INTER COUNTY MATCH REPORT– Saturday 10th March 2012 – Taunton
Cornwall v Avon II v Somerset
- Cornwall Squash County Team 2012
Cornwall men’s squash team travelled to Taunton for Stage 2 of the 2011/2012 inter county tournament.
Sadly there would be no chance of promotion for Cornwall – despite being runners up in their Stage 1 event Cornwall did not qualify for the promotion group so would have to settle for finishing as well as they could.
Of the 6 players representing Cornwall 4 made up the Truro 1st team so it was really like an away game for them!
The top 4 players would play both matches with Neil Counter and Elliott Moore playing one match each.
In the first match Avon II had defeated Somerset 3-2. It was then Cornwall v Avon II.
It was Elliott Moore who set things going and despite advancing to a 2-0 lead was soon pegged back to 2-2. Elliott managed to show his experience to win the final game and win it 3-2 for Cornwall.
Dale Diment at 4 has been playing some great squash of late but was unable to replicate his club form. Despite this Dale kept battling and won the match 3-1.
Max Millar was still on the road back from a recent operation. A consistent performance saw him win 3-0.
Rory Brickell was next on with the match already won by Cornwall. A fast hitting encounter ensued but Rory always had the upper edge to win 3-0.
Leaving the number 1’s until last Jamie Moxom swept past his opponent with relative ease, always seeming to have something in reserve to win the match 3-0.
A great start to the weekend with an emphatic Cornwall 5-0 win (20 – 3 on points).
On paper the next match should have been easy for Cornwall – Avon II had beaten Somerset 3-2 before Avon II lost to Cornwall 5-0. Somerset were strengthened by a new number one, pushing the remainder of the team further down the playing order.
It was Neil Counter who started the match. The pressure was on as all his team mates had won their first match. Neil withstood the pressure to win comfortably 3-0.
With the remaining Cornwall players all having played one match it would be interesting to see how fresh they would be.
Dale Diment shook off his poor form in the first game to beat his opponent 3-0 – the first 2 games were easy before a very close third game which Dale won.
Max Millar struggled in his match. A number of uncharacteristic errors saw Max lose his match – but the advantage remained with Cornwall at 2-1.
It was soon all square. Rory Brickell played the Somerset number one from the morning fixture and despite some great rallies it was the Somerset player who won through 3-1.
It was only the number 1’s left to play and the Somerset player was fresh having not played in the morning fixture. Jamie Moxom soon powered into a 2-0 lead. A tetchy third game saw Somerset claw a game back before Jamie won the next game for a 3-1 win.
Cornwall had won the match 3-2 (16 – 7 on points).
The overall final standings were:-
- 1. Cornwall 37 points
- 2. Avon II 17 points
- 3. Somerset 15 points
It was a great all round performance by Cornwall but sadly no promotion was available.
For three of the older players (who shall remain nameless!) this is not the end of inter County squash for this season with the Cornish Over 35 Men’s team shortly to travel to Bedford in their stage 2 fixture.
Come on Cornwall!
