Once again, York men’s squash 1sts agonisingly missed out on promotion with their last game of the campaign ending in an luckless 3-2 defeat to Sheffield Hallam.
Hallam, just one place below their hosts in the Northern 2B table, started brightly with the agile and enthusiastic Jake Byrne nimbly moving around court 1, firing some excellent shots. But York’s David Potter was too strong and took the first game 12-10, before securing an 11-5 victory in the second. And, to seal the match, Potter made no mistake in deftly executing a swift point to bring the third and final game to 11-2.
York were quickly pegged back, however, when Hallam’s Laurence Davis raced into a two-game lead (11-5, 11-6) against John Holden. The third was just as straightforward, with the Sheffield man making no mistake with his terrifically accurate shots securing an 11-6 success.
Miles Knight restored York’s lead with a 3-0 triumph over Will Alan, but initially had a bit of trouble dealing with Alan’s sheer power. The visiting player sublimely won a superb rally on the penultimate point of the match, but lost the game 11-2, and the match 3-0.
Sam West-Moorland lost out to Jack Alcock by three games to one (8-11, 11-9, 6-11, 8-11), meaning it was all down to the mammoth encounter between top seeds Ed Shannon and Matt Pearson.
And it appeared as though the game would go to the wire with over 20 strokes on the first point, Shannon eventually hitting the ball out of court for his opponent to take the lead. In what was a very evenly matched opening, Pearson began to find time and space, and took the first game 7-11, and the second 4-11.
Words from captain Potter then saw Shannon’s game improve and some cracking rallies made the encounter a real advert for BUCS squash. The entire York and Sheffield squash squads were absorbed in the contest, with both players ranked in BUCS category 2.
Frustrated cries from Shannon, who is normally calm and composed, saw Pearson seize the opportunity and raced to a 9-2 lead. It looked bleak for York, but a motivated Shannon pulled back five well-earned points to bring to score to 7-10. Nonetheless, it was too big a deficit to overturn and Pearson won it on his serve. The Hallam star has now beaten every player he has come up against this season.
The result means York finish the season in 2nd place, like last season, and afterwards third-year captain Potter told Vision: “Today was my last BUCS game. It’s so, so disappointing to miss out on promotion again, but we’re looking forward to next week, when hopefully we’ll pick up some silverware. The team have all been superb, and I’m really proud of the effort everyone has put in.”
York travel to Preston next week as they meet Lancaster 1sts in the Northern Conference Cup final.