Herts County Squash Team March 2008

In November 2007, the Herts team played some fantastic squash to win through to the Harris Inter-County Finals for the first time in the County’s History.  This saw the team pack their bags for a weekend of hard squash and fun in the city of Nottingham on 8^th and 9^th March 2008. 

We set off rather late on Friday afternoon, mainly because we had to wait for our Number 1, Adrian Waller, to finish school and get his homework checked off before he was given permission to leave.  The car carrying the team captain, Scott Rickard and Adam Fuller experienced some mechanical trouble but we were fortunate enough to have supporter/coach/mechanic/babe-magnet Pete Cheshire on hand to do some running repairs.  With the heating fixed and the alignment repaired we forged forward into the maze of the one-way system in Nottingham in search of the elusive Rutland Square Hotel.

Back row (Left to right): Adrian Waller, Neil Waller, Marc Woolhead

Front row (Left to right): Scott Rickard (Captain), Adam Fuller, Keith Timms.

Roll-call at 8pm in the hotel foyer revealed that the only thing missing was Keith Timms’ tongue but this was apparently due to him using his entire daily word allowance during the 3-hour car journey.  We settled down to a quiet meal in the hotel where we discussed tactics for the match the next day against Shropshire.  The friendly staff at the hotel were forced to send someone out to the 24hr Tesco to buy more potatoes because the potato wedges were under such demand.  The Team (apart from Pete) showed great maturity in not buying into the chef’s practical joke of serving celery and lemongrass soup on the night that the maître d' (who had a terrible lisp) would be reading out the lissst of sspecialsss!

The next morning the team were up early and were ready to take on Shropshire in the semi-finals. Neil Waller was carrying a wrist injury and it was decided to rest him for the match.  As expected, Shropshire had pulled out all the stops to get the bubbly Berk brothers back from Geneva in time for team registration at 11:30am. First on the show court was number 3 string Keith Timms who was up against one of the Berk twins (I’m not sure which).  Keith struggled to find his rhythm in the first two games against the classy youngster but fought back hard in the third.  At one point it looked like Timmsy might just take the game and test the Shropshire lad’s fitness.  In the end, unfortunately he narrowly lost the game 9-7 and the Herts team were one match down.  Over on another court captain Scott Rickard was playing in his first match for the County at number 5.  His opponent looked much leaner and fitter, although that could have something to do with the body hugging shirt that Scotty was wearing.  Scotty overcame his nerves in the first game to go on and notch up a relatively comfortable 3-0 victory.  Herts were on the score board!

Next on court was Marc “Mailman” Woolhead who was trying to live up to his nick name and “deliver” another victory for the team.  Marc’s opponent attempted some impressive blocking to remain competitive in the first 2 games; however Marc was too steady and took a comfortable 2-game lead.  The young man from Shropshire fought back well to take the third before succumbing to the better player.  Marc had once again delivered and had put Herts 2-1 in front.  One more win would be enough to reach the final!  Adrian Waller was next up against the very fit and experienced Jamie Haycocks on the show court.  Adrian got off to a very impressive start and showed why he is one of the best juniors in the world by taking the first game 9-3.  The second game saw some unbelievable rallies, which unfortunately didn’t go Adrian’s way.  Adrian showed loads of character to take the game to his opponent in the third and fought incredibly hard to win that game and go to within just one game of victory.  Haycocks took the fourth to set up a nail-biting fifth game to decide whether Herts would reach the finals.  At 7-7 in the fifth the unthinkable happened; the referee changed his mind on a let decision, which would have given Adrian a match point!  While Adrian showed great composure and maturity, the rest of the team were furious.  Adrian unfortunately lost the fifth game 9-7 which meant that the match was tied at 2-2 with only match to come.

In the decider, Adam Fuller took on the other Berk (still not sure which one) in the 2^nd string match. Despite playing some great squash and reaching 7 in both of the opening games, Adam could just not get the better of his opponent.  The Shropshire “Smiler” went on to win the match 3-0, which secured them a place in the final against Surrey.  The Herts team were left to reflect on what could have been, while having a few beers and watching the rugby.

The activities on Saturday night allowed the boys to leave their disappointment far behind and enjoy the famous Nottingham nightlife.  Neil even removed the bandage from his damaged wrist so that his style on the dance floor would not be hampered.  It was a great bonding experience for the team as they showed off a few dance moves that were believed to have been lost forever in the 90’s.  Pete was on top form and turned a lot of heads with his excellent rendition of Duffy’s smash hit “Mercy”, followed by his innovative cure to athlete’s-foot in the lobby of the hotel!  Many laughs were enjoyed that night as well as during the “post-mortem” at breakfast the next morning where Marc was still in complete amazement that McDonald’s still sell burgers!

By 11am it was back to business and the team were focused and ready to take on Yorkshire in the 3^rd/4^th playoff.  Neil’s injury was unfortunately still not quite healed enough for him to play and he was forced to sit out again.  The team were determined to play well after the previous day’s disappointment and set about thrashing Yorkshire 5-0!  This secured the bronze medal for the Herts Team that, up until a year ago, had never even made it into the premier division. 

The team would like to the Hertfordshire Squash Committee for all of their support over the 2007-8 season and we would also like to thanks Alistair Ambrose of Hazard Electric whose generous sponsorship and support were invaluable and greatly appreciated.  We would also like to thank all those who supported us over the last 12 months.  The team have proved their ability against the toughest of opposition and we are looking forward to performing even better in the years to come…..watch this space!