Saturday Coaching (27th January)

This Saturday (27th January) we will be running all three sessions.

The first session is for beginners. The second is more advanced. And the third session is currently by invitation to those in the School Squad. This week we will have a session from Andrew D'Alessandro to prepare the team for their Eton match.

9.00 - 10.30 session
Coaches: Ray Scrivens and Andy Thorne

10.30 - 12.00 session
Coaches: Mike Macnamee and David Downes

Advanced coaching
12.30 - 14.00 session
Coach: Andrew D'Alessandro

Andrew D'Alessandro is a professional level II coach. He coaches a number of Comberton juniors individually including the majority of the current school team.

Comberton School Team is going to Eton

Comberton win against Reeds High School

The Comberton School Team beat a visiting team from Reeds High School in the National Schools under-19 tournament. Nils was pitted against a highly ranked Surrey county player who proved too strong for him. But the others won convincingly to give a 4:1 win overall.

Special thanks to everyone who turned up to support the team.

This puts the team through to the second round of the knockout competition. There next opponents will be Eton at Eton.

The school team is: Nils Downes, Rory Symmons, Euan Macnamee, Andy Hall, and Tom Symmons; with reserves Peter Tasker and James Davenport.

Comberton Girls in Inter County Match

Girls Inter County Friendly, 14 January 2007 at St Ivo

Congratulations to Anna Carter and Toni Hardy-Webster on being selected to
represent Cambridgeshire in the recent four counties friendly held at the
St Ivo Outdoor Centre.

Anna was playing in the Under 17 squad, and though not managing to beat her
opponents from Norfolk and Suffolk accumulated a respectable tally of
points in both matches. Toni, playing in the Under 11s, faced very tough
opposition from her Herts opponent, but made a great fight of her second
match, only losing by the narrowest of margins, 9-11 14-16, to her opposite
number from Suffolk.

Lets hope that these girls'; achievements will encourage other girls
to get more involved at the College and the Club and start challenging for
the Inter-Schools County trophy!

Ray Scrivens

School Team in Evening News

The school team appeared in the sports section of the Cambridge Evening News on Saturday. A fine photo of the older lads holding young Tom up in the air. The accompanying article (ghostwritten by our own god of squash Dr Mac) detailed their triumph in the earlier stages of the National under-19 competition. If they win their match on Tuesday against Reeds School then we'll have to have one with them throwing Tom into the air!

Comberton III first match

The Comberton third team's first match of the new year will be away at Ely Squash and Leisure on the 25th January. Our team will be: Martyn Symmons, Steve Swanton, Neil Stutchbury, Rory Symmons, and Rob Allen.

The Comberton Squash Club third team is in division 5 of the Cambridgeshire Leagues and has a squad of advanced juniors, coaches, and other adult players.

Saturday Junior Coaching 20th January

This Saturday (20th January) we will be running all three sessions.

The first session is for beginners. The second is more advanced. And the third session is currently by invitation to those in the School Squad. This week we will have a session from Mike and Martyn to prepare the team for their match on Tuesday.

9.00 - 10.30 session
Coaches: Ray Scrivens and Nick Harris

10.30 - 12.00 session
Coaches: Steve Swanton and Martyn Symmons

Advanced coaching
12.30 - 14.00 session
Coaches: Mike Macnamee and Martyn Symmons

Martyn and Mike are our Junior Development level II coaches. Their squash skills are equal to any player in the club. But only if they are both playing against them at the same time...

Comberton III training

The Comberton Squash Club third team is in division 5 of the Cambridgeshire Leagues and has a squad of advanced juniors and coaches and other adults.

We will be doing squad training on Sunday mornings from 10.30 to 12.00. And anyone who would like to play for the team is welcome.

School team's first knockout match

The School team's second round match in the National Schools under-19 Competition against Reeds School will be held at Comberton on Tuesday 23rd January. This will start at 3 o'clock. The team is Nils Downes, Rory Symmons, Euan Macnamee, Andy Hall, and Tom Symmons. All support will be welcome.

Saturday Junior Coaching 13th January

This Saturday (13th January) we will be running all three sessions.

The first session is for beginners. The second is more advanced. And the third session is currently by invitation to those in the School Squad. This week we will have a session from Mike and Martyn.

9.00 - 10.30 session
Coaches: Steve Swanton and Nick Dickens

10.30 - 12.00 session
Coaches: Mike Macnamee and David Downes

Advanced coaching
12.30 - 14.00 session
Coaches: Mike Macnamee and Martyn Symmons

Martyn and Mike are our Junior Development level II coaches. Both are still acclimatizing to the new radiator regime.

Comberton’s youngest-ever team in the County Junior Leagues?

On January 7 at St Ivo Outdoor Centre Comberton fielded a team of three in the Division Three fixture with a combined age of 32! As we’ve never had enough players to enter the U11 Division, this could well be the youngest team ever to represent us in the Tucker Gardner County Junior Leagues.

Our three players, all making their debut for the Club, were Will Collett, Marcus Connolly, and Jeremy Harris. Although none of them actually won their match they all played well and never gave up, gaining great experience of competitive squash against opponents who were mostly four or five years older than they were.

With more promising Year Sevens in competition for team honours our future looks rosy for the next few years!


Ray Scrivens

Comberton Under-19 Team Top of the League

The Comberton School Team competing in the under-19 National Schools Tournament have qualified for the next round at the top of their regional league. There was a further fixture due to be played against Brentwood School in Essex but they have conceded, so our team wins that match as a walkover.

As the winners of their first round league the Comberton Team will be well placed in the early stages of the second round of the competition.

The School Team is: Nils Downes, Rory Symmons, Euan Macnamee, Andy Hall, Tom Symmons, James Davenport, and Peter Tasker.

Winter warm up for Comberton 2nd Team

The new radiators gave a warm welcome for the visitors to Comberton on Sunday for the first set of Tucker-Gardner league matches.

And it was warm work on court for our lads: 2nd team Tom, Oliver, and James - and also Peter Tasker who kindly took the place of a missing Abbotsley player. Fortunately Abbotsley were not scheduled to play Comberton so Peter did not have his loyalties divided. Instead he played in two very tough matches - one against current league leaders Hunts. County 2 which he lost after fighting hard.

Comberton played Next Generation first team and also Hunts. County 2.

Against Next Generation James was able to win 3:1 while Oliver was tired by a very tight first game that he lost 9:10 and then, although picking up in the third was not able to turn the match around. Tom and Chris Shaw came on court both carrying spiffy new O3 racquets so it was a real 'Battle of the Christmas Presents'. There were certainly plenty of shots tight to the wall to test their nerves with their new racquets! As with Oliver's game the first game was very hard fought and Tom took a while to recover - losing the second, but then turning tables on Chris in the third. Tom was looking tired in the fourth and could not produce a similar result - finally losing 1:3.

The team was not so evenly matched against the bigger stronger lads from Hunts County and all our team lost 3:0.

Gods is back

There was an Advanced 'Gods of Squash' training session on Saturday attended by a select few and coached by Andy D'Alessandro.

We will be holding a further nine GoS sessions this spring term in the run-up to the National Schools Finals in March. It looks like the competition will be much tougher in the second round, which is an inter-regional knock-out. So the team must n't rest on their laurels of being the best in the regional league.

GoS will be 12 quid for all nine session again which will include some level IV coaching and entitle you to a limited issue tracksuit.

Next week will be a session with Drs Mike and Martyn. So whatever your squash problems the doctors will have the remedy.

Rules Quiz 7.

Question 7.

There is a minor clash between you and your opponent. Neither of you thinks it's worth calling a let for. But the referee shouts for you to stop the rally. Are they allowed to do that if no-one has asked?

Answer to Question 6. (Opponent out of their box for return of service)

This is an interesting one: the rules don't in fact specify where your opponent has to be when you serve. So they are allowed to stand anywhere on the court - including your half! And they can stand on any line they like. But remember that you have a right to freedom from interference and distraction on your serve so they can't be stupid and crowd you or make silly noises or gestures.

Saturday Coaching 6th January

This Saturday (6th January) we will be running all three sessions.

The first session is for beginners. The second is more advanced. And the third session is currently by invitation to those in the School Squad. This week we start off again with a session from Mike and Martyn.

9.00 - 10.30 session
Coaches: Ray Scrivens and Andy Thorne

10.30 - 12.00 session
Coaches: Martyn Symmons and Mike Macnamee

Advanced coaching
12.30 - 14.00 session
Coaches: Mike Macnamee and Martyn Symmons

Martyn and Mike are our Junior Development level II coaches.