Dramatic Final Showcases County Squash @ClubTowers

The dramatic victory by third seed Gbenga Adeyi over reigning champion and 7 times winner of the Bedfordshire County Squash Championships, Steve Davies, closed out a fascinating weekend of top quality squash at Towers Health & Racquets Club in Bedford.

It was standing room only for the final, which seesawed dramatically during an hour and 15 minutes of gruelling and high quality squash – easily the best final of recent years. Local favourite Steve Davies (our own General Manager!), was chasing a record equalling 8^th win, but was faced by an in-form Gbenga Adeyi from David Lloyd MK.

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Battle of Davies vs Adeyi

Adeyi clawed back a 12-8 deficit to take a very tight first game, with a wonderful array of shots, but after some lung-bursting rallies Davies took control of the second to tie things up. The third was gruelling and competitive all the way as both players battled to take the initiative; however, Adeyi took it with a late flurry of superb winners. Many felt that would seal Davies’ fate, but he blasted out of the blocks and took the fourth with comparative ease. At this point it looked like Adeyi was physically spent, but the start of the deciding fifth game was always going to be crucial. A change of shirt seemed to reinvigorate Adeyi as he surged ahead and eventually won the decider with relative ease, to take the match 3-2.

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A Grade Winner Gbenga Adeyi & runner-up Steven Davies

It was a great contest that vividly demonstrated the skill, power, athleticism and stamina of the top squash players, and was played in a fantastic spirit throughout. Well done guys!

The weekend’s play had begun early on Saturday morning with the juniors getting things underway, with all matches going to form. Once the adults got going, these matches also went to form. First round winners went on to compete for the A Grade title, whilst first round losers went on to compete for the B Grade prize.

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Womens County Winner 2017

By the time the first round of matches was complete the first winner of the weekend was decided as young starlet Sophia John brushed all competitors aside easily to take the women’s crown.

The second round of men’s matches proved to be considerably more competitive. Playing at his home club, Will Montgomery sprang a surprise in defeating Flitwick’s Matt Suckling. Suckling is a renowned shot player and the contest was always expected to be tight, but the intensity was too much for Suckling and he ended up having to pull out during the match with an injured hamstring, after going 2-0 down, enabling Montgomery through to a semi-final place. All the remaining matches in the A grade went to form as the other top seeds progressed in a straightforward manner to the semis.

The B Grade was much stronger this year than in the recent past, and there were some tight matches, Luton’s best hope of a senior award was here, but sadly for young Sean Davies it wasn’t to be as he lost out to MK Squash’s Barry Smith in the quarter final.

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Winner of U13 County 2017

The main drama of day one, however, happened in the U13 final as the Main sisters faced each other. It was almost a year to the day since the elder sibling Lily had beaten Natalie to be the reigning U13 champion. Lily came out firing on all cylinders as she showed tremendous touch to race to a 2-0 lead. The crowd sensed an upset, but Natalie was having none of it as she fought back to take the third in a dramatic tie break. Thereafter, whilst Lily showed some signs of regaining her early form, Natalie seemed to grow stronger and ultimately completed the comeback to take the title.

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B Grade County 2017 – Winner Ivan Schemanski & runner-up Barry Smith with Matthew Towers (middle)

In the Men’s A-Grade semi-finals, Steve Davies won the local Club Towers battle over Will Montgomery in a match that was much tighter than the 3-0 score suggested. In the other semi-final, there was an upset, as third seed Gbenga Adeyi pulled off a shock win against Letchworth’s Nathan Derrick, last year’s finalist. Derrick grew increasingly frustrated with Adeyi’s retrieval skills and ended up playing to many risky shots to no profit.

In the B Grade semis, Barry Smith saw off Paramjit Deol in a fractious match, whilst Ivan Schimanski triumphed over the awkward Tim Clinch. Schimanski, a late entrant due to the injury withdrawal of 8 times County Champion Steve Barlow on the eve of the tournament, then capped a great weekend with a confident and decisive win in the final over Smith.

Final Standings:

A Grade

1. Gbenga Adeyi
2. Steve Davies
3. Will Montgomery
4. Nathan Derrick
5. Connor O’Dell
6. Matt Towers
7. Lee Bartlett
8. Matt Suckling

B Grade

1. Ivan Schemanski
2. Barry Smith
3. Paramjit Deol
4. Tim Clinch
5. Sean Davies
6. Lee Watts
7. Phil Hales
8. Jay Patel

Womens

1. Sophia John
2. Natalie Main
3. Lily Main

U13

1. Natalie Main
2. Lily Main
3. Sam Pattinson
4. Jack Burke

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