SquashBottle Match - 25th February 2011As February was ticking closer, the annual Bottle Match was on people’s minds and to beat the Royal School of Mines (RSM) in London this year. After 6 weeks of intensive training the CSM squad captained by Anthony Bennett set off ready for London. Collecting their new kit courtesy of Leighton Asia and presented by former captain James Gay (CO-09). The morning of Friday 25th February came about and the minibus left the hotel with a smattering of netball girls and headed for the Ethos Sports Centre in time to play, where old boys Clarence Chen, James Gay and Antony White were there to support us. CSM’s number 2 and vice-captain Freddie Henry got things off against RSM veteran Mark Porter. The game didn’t start well with Mark showing his class to race to a 2-0 lead against Freddie, who then started playing the squash we knew he is capable. Freddie who had only been playing 3 months unfortunately went down fighting to lose the match 3-0 and 9-5 in the last game. The teams only fresher and number 3, Sam Kendray took the court against another experienced RSM campaigner in Nat Elliot-Green is what turned out to be a thriller. With Sam starting out brightly winning a close 1st game, and losing the next 2 games by a couple of points, leaving the match poised at 2-1 in RSM’s favour. Sam came back to win the 4th game and take it into a decider where with both players exhausted, Sam was defeated in the match of the day. Sam said after the match: “That was exhausting and I didn’t think I had anything left after the 3 games, but a motivational speech from former captains Anthony and James were just what I needed. Unfortunately the 5th game was just too much and Nat played well, overall my first bottle match was an awesome experience.” CSM 3rd year, Tom Moore came on court feeling confident after practicing hard and learning to play squash while working in Hong Kong for Leighton Asia last summer. Grateful for the new kit provided by Leighton Asia, Tom Moore was moving well and playing good squash and raced to a 3-1 win over the RSM number 4 Tom Robinson. Sam Tucker our number 5 took the court with the aim of levelling the tie at 2-2. Feeling nervous and wanting to do well for the team and CSM, hitting the ball well Sam raced to a 2-0 lead. In the 3rd game and just 2 points from victory at 7-3 and the nerves got the better of Sam, and RSM’s Jim Hickey clawed his way back into the game to win it 9-7. With Freddie and Tom on hand to encourage Sam at the end of the game, Sam regained his form and played some of his best squash to win 9-5 in the 4th game. With the bottle tied at 2-2 it was the turn of captain Anthony Bennett to take the court against RSM’s PhD student Ryan Bayliss. Anthony started really well playing the best squash of his life and pinning his sniffling opponent in the corners won the 1st game 9-4, with the support and shouting from both sets of fans now all on tender hooks. The 2nd game continued at a frantic pace with the supporters encouraging every shot and point. Unfortunately a re-occurrence of Anthony’s back injury meant Ryan was now playing on this and fighting his way back into the match to win the 2nd game. Needing no extra motivation but to do it for the team, Anthony kept fighting and trying to frustrate Ryan with a diehard spirit but Ryan managed to edge the 3rd game. With both players suffering or allowing any relent in the pace, it became apparent nothing was going to be left on court. Ryan who was the better player on the day came out victorious and unfortunately meant RSM won back the Squash cup 3-2 after 5 epic games in London. Barrel Match - 11th March 2011With 4 old boys coming down or about in Cornwall meant the squash Barrel Match was very competitive this year for the first time in many years. With the veteran old boy Guy Bennett (CO-80) joining forces with last year’s graduates Ant White, Clarence Chen and James Watts, meant current 3rd year geologists Anthony Bennett, Freddie Henry, Tom Moore and Tim Barnstable had a tough Friday afternoon ahead of them. |