Harpenden RFC Squash Club

Monthly leagues can be downloaded from this website. They are in a protected area to avoid publishing phone numbers so to access, follow the following steps …

On www.harpenensquash.org.uk scroll down to the bottom of the page and log in using username = leagues and password  = the four digit door combination  – to avoid confusion the snapshot below shows the login box.

You will see a new option appear under the main menu – ‘Squash Leagues’ – the BOTTOM option, not the one seven items down.

Click this and you will see a page looking something like

You can then download the relevant links by clicking the hyperlink.

Finals Night, last Wednesday, 17th April saw another fine evening's squash from members old and new.

The evening began with the Handicap, in which Dermot O'Connor prevailed over Brendan Bennett, 15-11 / 15-7  - both players playing off scratch handicaps and fighting keenly for honours.

Court One saw the ladies final, Hilary Birt coming from 2-0 down against Ann Marie Dunn to retain her title 2-9 / 4-9 / 9-3 / 9-0 / 9-1 in a game of two halves.

Back on Court Two, in perhaps the most tensely contested match of the evening Stephen Lloyd won out against Marvin Rust 9-7 / 10-8 / 9-2, both players testing the impeccable impartiality of umpire Andy Eilfield.

The Vintage competition saw Dermot O'Connor take to the courts for a second match, this time playing David Wells. After a strong start from Dermot, David came through in a tight second game before taking the match 2-9 / 10-8 / 9-3 / 9-4.

The Open played testament to the strength of our over 45s, pitting reigning champion Eamonn Price against Andy Eilfield. In a pre-match interview Andy revealed that although he won on the occasion of their first on court meeting, Eamonn had not let his guard slip on the 'near 200 occasions' when they had met subsequently. Despite this daunting head to head record, spectators felt the first game could have gone either way up to 6-6 before Eamonn inched ahead to 9-6. A strong start from Andy in the second however saw him streak away to 6-0, and maintaining his momentum to finish the game 9-3. It looked as if an upset might be on the cards in the third with Andy again making strong ground to go 5-1 up before Eamonn rallied to take 8 of the last nine points played. The last game was closed out 9-2 by Eamonn, once again club champion.

Late into the evening our final match was the second ever Racketball final with Chris Lynam taking on David Wells, the latter being the second player to compete more than once. The match proved, if proof were needed, that racketball is every bit as exciting as squash, featuring a full repetoire of shots, lengthy rallies and straining of sinew. The match was taken 11-2 / 11-2/ 11-7 by Chris.

Thanks are due to Neil Melvill for organizing the tournaments and Finals night itself.