Comberton in force at the League End of Season Tournament

Comberton had a very good weekend at the Cambridgeshire End of Season League Tournament, held at Cambridge Squash Club on 19/20 April.

We largely dominated the Boys’ events, winning in three of the four age-groups. Ben Stutchbury played some of his best ever squash to beat his club-mate Andy Hall in the U19 final, a match of high quality in which Ben managed to retain control despite Andy putting up strong opposition. In the U15 final Tom Symmons staged a remarkable comeback: looking dead and buried after losing the first two games 9-0 9-1 against his old rival Toby Reeves of St Ivo, he suddenly emerged for the third game like Superman from a telephone booth to take the next three games. The U13 final was another all-Comberton affair, with Tom Blair staying in the driving seat against Marcus Connolly. To add icing to the U13 cake, Alex Gooding, who’d been trounced by Tom in his opening round, came back from a game down in the Plate Final to secure another win for Comberton. Our Club’s final triumph in the U13 category came when Will Collett was awarded the Brian Fielding Shield for Most Improved County Junior.

Well done to all who took part (once again, Comberton had the most competitors in the tournament), and a special word of praise for our lone standard-bearer in the Girls’ events, Beth Collett, who, though she was up against superior opposition on this occasion, continues to improve her game and fought well in both her matches.


Ray Scrivens
Competition Organizer.

Saturday Junior Coaching (

This Saturday (19th April) 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 should be worn for all junior sessions.

9.00 - 10.30 session. Coaches: Steve Swanton and Tim Mears
10.30 - 12.00 session. Coaches: Ben Stuchbury and Martyn Symmons
12.00 - 14.00 session. Coaches: Mike Macnamee and Andy D'Alessandro

Double triumph for CVC in county schools championships

Comberton Village College today (16 April) became the first school in the four-year history of the Cambs Inter-School Championships to win both the Boys’ and the Girls’ trophy in the same year.

Our team of five boys faced opposition from St Peter’s Huntingdon and The Leys School, Cambridge. Against St Peter’s we won four out of the five matches without dropping a game, with only Will Harris (who’d been dragged from his sick-bed to play!) struggling in the latter stages of his match to go down 2-1. We then took on The Leys, and although they were generally stronger than St Peter’s the CVC players always had the edge in positions 2-5, and we won 2-0 in each of these matches. Tom Symmons at #1 faced the Norfolk county player Harry Taylor and though Tom kept in the rallies well he wasn’t able to accumulate many points. Our final points tally (including a 5-point bonus for the winning team) was 14-2 against St Peter’s and 13-2 against The Leys. CVC squad: 1 - Tom Symmons, 2 - Will Harris, 3 – Tom Blair, 4 – Marcus Connolly, 5 – Will Collett.

Our Girls’ team had a setback before we’d hit a ball, with our #1 player, Anna Carter, taken ill the night before the match and unable to play. This threw a heavy responsibility onto Amy Lamb, who had to take over the #1 role, but after a shaky start against her St Ivo opponent she fought back with determination and, aided by a run of consistent serves, she ran out a 2-1 winner. Her match came with the tie evenly poised: Fiona Carter at #3 had a very close first game but lost in the end, while Selina Leung at #2 made a very impressive debut to win her match in straight games.

Comberton Boys brave Area Team Competition

Four Comberton juniors were chosen to take part in the National Area Team Competitions in Birmingham this weekend at the prestigious and historic Edgebaston Priory Club. The Area teams from around the country can represent regional groupings of four or five counties and so this was obviously going to be tougher than even representing Cambridgeshire at county level.

Our lads were Will Collett, Tom Blair, and Marcus Connolly - picked from the Cambridgeshire county U13 squad to play in the Eastern Area U13 team. And Tom Symmons picked from the county U15 squad to play in the Eastern U15 team. Tom was alternating in fifth position with Paul Jordan of Hunts County - a frequent visitor to Comberton and a popular participant in our Gods of Squash training events.

Will fought bravely at third position in the Eastern U13 team but was up against formidable opponents in the other area teams and was not able to win any games. Marcus was also pitted against quality opponents and did not get any games. But both Tom Blair and Tom Symmons were able to get games against at least one of their opponents. Tom Blair in fact won his second match 3:2 on Saturday afternoon. This was a excellent performance in a match that had numerous interruptions - mainly for treatment of a previous injury to his opponent. It was hard for Tom to keep his focus and he dropped several points clearly upset by his opponent's painful movement. Tom was also unlucky to lose a key set-two tie break in the third game. But in the end he clinched the match.

Tom Symmons did not actually win his first match but turned it around from a 2:0 deficit to gain the only points for Eastern against the strong NorthEast area team on Saturday - losing 2:3 while the rest of the team went down 0:3 at 1st to 4th positions. Unfortunately in his second outing, on Sunday, this time against the SouthWest team number five, he was not able to collect many points against a very powerful opponent.

This was perhaps the toughest competition any of our juniors had ever faced - they all fought bravely and with good spirit. And we all had a chance to see some of the best junior squash players in the country. Thanks to all of our lads for turning out and competing.

Saturday Junior Coaching (12th April)

This Saturday (12th April) 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 should be worn for all junior sessions.

9.00 - 10.30 session. Coaches: Ray Scrivens and Steve Swanton
10.30 - 12.00 session. Coaches: Ray Scrivens and Steve Swanton
12.00 - 14.00 session. Coaches: Mike Macnamee and Andy D'Alessandro