Saturday Junior Coaching 29th December

This Saturday (29th December) there will be no junior coaching. We restart with a single session next Saturday (5th January 2008). It will start at 10.00 and run through to 12.00pm.

Merry Christmas to all our players and coaches.

Saturday Junior Coaching 22nd December

This Saturday (22nd December) there will be a single junior coaching session for all levels. It will start at 10.00 and run through to 12.00pm.

Merry Christmas to all our players and coaches.

Remember that eye-protection must be worn for all junior sessions (red noses or beards are optional).

10.30 - 12.00 session. Coaches: Mike Macnamee and Ray Scrivens.

Under-15 school team qualify for bye in second round!

A long journey on a freezing day to Frinton-on-Sea in Essex to face a strong team from Tendring Technology College – this was the challenge for CVC’s Under-15 squad.

All our players took a while to adjust to the Frinton courts, which produced much less bounce than the Comberton courts. In addition, our number 5, Will Collett, had to contend with an opponent whose tactics included shouting and swearing during and between rallies, time-wasting of various kinds, and feigning injury! Will showed great composure in keeping his concentration and eventually won 3-1. Meanwhile on the other court Comberton number 4, Tom Blair, was involved in a hotly-contested match which he lost 3-1, only occasionally managing to produce his best squash.

Will Harris at 3 played with great spirit, coming back from 1-0 and 2-1 down to win 3-2, while Peter Tasker went close in his match, narrowly losing the fourth game 10-9 to concede a 3-1 victory to his opponent. This left the tie perfectly poised at 2-2, so everything hung on Tom Symmons’s match. Fortunately, Tom was able to complete an impressive 3-0 win against a skilful opponent, but not before breaking a string in his racket when poised for victory on match ball! Our two reserve players, Marcus Connolly and Sam Bithell, lost their friendly matches but I’m sure gained some useful experience of competitive play.

So Comberton won the tie and go through to the next stage as group winners. We have a bye in Round One of Stage 2, so we really don’t have much idea of who we’ll be playing in the following round, but if everyone plays with the determination all our team showed against Tendring we should have little to fear.

Ray Scrivens

Comberton successes at the 2007 Brian Fielding Grand Prix

There were some outstanding performances from Comberton’s junior players in the Grand Prix held at the St Ivo Outdoor Centre on December 9th.

This competition is in memory of Brian Fielding who was an outstanding county junior coach and did so much to encourage youngsters to take up and progress at squash over many years.

We had three representatives in Group A (for the younger and less experienced players) – and they all played superbly! All three had only started playing squash this term, whereas many of their opponents had been playing for two years or more, but our trio competed with such determination and skill that they ended up in the top half of the final placings after four rounds of tough matches. Alex Gooding finished a very good sixth, Alban Fernandez came third and Sam Bradshaw won the Brian Fielding silver trophy and a Boots £10 token when he completed his fourth 3-0 victory in a row!

In Group B we had seven players out of a total of fifteen competitors, so there were quite a few all-Comberton matches spread through the tournament! In the end our highest-ranked player was Tom Symmons, who came third, with Ollie Thorne in fifth place. There were some particularly encouraging performances from our youngest players in this group, Will Collett (11th place) and Marcus Connolly (12th place), who at 12 years old were at least two years younger than any other players in Group B (apart from Tom Symmons), yet still competed very impressively (including against each other in their final match!). Credit also goes to Amy Lamb (15th place), Sam Prime (14th place), and Peter Tasker (9th place) who fought well throughout the competition.

Ray Scrivens

Saturday Junior Coaching 15th December

This Saturday (15th December) is the last one before Christmas and so we will be running a special fun Christmas Tournament. Everyone will play specially devised handicap games. We will start at 10.00 and run through to 1.00pm.

The other news is that there will be a visit from the Cambridge Evening News to see our club and juniors playing squash. This will be at 9.45 so try to get down then and you may end up getting your picture in the newspaper!

It would be especially good to get the school under-15 team photographed so if you are in that squad then try to get down early.

Remember that eye-protection must be worn for all junior sessions.

9.00 - 10.30 session. Coaches: Ray Scrivens, Steve Swanton, and Ben Stutchbury.
10.30 - 12.00 session. Coaches: Steve Swanton, Ray Scrivens, and David Downes.
12.00 - 14.00 session. Coaches: Mike Macnamee and Martyn Symmons.

Comberton under-15 National Schools Team going flying through to second round

The Comberton Village College under-15 team has confirmed their place in the second round of the National Schools' Competition in grand style. They travelled down to Frinton-on-Sea in Essex today to take on the Tendring College team in a play-off for top spot in the qualifying first round regional leagues.

Will Collett, Will Harris, and Tom Symmons all won their matches while Peter Tasker and Tom Blair fought hard but could not turn their matches around. Sam Bithell and Marcus Connelly also put in hard work at seventh and sixth positions although neither managed to win these friendly matches.

The team had already qualified for the next round but this result wins them top position in the regional league. This gives them an advantage in their fixtures in the next round.

Thanks are due to Team Manager Ray Scrivens for his excellent organization of the fixture.

And well done all our players.

Comberton Players take Hills Road to Second Round of National Schools Comp.

Comberton players are the mainstay of the Hills Road Sixth Form College under-19 team in the National Schools Competition. Yesterday they secured themselves a place in the second round with a win against St Peters School Huntingdon.

Oliver Thorne playing at five and Euan Macnamee playing at four were too strong for their opponents. Ollie won 9:1, 9:0, 9:0 and Euan did not drop a single point in his 3:0 win.

Ben Stutchbury playing at third had a much longer match against St Peter's Sean Gant. There were some long rallies and at one stage it looked as if Sean could turn the tide and get the third game despite the pressure from Ben. But finally Ben clinched this game and the match. 9:6,9:4,9:4. Andy Hall had the closest match of the fixture against Josh Meadows with some excellent squash. Andy looked comfortably in control of the rallies, however, and applied pressure to deny Josh any openings. The final score was 9:3,9:3,9:5.

Things were rather different for Nils Downes at first position where he had to deal with Robert Dadds who attends St Peter's but is also of course the number one in the Comberton mens' first team. Nils looked sharp and quick in the first game and hit some wonderful straight drives. But it was hard work for him to try to find any weaknesses in Rob's amazing retrieval skills. And the long rallies took their toll. The final score was 9:1, 9:1, 9:0 to Rob; but that does not do justice to Nils' hard work which meant he won service many times but never got the openings to turn these opportunities into points.

So Comberton won the fixture 12:3 overall with a further 5 bonus points.

Double whammy from the Stutches get third team win

Comberton III are working hard to keep in the frame for promotion from the bottom division of the County Adult Leagues this season.

One team we knew we needed to beat was Haverhill II whom we met last night (6th December). It was an away match and a late night so most of our junior strength were ruled out by school work. But Ben Stutchbury gamely came along and sat before his match revising for his school exam the following day. Once on court, playing at second position, it was clear that no revision of squash tactics was required and he played an excellent match against a tough opponent with a long reach. This was in fact the Haverhill number one last season. So it was an excellent win for Ben who fought back impressively in the fifth game.

Ben's dad Neil playing at fourth position had a tough opponent too, and was also pushed to five grueling games. He had to dig deep into his energy reserves and his game was close to unravelling under the pressure: he was up 8:5 in the fifth but then could not exploit a series of match ball opportunities due to tired errors and his opponent fought back to 8:8. Although his final winner was not one of his best shots it was very welcome and justly deserved after his long fight.

Steve Swanton and Martyn Symmons at third and first positions were each able to get a game off their opponents but neither settled into a rhythm.

However all was not lost since Julia Dolman had earlier put in an amazing performance against the tricky Haverhill number five Dave Gerrish. This was a tremendous display of clinging lobs, drops to an inch above the tin, and pinch boasts to die for. After four hard-fought games Julia initially lost ground in the fifth but then turned the game around to fight back to 8:8. Both of them had match balls before Julia clinched this final game and, as it turned out, won Comberton the fixture.

This close match win puts the third team well-placed for a push for promotion in the second half of the league after Christmas. With most of our long journeys to away fixtures already in the bag - we can look forward to fully exploiting the strength of our older junior players on our home courts.

Saturday Junior Coaching 8th December

This Saturday (8th December) we will be running all three coaching sessions. The first session is from 9.00 to 10.30 for beginners and the second is from 10.30 to 12.00 for more advanced players. And the final most advanced session (Gods, Godesses, and DemiGods) is from 12.00 to 2.00pm.

Remember that eye-protection must be worn for all junior sessions.

9.00 - 10.30 session. Coaches: Ray Scrivens, Steve Swanton and Tim Mears.
10.30 - 12.00 session. Coaches: Steve Swanton, Ray Scrivens and Nick Dickens.
12.00 - 14.00 session. Coaches: Andrew D'Alessandro and Martyn Symmons.

Excellent Start for Comberton Junior Third Team!

Comberton’s Junior teams have made a fantastic start to the season in the Tucker Gardner County Junior Leagues! Last Sunday (December 2) it was the turn of the Third Team to play their first fixture in Division 3. All our players were new to the County Leagues – and they all turned in inspiring performances.

Against Hunts County Alex Gooding at 3 and Sam Bradshaw at 2 had to work hard for their wins but both showed great determination and refused to give up on any of the rallies, which in the end brought them a just reward, as they both ran out 3-0 winners. Hoi-Ping Liu at 1 had a tremendous battle, just managing to secure maximum points for us with a 3-2 victory.
Overall result: Comberton 12 (including 3 bonus points), Hunts County 2.

Our other opponents were the host club, Melbourn, and it was really encouraging to see how all our lads produced another exhibition of gutsy play. None of them had an easy match, but they fought all the way, and once again Alex and Sam gained 3-0 wins. Hoi-Ping obviously enjoys putting himself through maximum stress in all his matches, and found himself involved in another 5-game marathon - this time he was just pipped 9-7 in the fifth!
Overall result: Comberton 11, Melbourn 3.

Congratulations to all three of you on a superb start to your County squash careers!!

Ray Scrivens
Comberton Team Manager

Let please!

Can you call a let and then still play the ball?

That was a question at the Advanced Juniors coaching session this Saturday. Well a lot of people think that playing the ball means that you have put up with the interference or blocking and have played on so the rally continues and you can't ask for a let. But the real rule is that the rally stops at the point when you call 'Let please' and the referee should look at the position then to decide on the let call. So in a way it is irrelevant whether you can't stop your racquet in time and actually hit the ball.

Don't expect people to follow this rule since it is fixed in peoples' heads that you can't ask after hitting. Hitting the ball does harm your claim for a let since it shows that you can actually reach the ball. But the rules say you should have space for a complete shot aimed at the front wall. This includes a reasonable follow-through so if you don't think you had that then they are crowding you and you deserve a let - or a stroke.

Some people also have a rule in their head that if it was a clearly a penalty stroke to you but you can't stop yourself and your racquet hits the ball then you can only have a let. I can't find that in the rules - so long as you called for a let before the racquet hit the ball and so long as it is clear you weren't playing a proper stroke then you should be able to get your penalty stroke. But I suppose the hit-no-stroke idea is a reasonable rule-of-thumb for a referee so best not to argue about it.

Remember that you can't go back on a let call and then say you were playing on if it works out that your half-hearted shot wins you the rally! The rally stops at the point of the appeal. And if the referee disagrees that you were badly impeded in your play then it will be 'no let' in any case.

The new rules give us all a responsibility to try hard to keep the rally going - we have to make every effort to get to and play the ball. Provided of course that your opponent is also making every effort to get out of the way. So getting to the ball but then calling a let and playing a half-hearted shot does not fit in with the spirit of that rule. A referee may ask you not to make a habit of doing this. Better to make a big show of not playing the ball.