Just had an eventful day at the Castle Leisure Centre competing in the Bury Closed Championships. I wasn’t overly impressed with my performance but I gave it my very best. Here is an overview of where I competed and how I did.

Open Singles

After spending an hour or so getting settled into the large venue looking forward to play in the open space I was disappointed to find our group would be located in the dingy squash courts upstairs. Just my luck, however I remained optimistic and had been landed with a fairly easy group with 2 opponents I should beat. It was between me and Ben Armstrong to take the group and after playing him twice already in my first season of the Bury 1st division I have failed to beat him yet. This attempt was no different, after beating me 3-1 and a short break we moved on to the next round.

I was fully aware that I would be playing a group winner this time around so I really had to step up if  I was to survive in the singles. But I was drawn against Mark Ramsbottom, strong attack on both wings and to make things worse short pimples on the backhand. He easily disposed of me 3-0 but I put in 110% into each point and took my time so I was proud to come away with the few points I gained in the match.

Open Doubles

I played the open doubles with Dennis Bradshaw, it was my first time meeting him on the day and I found him to be a very genuine character. Very easy to communicate with which would prove useful for the match ahead. We faced 2 tough opponents and came close to taking a couple of the games with a large lead. We were unable to convert any into wins but I thought we made a good team, I just need to learn some patience on some of my loops and remember to take my time.

Divisional (1) Handicapped Singles

Rules: Play 4 games unconditionally | add up scores | add on handicap

I had neglected to enter this event because I presumed I would have done better in the open singles. I underestimated the level of players which would turn out most likely. After cheekily going over to the umpire and getting myself quickly slotted in to the division 1 handicapped singles I was pitched against Ian Quinn. Another nightmarish player for me with a strong loop and excellent backhand, everything is looped and none of my serves seem to be short enough when playing him. However I seemed to play him better than I did in the league winning the first 2 11-9. But he came back strong 11-7 11-6 to take the match.

Summary

Overall I didn’t feel like I got the most out of myself today and lost out to far better players due to lack of fundamentals and poor footwork. But I have a whole summer to tweak my game, a lot can change in those few months from past experience.