National Squash Competition round 2

Matches played 18/1/2023 against Wycombe High and Epsom College

The top two teams from this group go through to the National Finals Championship for the top 8 teams in the Country.

Epsom College played Wycombe High first and had a convincing 5-0 win without conceding a game.

Benenden played Wycombe High next, the winner would be guaranteed 2nd place in the group and a place in the Finals.

5th and 3rd String matches went on first. Maria Goggin, the only IV in the team and Rose McLean. Maria played a very good game, serving very well and she moved to and from the T covering all her opponents shots and won 2-0. Rose had a tough match, losing the first game 12-10. Rose improved her serving and return of serve which proved decisive as she won the next two games 11-8 to put Benenden up by 2 matches. 4th and 1st String matches were on next. Marta Stewart fought hard against a talented girl but lost 0-2, 2-1 in matches. Scarlett Eynon played at 1, she served with great power and accuracy which her opponent struggled with. When the return did come back Scarlett looked to finish the rally early with low kills. This was the best I have seen Scarlett play. The match was ours, a Finals place guaranteed before Sophie Morland played the last match. Sophie lost 0-2 against an unorthodox player who she would probably beat if she played her again as she would adapt her own game to combat the drop shots played by her opponent.

L DeMeuter v Scarlett Eynon 6-11 8-11

T Browning v Sophie Morland 11-8 11-6

O Johnson v Rose McLean 12-10 8-11 8-11

S Kumar v Marta Stewart 11-9 11-4

H Khan v Maria Goggin 2-11 7-11

The second match against Epsom was going to be much harder as they had already whitewashed Wycombe High, and so it proved to be. Despite the 5-0 scoreline there were some very good performances. Darcey Bourne came in at 5th string and put up a strong perfomance getting 7 and 8 points. Marta, Rose and Sophie also did well despite losing 0-2. The performance of the day was Scarlett at 1st string who won the first game before her opponent came back to win 2-1.

C Naidoo v Scarlett Eynon 8-11 11-5 11-1

F Nicolosi v S Morland 11-4 11-3

S Brocklebushy v Rose McLean 11-2 11-6

S Church-Jones v Marta Stewart 11-6 11-7

F Gokani v Darcey Bourne 11-7 11-8

Epsom College have 6 lovely Squash courts which makes hosting the group stages easy, whereas we have to travel away for all our fixtures which is a costly exercise!