Jersey’s men’s A team regained the title that they narrowly lost last year and the B team won the trophy for the first time in seven years.
The men’s vets continued their dominance at this level with a clinical 5-0 whitewash, giving the men’s team an overall 11-4 victory, – but the ladies simply could not match their Guernsey opponents and won only one out of 15 matches.Once again the strength of squash in the CI was evident, although the day at Jersey Squash Club started badly with the hosts unable to field a women’s vets (Over-40s) team for the second year running.The men, however, soon made up the deficit.
Hugh Jones accounted for the many times vets champion Larry Grover, No 2 Steve Law saw off Cliff Connolly in clinical fashion, John Farley maintained his excellent inter insular record with a hard fought 3-1 victory over Neville Johnson, and playing at No 4, Neal Pickersgill obliterated a despondent Max Trouteaux.
Paul Biddulph ensured a 5-0 win for Jersey vets, losing only one point on his way to a straight-sets victory.
Jersey fielded a strong ladies B team, but things did not start well with Kathy Lawrence losing at No 3 against Guernsey’s Jenny Stowbridge.
A new cap at No 5., Amanda Pilnick, could not adjust to the pace and lost in straight sets to Natalie Dodd.
Tam Weston, showing amazing improvement at junior level, competed well before losing in straight sets to Katie Ozard.Kelly Bird, confident of winning her tie at No 2 string against experienced Karen Millard, had a nervous start and just could not recover, and lost in three sets..Adele Kapp from South Africa was thrown in at the deep end to face Guernsey No 1 Di Stenner and her court rustiness led to a string of errors and a 3-0 defeat, 9-7 in the third.Jersey’s Men’s B team produced their strongest lineup in years, with last year’s No 1 Trevor Griggs selected at No 4.
Jesey’s No 1 Paul Frankland started in awesome form against his opposite Simon Gaudion, only dropping three points in the first two games.
But a lack of fitness and a change of tactics from Gaudion saw an amazing turnaround and a 3-2 win for Guernsey.Jersey were, however, galvanised into action with Richard Boddy, another new cap, beating a tough Steve Snell in straight sets, and John Wood, in sparkling form all season, beating the Guernsey No 2 Paul Merrian 3-1 to restore the home advantage.Trevor Griggs had a tough time of it against Guernsey’s super-fit No 4 Kevin Fireman and although ahead in games, was 8-3 down in the fourth before he grafted his way back to win the tie break and guarantee his team the trophy.
In the remaining match No 3 Ross Cornish lost in a tense four-setter to Mark Shepard.Jersey were confident of regaining the Ladies A trophy and could not have fielded a stronger team.
But Guernsey showed great character to win the day 4-1, epitomised by their No 1 and captain Karen Dunk’s straight-sets victory over CI champion Ronnie Jubb.Kate Cadigan battled hard for Jersey and won her match against the talented Sarah Hughes but, elsewhere, pre match favourite Caroline Cornish lost to the experience of Guernsey’s Alison Sturbridge in straight sets, Lorna Stewart put up a valiant effort before going down to Sally Ingroille in four sets and Rowena Hockey was soundly beaten by Leigh Radford.The climax to the day was expected to be, and indeed was, the clash between Mike Hopkins for Jersey and 16-year-old Chris Simpson from Guernsey in the men’s A event.
Hopkins got the better of Simpson last year but 12 months of intensive training and competition for Simpson and Hopkins retirement from the PSA circuit made a big difference.Simpson, showing great athleticism and excellent movement, forced errors from an edgy Hopkins to secured the opening games by the narrowest of margins, but Hopkins charged back to 2-2 by attacking Simpson’s serve and reducing his own errors.
The gallery were enjoying a match of the highest quality and in the deciding game Hopkins enjoyed an early advantage before Simpson ground out a few points in the middle part of the game to test the tiring Hopkins.
It proved a turning point as Simpson regained his composure to secure a thrilling five-sets win after almost two hours.Elsewhere, however, Jersey were doing well with fantastic wins from the ever-reliable Jon Hibbs over Donald Le Pelley, 3-0; Ian Furness, in devasting form, a straight-sets winner over Lawrence Graham; Mark Le Roux secured the trophy with a hard-fought 3-1win over the hard-hitting Andy May at No 4.Jersey’s Rob Hickling lost in straight sets to the in-form Adam Shields.Andy Sibbald presented the trophies on behalf of The Insurance Corporation, saying: ‘People would pay a lot of money to see matches of the quality of the Hopkins Simpson game and Jersey have it on their doorstep, for free.’
