Chichester not quite ship-shape as Bristol fashion a win

Following a 3-2 defeat to Surrey, the Chichester squad were determined to return to winning ways – and came agonisingly close to victory.

Lauren Briggs was her normal consistent self and didn’t disappoint against Bristol’s Emma Chorley. Briggs struggled to find her length on a dead court in the first two games but went 2-0 up before upping the pace to take the match in the third.

Chichester’s Kyle Finch (world No234) dominated in spells but struggled with concentration in his match against Mike Harris, the world 183. He won the first game but then lost the next two games to go 2-1 down.

Finch composed himself to take the fourth and fifth 11-9, 11-9 to put Chichester 2-0 up.

Nathan Lake (world 95) was always in trouble against Steve Finitsis (world 86) as the new Bristol signing from Australia took the middle of the court away and exposed Lake’s movement in a very stop-start match.

The Chichester player was unable to establish any real control and lost 3-1 to put Bristol back in the match.

Chichester needed a victory from Matt Hopkin (world 107) against Josh Masters (world 147). Hopkin went 2-0 up with lightning-quick movement but Masters steadfastly pegged it back to 2-2.

Hopkin had several match points in the fourth which he was unable to convert and lost 13-11. The fifth game was littered with errors and winners from both players but Masters prevailed 17-15 in the fifth to make it 2-2 on the night.

It was down to the wire and it was a tough task for Robbie Temple against world number nine Marwan Elshorbagy, but he showed great class to take the first game 11-9. Elshorbagy upped the pace enabling him to take control and win the next three games 11-9, 11-2, 11-9 to give Bristol a 3-2 win.

BOGNOR

Bognor’s first squash team were brought back to earth when they made the trip to play Chichester Racquets and Fitness Club.

Having beaten the two teams at the top of division two west in their previous outings, Bognor would have travelled with some confidence but finished on the wrong end of a 4-1 scoreline.

Bognor’s Jon Corke at No5 took on Ian Haines and the home player went two games up before Corke pulled back the third but was well beaten in the fourth with Haines winning 9-6, 9-4, 3-9, 9-1.

Somewhat surprisingly Bognor’s fourth string Alastair Campbell went down to Paul Whykes. After levelling at 1-1, Campbell could not keep up the momentum losing 6-9, 9-1, 4-9, 3-9 and Chichester were three ahead when Hannah Wright-Davies beat Bognor’s Steve Carruthers in three games 9-5, 9-3, 9-6.

Second string for the visitors was Will Burley but home No2 Jamie Wilkinson was well in control, winning another straight-games contest.

Bognor’s one success came when captain Greg Jansz won a great five-game match against Jamie Allday. At 1-1, Allday edged a close third game but Jansz responded taking the next two to win 7-9, 9-3, 9-10, 9-4, 9-2.

Chichester won 4-1 and took 19 points to Bognor’s five.

That was Bognor first team’s final game of the year.

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