Finals night is held at Rutland Squash and Racketball Club
Rutland Squash and Racketball Club's finals night again delivered a memorable evening with the exciting guarantee there would be a new name on all bar one of the cups for 2024.
The gallery of spectators enjoyed a true spectacle of squash, played in great spirit with great determination from all involved.
The Willis Cup final paired Ben Harford, appearing in his first final, and Richard Park with a new-found drive to finally get his name on this elusive trophy.
As expected with young Ben on court, the game began at a frantic pace and he initially opted for the power game with the knowledge that he could cover the court to meet Richard's deft drop shots and well-hidden boasts.
Richard handled the fast game well and went out to a 4-0 lead, and looked well in control until Ben somehow found even more power and, after several long rallies, clawed back the deficit.
The players traded points through the middle of the game and neither could break away by more than a point, 7-7 being the turning point as Richard played two beautiful soft drops tight to the left corner and held his position centre court to pick-off Ben’s returns and take the first game 9-7.
In the second game, Ben seemed well settled at 6-3 but Richard dug deep and the two fought for the point with the serve changing hands seven times until Ben finally broke the deadlock and went on to take the game 9-3.
The early exchanges of the third game were thrilling, the serve repeatedly changing hands at 1-1 with several long points including a bizarre rally where the two seemed to play badminton with only repeated backhand volleys.
This long game suited Ben as his fitness is unparallelled in the club, but it was a change in his style of play that saw him gradually extend his lead and take the game 9-2.
High on confidence and sticking with his lob serve, Ben raced to 6-0 lead in the fourth game until Richard found an extra gear and ground out a long rally to take the ball, only to serve out and pass the serve straight back to Ben.
Visibly annoyed at his mistake, Richard again committed to retake serve and rallied well to pick up a run of points while Ben picked up the odd point, against the run of play, to extend his lead.
One last flourish from Richard as Ben failed to claim two match points but the writing was on the wall and Ben took the fourth game and match 9-4.
A game worthy of a final and possibly a window into what the club can expect from both players in the future.
As Richard and Ben battled for the Willis Cup on court three, the eagerly awaited doubles final between Belton regulars Guy Jones and Tony Brown and Peter Turner and Greg Watts was taking place.
The Belton crew's prowess for doubles squash and racketball is a fantastic feature at the club and is always a popular attraction on finals night.
The first game proved to be a well contested affair from which Guy and Tony took the spoils 12-7, but Peter and Greg had no plans to go quietly and raised their game for the second, pushing hard to draw the match level and give the watching crowd the decider they so rightly deserved.
However, the combination of Guy’s powerplay and Tony’s cunning lobs proved too much for their opponents and they took the game 12-9 to claim the newly donated silverware.
Next up came the Willis Plate final between Philip Bailey and Brian Margetts.
It was, on paper, an unlikely match-up as Philip was the current holder of the Willis Cup, having in 2023 regained a trophy he last won in 2017.
With no time to dwell on how he had ended up heading through this side of the Willis competitions, Philip began his usual concise game and seemed to breeze through the first game, without Brian troubling the scorers.
The second game threatened 'more of the same' as Philip began to build a healthy lead, reaching 4-0.
A long rally was replayed following a let and this allowed a seemingly rejuvenated Brian to grow into the game.
The huge cheer from the gallery as he notched up his first point seemed to inspire a possible comeback as he served powerfully, pinning Philip to his backhand corner, but his opponent continued to find a tight line and perfect length and in the end took the game 9-4.
The third game was more evenly matched and the early exchanges saw Brian draw away with a three point lead.
While it looked as though Philip could take the pressure, he made a couple of unforced errors, twice hitting the tin, resulting in the return of serve to Brian.
Again serving from the left, Brian stretched his lead to a seemingly unassailable 8-3, but Philip remained cool and calm as ever, surviving an incredible eight game points.
Reaching 8-8, Brian called for the game to 10 and the serve changed hands four times before Philip picked up the ninth and held to take the tenth and match-winning point.
It was a cruel but brilliant way to close out a game that should by all rights have gone to Brian but Philip was a worthy winner after a great battle.
As is now customary on finals night, the last game on court was the ever-popular Handicap Cup.
Using 'American' scoring, winning points are rewarded regardless of who is serving.
Recent years have provided some surprising match-ups, but this year it came down to two of the top players in the club, Ben Harford and Rob Halls.
With Rob being an unknown force in his first year as a member, his handicap may have been somewhat generous, but if there's one man you would back to chase down any handicap it would be Ben.
Looking to pull back 15 points, Ben started at his usual turbo speed, winning a couple of early rallies with his determined pace and power.
Rob was unfazed by the early onslaught and calmly restored his advantage with deep, testing serves and excellent follow-up positioning which enabled him to take the first game 36-20.
Rob carried his form into the second game, again using his deep serve to put Ben under pressure and then demonstrating a light, slicing boast to drop shot, pulling Ben to both front corners of the court.
Ben covered great ground to reach the drops but was unable to give himself enough room to play anything other than a counter drop which Rob seemed to read well and pick off.
Rob stretched his lead to a very healthy 18 points mid-game, leaving Ben a huge task to mount some sort of comeback.
At 11-33, with the deficit at 22 points, Ben returned to his power game and increased his speed of play resulting in a great run of six unanswered points but by this stage it was clear that Rob was prepared to play the waiting game and pick up points when on offer, closing out the second and match-winning game 36-19.
The ladies’ final was played at a later date due to unavailability of one of the players, and was a repeat of the previous year’s final between Katharine Gaine and Helen Ike.
Katharine was the defending champion so the pressure was very much on her, and this showed in the opening points of the first game as she played a number of nervous unforced errors that gifted Helen several points.
In the middle of the game, however, Katharine began to find her form, delivering some much better serves and playing some effective drop shots, which enabled her to pull ahead and take the first game 9-5.
In the second game, Katharine’s serves continued to pose problems for Helen, particularly on the backhand side, and Katharine was able to take the game with relative ease 9-2.
The third game, however, was very different as Katharine’s touch with the serves deserted her and Helen was playing some superbly driven shots to the back of the court.
At 5-5 the game was evenly poised, but then Katharine drew ahead to 8-6 and it looked as though she had the match in the bag.
However, Helen was not going to give up easily and played superbly well to save two match points and level the score at 8-8.
It could not have been closer, but Katharine managed to pull off a couple winning shots to close out the game 10-8 and take the match.
The league trophy could not be presented on finals night because the placings were so close among the top players that it was necessary to wait until the March matches had been played out before doing a final tally.
League organisers Bob and Hilary Black, to whom much thanks are owed for their excellent running of the leagues, have now confirmed that the winner of the Myles Knauer League trophy is Michael Crawford - another new name on the cup - and runner-up is Ben Harford.
