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Men’s
Lancaster 4
Edge Hill 1
Women’s
Lancs Women’s 0
Northumbria 4
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Lancaster University men’s second squash team continued their fine start to the season with a comfortable 4-1 win over Edge Hill’s 1st team. This is the first season that the University has had two men’s squash teams, and they are already reaping the reward of allowing the second team. The team has entered the bottom league, and will have to work their way up over the next few seasons. This year, however, the team has strong hopes of securing a league title and promotion in their inaugural year.
Lancaster’s number five, Kashif Rashid got Lancaster off to a flyer crushing his opponent 3-0, before Jack Ross stormed to the same scoreline, in the battle of the number four seeds, using a hire racket to set Lancaster firmly on their way. Phil Lowrey and club president Dominic O’Brien continued Lancaster’s demolition job, winning the number third and second seed match-ups respectively, each with the now familiar 3-0 scoreline.
It was left to Arnie Dunning to see off Edge Hill’s number one seed, however this game followed a much less familiar pattern, with their number one comprehensively outplaying Dunning, and seeing a reverse 3-0 scoreline occurred. This was by no means a bad loss for Dunning, considering the match-up sees the best squash player at Edge Hill University beating on paper, Lancaster’s number six. Their number one seed was a cut above the rest, and would definitely on his day, give first’s captain Ben Holden a really close game.
Club president and number two seed O’Brien had this to say: “We are very proud of all the guys that played today. We were clear favourites, but no one was complacent or lackadaisical in their job, and we gained a resounding win, furthering our hopes of winning the league”.
Elsewhere, the women’s team continued to struggle, as they crashed to a 4-0 loss in the hands of Northumbria first. After such a fantastic season last year, that saw them crowned as the ‘team of the year’ along with men’s football, as a result of winning the league and cup double. However, they were clearly missing their top three players from last year, which has seen Sam Preston moved up the rankings from fourth seed to Lancaster’s number one. As well as losing their key players, they were struggling to find their feet in the new league having gained promotion last year, after going the whole season unbeaten.
Preston, team captain Georgina Baum, Timna Freeman and Annika Hall who was also playing kockey for the University on the same day, were unfortunate to all lose 3-0 in what was a scoreline that flattered to deceive their opponents. Overall, it was a day of mixed fortunes for the University’s squash club, with the newly formed second team, continuing their push for the league title, as the women’s team struggled to recreate their form from last year.
