The 2nd Regional at Wolverhampton, the West of England attracted 153 entrants, although traffic, weather and woundings saw 8 dropouts on the day, making Brian Brock's job (and mine) much more difficult.

The WO55 saw the recently retired Helen Gould losing her top spot for the second Final in succession to Jill Campion whose court craft was too much for the Avon Lady. Back to work Helen?! Earlier on, Helen had struggled against Lesley Sturgess, whilst Jill had beaten the dangerous Davies, Lynne that is.

WO50 saw Fran Wallis in no mood to grant anyone any favours, Pippa Green suffering in the Final, 9/3, 9/5, 9/1, after beating Hilary Kenyon by a similar score.

WO45 – Isabelle Tweedle came top in a three player Round Robin beating Rachel Woolford 2nd and Sue Smith 3rd.

WO40 – Sarah Parr will be very pleased with her weekends handiwork, taking out the hard hitting Shayne Baillie 11/9, 11/6, 9/11, 11/5. Sam Mueller came third and Alison Goy fourth.

WO35 – Natalie Townsend upset Katie Lawrence, no 1 seed, 10/12, 5/11, 11/8, 8/11 before succumbing to Joanne Smalley 8/11, 3/11, 9/11 in the Final. Well done Joanne!

MO75 – Vinnie Taylor, Transatlantic traveller, Canadian Champion and all round extremely popular, looked well in control over Brian Phillips. But Brian has a long standing pedigree, despite his recent long lay-off at 77. The score 9/2, 5/9, 6/9, 9/2, 1/9  reflects an hour long battle. Congrats to Brian, the 75 Champion today.

MO70 – Adrian Wright had everything all his own way – he mostly does – and took another trophy home to his eyrie in Castle Donington. (He doesn’t know it yet but we are entering him in the O65 at Ponty!) Brian Hardcastle saw off Andrew Beeston 10/8, 9/3, 10/9, but found the elderly fox too tight, 9/1, 9/5, 9/2.

MO65 – Upset as no 3/4  seed Phil Godfrey went out to Mike Clemson and no 2 Larry Grover succumbed to  5/8 Terry Norman 10/8, 9/4, 9/7. Norman entered his first Final beating Martin Pearse in the Semi and Barry Featherstone scraped through 9/0, 9/3  (not as easy at it looks) against the returning from injury male JK Rowling, Aubrey Waddy. Waddy leading 5/9, 9/3, 9/5  had looked well in control.  

In the Final, Featherstone struggled initially against Norman’s short, short game, but once worked out, and one nil up, saw off the newcomer 10/8 , 9/0, 9/4. Ros had it on Facebook within 1 minute....

MO60 – Ironical that 2 of the leading trainers and the ones who have improved the most in Masters Squash over the last year or so, both play at the same club. LA Fitness in Salisbury. With Barry Featherstone invincible (physically) in the M65, Stuart Hardy now has all the top names in the 60’s worrying about him. Having beaten Messrs Cowley and Johnson last year and getting to 10/8 in the fifth with Peter Alexander and Duleep Adihetty, he took another 2 scalps here beating no 2 seed Nick Drysdale 5/9, 9/3, 9/6, 9/3 and then Mark Cowley in the Final, 9/2, 8/10, 4/9, 3/9 – this was  a feisty affair with Hardy incandescent at 2/9  0/6  after a series of marking decisions. No one gave him a hope! Just shows, if you put in the time in the gym, there is always gain after pain.

Other result was the battle for  Northamptonshire --------- Evenden  v  Holmes. The latter, after his customary 10 pints came back from a 3/9, 3/9 deficit to win 9/3, 9/5, 9/0.

Funniest sight of the weekend, was us all witnessing seeing Sherlock and his trusty drinking sidekick Hedges, hair flowing in the wind,   and already three pints to the good, pedalling furiously down the Tettenhall Road,  no helmets, no high viz jackets. ..................  amazing their bikes which they bring to every tournament haven’t been nicked-------- yet....

MO55 – Duleep Adihetty had to retire injured in his match with Dermot Hurford, score even and James Ockwell won the other Semi over Neil Harrison 9/7  9/0  9/4. Ockwell was then 1/2 down but 7/5 up in hand in the Final when Dermot wounded himself, but as he owns a Care Home, he has plenty of available help!

MO50 – Eamonn Price returned, Gary Raw was unexpectedly removed by Stuart Wardle 5/11, 7/11, 3/11, but David Gray overcame Wardle later 9/1, 7/9, 9/7, 9/0. In the bottom half David Withey beat Marvin Rust 0/9, 9/6, 9/7, 4/9, 5/9 and then Ray Burke a few hours later 9/6, 9/1, 3/9, 3/9, 1/9. The Final looked interesting at 9/0, 6/9 but the redoubtable Price got stronger to record a 3/1 – 9/0, 6/9, 9/5, 9/5.

MO45 – Jon Lilley scraped by James Piddington 3/2 but found David Youngs too much in the Semi Final, 11/8, 11/6, 11/5.

In the bottom half, Steve McLoughlin won through beating Simon Spencer who looked physically shattered, 12/10, 11/7, 7/11, 8/11, 4/11. McLoughlin looked just the same. Love to test who is the fittest, McLoughlin or Goodrich?

n the Final it went all the way with McLoughlin11/7, 13/11 up. Youngs, however, floated around as usual, floating everything higher and higher and smiling like a Cheshire cat. Bit nervous, you might think, at 9/9, but no, a couple of uncharacteristic errors from McLoughlin, 11/9 to Youngs. Witnessed by his daughter.

MO40 – A small draw saw Mike McLaughlin beat Sonny Kalar and Joss Hargreave to enter the Final, whilst newcomer Michael Harris overcame Matt Stephenson 3/2 and then no 2 seed Jon Gliddon, 11/8, 11/7, 13/11. McLaughlin was in control in a quality Final except in the second game, but Harris made him work all the way. McLaughlin 11/9, 7/11, 11/9, 11/9.

MO35 – One really annoying feature of some players today is their habit of knocking up 6 or 7 times to themselves before hitting across to their opponent. It’s incredibly bad manners and not what we expect in the Masters. Please refrain, I witnessed this in this group and nearly intervened. I will do next time. 2 to yourselves maximum!

No 1 seed James Bowden looked invincible as he reached the final in the top half. Whilst Mick Biggs had a thriller with Tim Burrell, the housewives younger favourite. Burrell went through 11/5, 11/8, 10/12, 4/11, 11/7. James Goodrich was however, nearer the 45 than 40, gets fitter and stronger and his Final with Bowden, the latter hung on, just, to win 11/6, 11/12, 11/7, 11/9, but if Goodrich had pinched the fourth, he certainly looked much fresher!

Bowden will certainly be a strong addition to the England Squad, as long as he plays in Manchester!

Same goes for all players, to qualify for England, you must play either the Open or Closed.

Many thanks to Mark Hughes, Ron Stevenson and Guy Birkett at Wolverhampton Squash Club, Alan Wright and his Team on the Bar, Dave, Steve, Rob and Nelson for their work keeping everything in order.

Also to ESR for supplying three Refs, Ellis, Steve and Brian.

And, of course to Roz and Brian Brock for, as usual, running the Tournament so effectively.