Division 1 Review 30th January

Stephen Hearst pulled out a massive win for his team, to give Cheetham Hill the narrowest of victories against Wigan, which could prove massive in the title race - only time will tell...

Wigan's Nat Fairhurst is proving himself to be so much more than just a tall fella wearing shorts; he's won all 14 matches he's played this season - surely the best record of the thousands of players playing across all the north west divisions?! As with every opponent of his this season, he proved too strong for Cheetham's No.5, Lowri Robets. Wigan also won the No.1 match; a match which everyone was looking forward to, featuring World No.24 Pat Rooney vs World No.32 Nick Wall. Unfortunately after a quick first game, Nick withdrew injured handing the walkover to Pat. 'The Hill's' Finnlay won quickly at No.2, but the real excitement came in the 'middle order' matches.

Carlisle's Ben Hetherington is a proper "never say die" player, and will always fight until the very end. He was up against Jordan Hardwick, who has an array skill to call upon. The match 'to and froed' constantly, with every game going down to the wire. After having a game ball to force a fifth game, fighter Ben lost out to Jordan 13-11 in the fourth, in what was a wonderfully entertaining match.

On paper, Ryan Atherton vs Stephen Hearst looked like a 50/50 contest, and it proved to be the closest of matches. Ryan is generally considered to be "better than he looks" with his vast catalogue of trickery, mixed in with some genuinely decent squash! After an hour, both players found themselves battling through a fifth game. Stephen had two match balls at 10-8, only to see the first one fade away with a classic Atherton backhand flick, which has sent us all the wrong way at least once in our careers. Alas, Ryan couldn't find the opportunity to outwit his opponent one more time, as Stephen won the all important final point to claim the match, earning an additional 6 league points for his side.

Cheetham's rivals, Warrington had a comfortable night against Alderley, aided by superstar Joel Makin and young prodigy Jonah Bryant. Charlie Cowie had to fight hard to win, coming back from 2-0 down against an in-form and surprisingly un-injured Mike Potter. Charlie will likely be feeling the effects of this match for the next 5 or 6 days (at least!).

Grove Park, aided by Welsh No.2 Emyr Evans, cast aside The Northern 1 with relative ease, winning 5-0, while The Northern 2 had a brilliant night, beating Wrexham 3-2 in an epic night of squash. I've said before about the "no holds barred" approach of Northern's Ali Khawas. He and Owain Taylor played-out a terrific 3-2 match. Left-handed Ali went for an outrageous number of forehand cross-court nicks off the bounce from the service box area, a shot most other players don't even think about playing. In the end, Owain proved a bit too steady and composed, to take the match for the Welsh Dragons. I like watching Owain play, he has a very calm, controlled demeanor.

Bader Almaghrebi and Rhys Evans were always destined to have a fast and furious, super-entertaining match, which is exactly what happened, with the younger Welshman winning 3-1. The Northern then won at positions 3, 4 and 5 to claim an important 3-2 victory - but non of these matches were straight-forward. The Northern had to battle for every point and they really earned their impressive victory tonight. A wonderful team effort.

Elsewhere in our region, Liverpool hosted Bowdon, and had a bad night as they lost out 4-1. Liverpool have been missing several players this year, and Bowdon took full advantage to solidify their position in the Top 4. Charles Keeble and Daniel Ince particularly impressed for Bodon last night, as they beat Lewis and Cory Harding.

Next weeks fixtures include league team 3 vs 4, local derby, Bowdon vs Grove Park, which could be a tasty match.

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Andy Whipp