A spirited end to Comberton's National Schools Squash campaign

CVC’s Boys Under 15 Team played their last fixture in this season’s National Schools Tournament at Aylesbury Squash Club on 21 January, against Wycliffe College from Gloucestershire. Wycliffe are one of the two strongest schools in the country for squash, so we weren’t expecting to get past them.

As it turned out, we were far from humiliated, with all five Comberton players putting up good resistance in at least part of their matches. Tom Blair, our no. 1, was slow to get into his stride, but nearly managed to extend his opponent beyond three games, playing well in the third. Sam Bradshaw at 2 started well, but faded towards the end in the face of the Wycliffe player’s relentless accuracy. Will Collett at 3 and Jeremy Harris at 4 performed well throughout, with Jeremy taking a lead mid-way through the second game, unsettling his opponent with his speed around the court and imaginative stroke-play. Our star performer of the day, though, was our no. 5, Alex Gooding, who came from a game down to establish a 2-1 lead, only to see his opponent fight back strongly to hold two game points in the fourth. Alex refused to panic, and a series of excellent serves enabled him to clinch a very close fourth game – a remarkable victory against such high-powered opposition!

So we lost 4-1 overall, but once again the CVC squash team has shown itself able to compete in this tournament against some of the top independent schools, and the whole squad, including reserves David Snelling and Tim Lloyd-Kinnings, can be proud of what they’ve achieved this season.

Ray Scrivens
Team Manager