace off the ball and with slight mis-queue conjured up a great winner from a seemingly impossible position - a more unkind view might be that it was a lucky. It was probably with some relief that he finished the match when he did, as Rushworth was making a great success out of being a thorough nuisance and the longer it lasted the more he backed himself.

Rushworth is showing some good signs and he could cause some surprises at the upcoming National Squash Championships in Manchester especially if some of his opponents still view him as just a coach. Nonetheless the match score was now 2 - 1 in favour of the visitors.

Stephen Meads 1-3 Peter Genever       3-9, 3-9, 9-7, 7-9

The ever reliable Steve Meads faced his old foe and adversary Peter Genever to further extend their on-going and entertaining rivalry. Yet again, the Hong Kong National coach had been away for his Asian training camp and came back full of his customary ebullience, but made a most unlikely and subdued start to the match.

Forgetting that he was back in the cut-throat world of League squash he played too many shots and found himself 2 - 0 behind with a grand total of 6 points on the board. Back to the nitty gritty of 'hacking' in order to increase the intensity, he managed to fight his way back to reduce the deficit, but only by a tight 9 - 7 margin. Clearly the simplicity of the approach was reaping something of a reward so persevering with the strategy he continued to 'hack'.

By now Peter Genever had seen enough and managed to nose his way in front at the vital time at the end of the game, thereby clinching the match. There was some confusion, though, over a late refereeing decision which seemed a little fanciful, but the basis was that Genever had according to Meads actually kicked the ball, however the referee saw that as no let 'because you would not have got to it anyway', thereby creating even more confusion in everybody else's mind - the only thing that seemed to be missing was the award of a goal.

The crucial thing was that the match was over and UniSport Guildford had lost, not only the tie but also the match overall with a match score of 3 - 1 to Chichester.

 Stacey Ross 1-3 Alex Gough                11-13, 8-10, 9-6, 6-9

Stacey Ross was left to defend honour and pride in taking on Chichester's Welshman, Alex Gough. As usual the diffident Ross was a quirky mix of the very good and the truly forgettable.

Racing away he took a lead with Gough still not firing and should have clinched the first game without much ado. He was playing accurately and finishing impressively except when it came to clinching the game. Gough took this as his signal to start playing and as Ross's level fell, Gough's was rising and he nipped in to steal the first game like some genuine pick-pocket. But there were comical moments from both players with some beautifully crafted winners mixed in with mishits and occasional 'air-shots'. 'Patchy' was the word that Ross used to describe what had transpired in the first game, while stating the obvious in his own understated way. The second almost made it to the level of farce. Ross fell behind by half a dozen points finding it hard to return serve, which was confusing the assembled multitude who were finding it hard to make sense of what was going on.

Just as soon as Ross fell behind he stirred himself and fought back to equal terms only to end up losing the second game at the tie breaker. 2 - 0 down and playing in fits and starts does not inspire confidence in your supporters, but he was marginally more consistent in the third game and took that almost deservedly, although that is probably over-stating the case while Gough seemed to go missing. There was a complete air of unreality about the whole proceedings and as the fourth game wore on it, it merely remained for Ross to attempt yet another come back after a poor start to the game.

'Patchy' was indeed a good way to describe the match although it was not without its good moments, there was also a good taste of the other on offer as well. Chichester had cruised to a 4 - 1 win thereby reversing the only win that UniSport had in the first half of the season.


Tough tests ahead

It is going to be a tough struggle now for the UniSport youngsters this season, but a challenge to which all are looking forward. The opposition ranged against our team with such a young middle order is more experienced and potentially higher ranked, but there are reputations at stake and there is enough to suggest that UniSport players are determined to try and upset the accepted order. It is going to be a massive effort to lift ourselves off the bottom of the table this year but it is something which will provide a huge amount of motivation for all.

Congratulations go to Alison Waters who was awarded the Player of the Match award and with it was a bottle of champagne.

The next instalment sees us take the magical mystery tour to Bristol to see if we can make a nuisance of ourselves there. The next and last home match of this season after that is against Surrey Health and Rackets Club, which is scheduled for Tuesday 13th March. See you there then - we need your support...please.

The Mayor of Guildford, Dr Angela Gunning, presents the "Player of the Match" award to Alison Waters. Her Mayoral theme for the year has been Sport and she has been supporting as much as she can. She thoroughly enjoyed the evening and played squash in her youth - although did not really recognise it as the same game that she watched ...