Adeyi Beats Newcomer Mann to Retain County Squash Title

The Bedfordshire Squash County Closed Championships took place at Club Towers in Bedford across 4 days at the start of January and what an amazing tournament it turned out to be. Over 70 players competed in A/B/C Grade and O55 events, plus plate competitions for first round losers.

A big thank you to everyone who supported the event:

Main sponsor, The Dental Centre, plus other sponsors: Green Earth Café, JR Builders Ltd, Samo Squash Coaching, Club Towers and EpicTech Media.

The Beds Squash Committee who organised the event (especially Simon Marshall, Ryan Pescod, Steve Davies and Sam Morris),

plus the markers and everyone who came to support.  

Finals day was again live-streamed via Facebook Live, by Ally Adams and his team at EpicTech Media, providing some great coverage of all the action. You can find the links to the various finals matches in the text below.     

An incredible 94 matches were played across the 4 days, but who were our county champions?

A Grade

The absence of 9-time former county champion Steve Davies (Club Towers) was keenly felt in the A-grade competition, but the field was still packed with talent, and there were some brilliant matches throughout, with the highlight being a feisty Friday evening contest between Ryan Pescod (Bunyan Bulls) and upcoming junior Dan Evans (Shenley), which Ryan squeaked through 3-2 (11-7 in the 5^th).  

The top 4 seeds all progressed relatively serenely to the semi-finals. Defending champion and No 1 seed Gbenga Adeyi (David Lloyd) made short work of Nathan Derrick (Biggleswade) in the first semi, winning 3-0, but the other semi turned into a titanic battle between Ben Shakespeare (David Lloyd) and newcomer to the county scene Ben Mann (Club Towers). The match seesawed throughout and at 2-2 was anyone’s to win. The 5^th was a terrific game, with some amazing retrieval from Mann finally getting him across the line.

In the final Adeyi was just too strong for Mann, showcasing his incredible athleticism and racquet skills to take the title 3-0 (11-4, 11-6, 11-9).

You can view the A grade final at: here.

In the A-grade plate, Ryan Harper (Biggleswade) and Neville Jeyaratnam (David Lloyd) won through the final with relative ease but the final was a good scrap. Both players have improved massively in the last 12 months and Jeyaratnam pushed Harper hard, winning the first game before finally going down 3-1 as Harper’s greater consistency won the day.  

B Grade

In the B Grade, Gary Millner (Flitwick) had a good run to the semis despite his dodgy knees, winning a tough quarter final with Pat O’Riordan 3-2, with the 4^th and 5^th games being extremely tight (14-16, 15-12). However, the semis proved a step too far for Millner with Dave Gibson (OU) demonstrating the control needed to subdue the hard-hitting Millner 3-0. In the other semi, Nick Cartwright (Flitwick) was too strong for Dan Jacob (OU), also winning 3-0 (15-12, 15-12, 15-9).  

So to the final….. Cartwright has hit a rich vein of form this season and proved too strong for Gibson, winning 3-0 (15-2, 15-9, 15-10) to take the B grade trophy. 

The B grade plate turned into one of the outstanding draws in terms of tight and competitive matches. The first-round match between upcoming junior Michael Collins (Luton) and Chris Hunt (Biggleswade) was outstanding and drew a huge audience. Hunt raced into a 2-0 lead before the athleticism and fitness of Collins started to draw him back into the contest, winning a tight 3^rd game 15-13 and an amazing 4^th game 20-18. The fifth was anyone’s game but Hunt just managed to keep his composure to edge a titanic battle 16-14.     

Hunt’s run was ended by Adam Soilleux (Club Towers) in the semis, but he still put up a brave show despite his exertions in the previous round, losing 3-1 (15-13 in the 4^th). In the other half, another rapidly improving junior Toby Sutliff (Club Towers) beat Alex Buckhurst (Club Towers) in a tight 4-setter (again 15-13 in the 4^th).

The final was another tight match that swung back and forth. Soilleux put up fierce resistance to win the second game and the fourth was nip and tuck all the way, but Sutliff kept his composure at the end of the game to take win the B plate final 3-1 (15-12, 13-15, 15-8, 15-13).

You can view the B-grade plate final here.

C Grade

The biggest draw was in the C grade, with 24 players scrapping for the title, many playing their first tournament. There were plenty of tight matches and lots of upsets, starting in the first round, when No 1 seed Rob Ayles (Club Towers) struggled against Brook Harris (Club Towers) and went down 3-0. Harris then lost to Patryk Konopacki (Bedford Bulls) in an epic 3-2 encounter after being 2-1 up, before Konopacki was beaten by 12^th seed Charlie Jessop (Bedford Bulls) in the semis.

The bottom half of the draw proceeded more in line with the seedings with No 2 seed Alexis White (Club Towers) beating No 3 seed James Jarema (OU) 3-0 in the semi, after surviving a scare in the first round against youngster Charlie Jenkins (Club Towers), just managing to come through 16-14 in the 5^th.

The final was a good battle, but the experience and better control of White in the tight moments proved too much for Jessop and he took the title 3-0 (15-10, 18-16, 15-12). You can view the action in the final here.

In the C grade plate Joe Masih (Club Towers) had a great run to the final, ruthlessly beating his own son Seth 3-0 in his first match and winning a tight semi-final 3-1 against Barry Ephgrave (Bedford Bulls).  In the bottom half of the draw, Barry Smith (Bedford Bulls) survived a scare against Sophie Cable (Club Towers), but was too strong for Josh Anwar (Club Towers) in the semis.

The final between Masih and Smith was a nail-biting encounter. Both players had spells in the ascendency so that it was hard to predict the eventual winner, even after Masih took the first two sets. In the event, Masih just about managed to re-impose his length game in the fourth set and was relieved to cross the winning line 3-1 (15-12, 15-13, 13-15, 17-15).      

O55

There was a smallish draw of 11 players for the O55 event, with the biggest upset being Steve Eyles (previously of OU and just moved back into the area) eliminating third seed Steve Barlow (Club Towers) in a five-game thriller in the quarter finals. The top two seeds, Matthew Towers (Club Towers) and Ian Thomas (Club Towers) progressed to the final without too many alarms. The final looked like it would be a procession, with Thomas winning the first two games easily 11-3, 11-5. However, Towers managed to get going in the third and fought back to take the next two 11-5, 11-4, setting up a tense deciding set. Towers raced to a 5-1 lead, but then seemed to hit a wall. Thomas finished strongly to take the final game 11-7 and with it, the title. You can watch the action here.

In the final of the plate competition, a composed Stephen Mullins (Flitwick) proved too strong for Thomas Garlich (Luton), winning 3-0, although Garlich got close to forcing a fourth game.  

Next year’s event will take place across the weekend of 9/10/11^th January and we hope to see another record entry! See you there!