Division 1 Review 28th November

Liverpool put in a massive performance to disrupt the top of the table standings. They beat Warrington in an electric night of squash. Warrington were quickly on their way as Lewis Doughty got the better of his name counterpart, Lewis Harding, while younger Harding brother Cory, was in a battle on the other court against his coach, Andy Whipp. Cory’s tins kept the limpy old man in the match and they found themselves at two games all. Cory kept his cool and his errors down, and played an excellent fifth game to prevail for the home team. Ben Smith made very quick work of his match against Connor Sheen.No.1's and No.5's were playing at the same time. Rui Soares was available after reaching the final of the Madeira Open, and he was up against the dogged Lwamba. On the side court was the powerful hitter Adam Pritchard against Warrington stalwart Rob Taylor. Rui was 2-1 up against Lwamba and Rob Taylor was 1 game-all and 10-3 up in the third. I thought "this is fine, we'll (Warrington will) get 19 points" - boy was I wrong! Adam Pritchard fought his way back from 10-3 to win that game 12-10, and treated all the crowd to a huge fist pump combined with a hop, skip and a jump, and then a twirl for good measure. Needless to say, Rob was gone after losing that game and lost the fourth game easily. On the show court Lwamba was fighting hard and forced a fifth game. Both players were level at 5-5 and then Rui gave away a few cheap strokes, and Lwamba hit a few incredibly low drop shots, to just pip the last game 11-9, and also win the match for his team. Like Adam did before him, he also delighted the crowd with a big scream and fist pump. Lwamba is a very tough competitor for his team, and put in a monumental effort last night - no wonder his crowd love him. What a great team player. Grove Park had three comfortable matches against The Northern 2 which was enough to score them 18 points. Notably, the ‘nick flick machine’ that is Luke McFarland, beat Josh Owen who had not experienced losing yet this season. Will Salter also continued his awesomeness when playing for Grove Park, by beating Canadian Brett Schille. League Chairman, Yawar Abbas showed us all that you can be really old and still win in division one! He beat Garth Van Der Wath 3-0.City Of Manchester scored another confidence-boosting win over Wigan. Seif Heikal and Ben Hetherington played out an epic match at Number 1. Ben showing all his usual guts and determination fought back from two games down, but unfortunately tired as the fifth game ran away from him. He tried hard to stay with his younger opponent, but just lost 11-8 in the fifth. COM also won at numbers 2 and 3, partly down to Julian Tomlinson still struggling with an injury and Mutahir was too quick for The Big Mac. Ryan Atherton is rarely beaten, and he won for Wigan, along with teammate Nat Fairhurst. Another 3-2 match result saw The Northern 1 beat Alderley Edge, with Elliot Morris Devred winning the decisive tie against Toby Ponting. Elliot has been busy of late, cropping up in countless leagues around the country and also in PSA events left right and centre! Matt Wagg is having a good season so far, and had another big win vs Azhan Khan, outlasting Alderley's flamboyant shot-player 11-8 in the fifth. Of course, James Picklehouse had his customary 3-2 match too - it wouldn't be a Tuesday night without one!I believe Bowdon lost out to Cheetham Hill 4-1 (but result is pending...), with Sam Ince winning for Bowdon at No.5.Last nights results will leave Cheetham 4 or 5 points clear at the top, overtaking Warrington for the first time.Another top class night of squash in our division, with so many 3-2’s - we really do know how to entertain our crowds!