So near and yet so far! Comberton U15 school team out of National Schools Tournament.

Comberton Village College were knocked out of the Boys Under 15 section of the National Schools Squash Championships by the narrowest of margins today (9 December).

We travelled to a neutral venue for our match against the Royal Grammar School, High Wycombe – the opulent surroundings of the Nuffield Health and Fitness Centre in St Albans – needing three wins from five matches to progress to the next round.

Playing at no. 5 Will Collett stayed in control for most of his match, with the crucial stage being the second game, where he managed to grind out a 14-12 win over a smaller but determined opponent. Jack Murphy at 4 had the longest match of the day: after going two games down he fought back to two all and led 7-2 in the fifth only to see the High Wycombe player battle back to take the final game 11-8. Will Harris had three pretty close games but unfortunately could not manage to win any of them, so with two matches to go we were 2-1 down. Tom Blair produced our performance of the day – a magnificent display of relentless attack which deservedly yielded a 3-0 win. But it wasn’t to be our day, as our no. 1, Tom Symmons, rarely hit his top form and, despite taking the second game, succumbed by three games to one.

The statisticians in our party soon worked out that CVC actually won as many games as our opponents overall – an indication of just how narrow a margin separated defeat from victory! It has certainly been a creditable campaign by all our squad this year and we look forward to renewing our challenge in next season’s competition.

Ray Scrivens
Team Manager