Surrey League – Spencer 2 vs David Lloyd Hampton 2 – Match report
Last week, the mighty Spencer Squash Club second team played against the runaway league leaders David Lloyd Hampton 2. As per the previous stuffing against them, we fielded a strong team but the odds looked stacked against us…!
Things started as expected, with Captain Dan playing at first string against Adam who previous beat him 3-0 earlier in the season. Conditions were hot, so hot, and the usual lively crowd hoped that this would help the slightly more agile home captain… However, Adam is a strong player and there is a reason why he has stuffed most of the other number ones this season. Adam stormed ahead 15/5, but Dan nicked a very long and close second set 16/14, tiring his opponent slightly in the process. However, Adam’s fitness is better nowadays and he sneaked the next two sets in very tight fashion 15/12, 17/15 to just about take the match 3/1 despite Dan being miles ahead in the fourth set and also having four set points…! 3-1 to Adam but the outcome could have been so different…!
Mike P took charge on the other court at third string, oozing with confidence after some fine wins this season for both the first and second team. Up against Andy, he knew he had a chance, but only if he adopted the correct strategy… He took the first 15/9 but then failed to vary his shot selection at the right times and allow Andy to sneak the second 16/14. After some brief coaching from “the worst coach of the year”, things improved and Mike played some great length, combined with some Badminton-style drop shots in order to pull Andy around the court and pick him off over again. It wasn’t an easy win but Mike always looked the likely victor and wrapped up the final two close sets 15/12, 17/15 for a 3-1 and to level the tie overall…!
Up stepped the ever-reliable Danny, who very rarely drops points these days. Youngster Sam would have been very intimidated had he checked out Danny’s squash stats during the past nine months however regardless of this Danny put the Spencer army ahead on the night by winning the first two sets 15/11, 15/8. A lapse in strategy allowed Sam to sneak the third set 12/15 and lost Captain Dan a bit more of his valuable hairline however a marathon 19/17 victory in the fourth set sealed a fantastic 3-1 victory for Danny and proved good training for his longest squash match world record attempt later in the year against Freddie…! Spencer 2-1 up on the night and the fans started dreaming of an amazing upset…!
Finally, up stepped Leon, full of tears and emotions having recently vacated his home in MK. No easy match this against Paul who played well last time against us during the first half, but Leon is on a mission and will settle for nothing less than a fine victory! Leon showed his class as he took the first two identical sets 15/9, 15/9. Wanting to get full value for his match fee, Leon made us all sweat in the third set but eventually took it 18/16 and the mighty Spencer Squash Club victory against the strongest team in the league was finally confirmed…! Well played all, an amazing result! J