You might be interested to know how the Men’s Inter-Counties Seniors event played out at our club over the weekend of 18/19th March.
On the Saturday morning Leicestershire were drawn against a strong Norfolk team. Paul Stroud at No.1 lost 1-3 but James Hodson at 2 won his match 3-2. Matt Ysart at 3 and Neelesh Mistry at 4 each lost 1-3 but our very own George Orton at 5, won 3-2. Leicestershire garnered just 9 points against Norfolk’s 18 (13 plus 5 for their overall win).Â
After the lunch break Leicestershire’s opponents were Worcestershire. James Wright (at 1, with his massive 14,580 rating) started the ball rolling but seemed well out of sorts, losing 0-3. Mark Potter (at 2) righted the ship by winning 3-1. He was followed by Kevin Simpson (at 3) who won a hard fought match 3-2. Neelesh Mistry (at 4) lost what proved to be a really close match 0-3 but George Orton (at 5) won 3-0 - again closer than the score suggested. The team won 3-2 overall, meaning Leicestershire ended with 14 points (9 plus 5 for the win) and Worcestershire 9.
In the other matches Norfolk beat Gloucestershire 14-7 and then Gloucestershire beat Worcestershire 17-5.
On the Sunday morning it was Leicestershire's turn to host another strong county team in Gloucestershire and in spite of some very strong encounters, the home team of Paul Stroud, Matt Ysart, Kev Simpson, Anvj Savani and George Orton all ended up on the wrong side of the scoreline, losing 0-3, 1-3, 2-3, 0-3 and 2-3 respectively, with only 5 points to show for their morning’s work against Gloucestershire's 20!
The outstanding match to be played on the Sunday morning should have been between Norfolk and Worcestershire but for whatever reason the Worcs team did not show up, so after waiting around the Norfolk team left for home and probably claimed a 20-0 victory.
Interestingly, most of the visiting players that stayed overnight stopped in hotels in Leicester. Apparently they weren’t made aware until quite late in the day that Hinckley were hosting the event!
We look forward to hosting future inter-counties fixtures, and encourage club members to come along and enjoy the high standard of squash on show from all concerned.