Fourth Straight County Squash Title for Adeyi and it Looks Easy!
A record entry of over 100 players plus spectators gathered at Club Towers last week to contest the 2026 Bedfordshire Squash County Closed Championships. We saw some superb squash across the 4 days of competition, and a big thank you must go to all who helped make the events happen, especially:
Main sponsor The Dental Centre Bedford, plus Decant Wine and Cheese Bar, EpicTech Media, Ginji, Greenford Quay, JR Builders Ltd, My Next Car, SAMO Squash, and The Bedford Cheese Company.
Organiser Simon Marshall and the rest of the Beds Squash Committee who helped, especially Sam Morris, Ryan Pescod and Steve Davies.
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.
There were Open A/B/C grades, plus O55s, two Ladies grades for the first time and plate competitions for first round losers. An incredible 140 matches were played across the 4 days, but who were our county champions?
A Grade
The A Grade field was as strong as it has been in years, with a 32-draw and the standard seeming to rise each year, and it was great to see many younger faces amongst the competitors making rapid strides with their squash levels.
There were some fiercely contested matches throughout with two of the highlights being 5-set wins in the round of 16 for Alex Axford (Luton) over Ryan Pescod (Bedford Bulls / Club Towers) 12-10 in the 5th and Jonathan Towers (Club Towers) over Ryan Harper (Biggleswade) 11-9 in the 5th. The quarter finals saw relatively straightforward wins for the top 4 seeds, although Shenleny’s Declan Osborn made second seed Steve Davies work hard to win in four after taking the second game 12-10.
The two semi-finals were both “local derbies”! In the first, defending champion and No 1 seed Gbenga Adeyi (David Lloyd) made short work of team-mate Ben Shakespeare winning 3-0 and conceding only 11 points. The second semi was eagerly anticipated by the spectators, featuring local Club Towers players Steve Davies and Ben Mann, who were 1-1 in their last two encounters. In the event, Davies was too strong and consistent on the day, and after a close 15-12 first game, he closed out the match without much drama 11-7, 11-7.
In the final, Davies battled hard and it looked at one point as if he would extend the match into the fourth, but Adeyi’s skill, movement and amazing wristy dexterity took him to the title: 11-6, 11-5, 11-9.
You can view the A grade final here:
In the A-grade plate, the top two seeds were both dispatched in the semi-finals in tough four game matches: Eve Parkins (Shenley/Club Towers) beat Ian Rounce (Club Towers) 11-9 in the fourth whilst Sam Gelder (Shenley) caused an upset by beating Sam Morris (Bedford Bulls / Club Towers) 12-10 in the fourth.
In the final, Parkins took the first game comfortably 11-5, hitting numerous winners. But Gelder gradually worked his way into the match, and his retrieving was especially impressive, forcing Parkins to “play an extra shot” time and time again. After winning a crucial third game 12-10, Gelder closed the match out 3-1 in impressive fashion to take the A-Plate.
B Grade
In the B grade, the squash levels of the players were tightly grouped and hence there were lots of very close matches, with some unexpected results.
In the top half of the draw, No 1 seed Thomas Parker (Bedford Bulls/Club Towers) had to work hard in all his matches, beating both fast improving junior Michael Collins (Luton) and James O’Connor (Bedford Bulls) in four tight games. Meanwhile, 4 seed Phil Jenkins (Club Towers) faced his rapidly improving son Charlie in a hugely anticipated quarter-final. Phil’s experience finally won the day 15-12 in the 5th game to disappoint the watching crowd! In the semi, Jenkins showed his metal by beating Parker in another 5-set marathon.
In the bottom half, 14-seed Patryk Konopacki (Club Towers) enjoyed a fine run to the quarter finals, before losing to 6th seed Moises Estrelles Navarro (Biggleswade) 3-0. Meanwhile, second seed Karan Dhokia (Open University) was progressing serenely to the semis, where he had to battle hard to dispatch Esterelles Navarro 3-1 after losing the first game.
In the final, Jenkins’ greater experience won the day over Dhokia’s speed and mobility, and he took the final game 15-13 to close out a 3-1 victory and take the B grade trophy.
The B grade plate, Charlie Jessop (Bedford Bulls) beat Damien Laughton 3-1 (15-10, 12-15, 15-8, 15-9) in the top half semi-final. In the bottom half, Brook Harris caused an upset by beating 2 seed Simon Marshall in the quarter finals in four games, but could not get a foothold in the semis, losing to James Jarema (Open University) 3-0. In the final, Jessop charged into a 2-0 lead but Jarema fought back to take the third 15-5 before Jessop closed out the match 15-11 in the fourth to take the trophy.
You can view the B-grade plate final here:
C Grade
The C grade is always fiercely contested and this year was no exception. There was a nice moment in the first round, when one of the older competitors, Babs Rai (Club Towers) took on upcoming junior George Collins (Luton), giving away close to 50 years in the process! On this occasion, youth triumphed over experience, and Collins took the match 3-0, before losing in the next round to Nikk Hope in 5 very tight games – a match that did not finish until after 10.30pm!
The top two seeds in C grade, Barry Smith (Bedford Bulls) and Richard Fryer (Carlton), both reached the final as expected but both survived scares along the way.
Smith had to come from a game down to beat Lee Moore (Club Towers) in four games (15-12 in the 4th), whilst Fryer beat Philip Martynski (Club Towers) in four very tight games (15-12, 15-11, 12-15, 15-11) before overcoming Nikk Hope (Bedford Bulls) in the semis after losing the first game, when Hope had to retire injured.
The final seemed like one game too many for Fryer, who looked to run out of steam a little after losing a very tight first game 16-14. Smith showed his shot-making class to take the match and the C-grade trophy 3-0 (16-14, 15-10, 15-11).
In the C grade plate Andrew Shirley (Carlton) breezed to the final, beating 2 seed Andrew McCulloch (Carlton/Bunyan) 3-0 along the way. In the top half of the draw, Ben Robinson (Bedford Bulls) reached the final, after an amazing semi-final win over top seed Ian Frost (Bunyan). After Frost took a marathon first game 20-18 it seemed he might be able to capitalise, but Robinson fought back to take the second 17-15 and the third 16-14. This broke Frost’s resistance and Robinson took the fourth game 15-6 for a 3-1 win. In the final, Robinson’s control of the match was impressive and he dominated to take the victory 3-0 (15-9, 15-11, 15-10) and the trophy.
O55
There was a smallish draw of only eight players for the O55 event. Tony Rumbold (Biggleswade) made top seed Matthew Towers (Club Towers) work hard in the first semi-final, taking the first game 15-12 before Towers’ fought back to take the match 3-1. The second semi was an all-Club Towers affair, between Steve Barlow and defending champion Ian Thomas. Barlow worked hard to stick in the match, despite recent injuries, but second seed Ian Thomas was ruthless, using his impressive array of drops and boasts to work Barlow to the front of the court and secure a 3-0 win.
So to the final, which was a repeat of last year. Defending champion Thomas made a good start to take the first 11-7, but Towers fought back to take a tight second 12-10 and the third 11-9. Sadly at 6-5 in the fourth, Towers suffered a calf injury, which meant he could not continue. The match went to Thomas 3-2 and he retained his O55 title.
You can watch the action below:
Ladies Grade A and Grade B – For full details of the ladies grades, please visit the separate write-up, which you can find here.
Full results by match over the finals weekend can be found here.
Next year’s event will take place across the weekend of 7/8/9/10th January and we hope to see another record entry! See you there!
