NWCSL Warrington v Bowden
NWCSL Warrington v Bowden
Posted on 13th Jan 2023, 12:00am
Warrington scraped through against a strong Bowdon side as we saw fist division squash start up again after the Christmas break.
James Connor made his Warrington first team debut, and unfortunately it ended quite quickly. After a promising first game where he dictated a lot of the rallies with his silky skills, he could not sustain the fight as he's played very little squash at that level over the last year, after travelling around south-east Asia for a year. When he's played a few more matches there's no doubt he can certainly be dangerous at number 5 in the first division (Below).
Rob Taylor followed on the side court, playing a fit again Pete Billson (Below). A Pete Billson without injury concerns is a free-flowing genius, and a pleasure to watch. Rob is no push over though. Rob plays steady accurate squash. Rob started well only for Pete to get into his stride. I saw the 4th game and I thought Rob was playing great squash. He forged a 9-6 lead and the match looked certain to go to a 5th game, but Pete played a few good drops and a few quick boasts to suddenly take the last game, obviously keen not to play a 5th!
I started the evening off on the show court with a battle against a fit Charles Keeble (Below). He played great and dug in, making every rally tough for a one-legged, old man. This match constantly toed and froed and came down to a tense 5th game after a very tight 4th game which Keeble just sneaked. We knew this was a big game coming up for our title defence, and luckily I just about did enough to cross the finish line. Phew! Great match which the crowd seemed to thoroughly enjoy. Very good quality for a number 3 match.
Ben took to the show court next and made reasonably quick work of Jayden Gough, son of former World No.5, Alex (Top and Below). Jayden is definitely a good player but Ben is just a bit too good, especially at number 2. He controls the middle of the court so well, and never seems like he needs to do too much with the ball yet constantly offers the threat that he could play an outrageous winner from anywhere at any time. Classy performance from Big Ben.
The match was perfectly poised at 2 ties all when the number ones took to the court. Nick went to a 7-0 lead by playing nice tight squash. Even though Adrian started to get some points on the score board the game was basically over as soon as it had begun. The second saw the match become more physical with a few traffic issues, but Adrian's short game was on point so he could always find a winning shot when given the opportunity. After the second game the match has far fewer decisions and Adrian generally looked in control. This was a good quality match by two top professionals, but as I said, Adran's short game was superb and this was the difference (Below).
Adrian's win came as a big relief as losing the match would have almost been unthinkable. We maintain a 4 point lead at the tp of the table over Cheetham Hill. Next week is our week off so we will be playing catch up when we resume against Grove Park in two weeks.
Well done to Bowdon for a great match, and as ever we had a full crowd making team nights at Warrington a great experience.
As ever, thanks to Richard Bradbury for the photography.
Andy Whipp
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