Second spot for Nuffield St Albans (From St Albans & Harpenden Review)

Nuffield St Albans finish second

2:10pm Tuesday 19th March 2013 in Local Sport

Nuffield St Albans finished second in Herts Squash League Division One after playing their two remaining home matches.

The games were the first at the Nuffield club since the tragic death last month of 18-year-old Harry Faulkner at St Albans when he was playing for Berkhamsted.

Matches were suspended and due to Berkhamsted’s understandable withdrawal for the rest of the season, all the results against them were removed from the league table.

The agreed action taken by the league regarding Berkhamsted’s points meant Nuffield could no longer win the league but none of that mattered. It was just important that the players returned to action at St Albans to honour the passing of a young player who everybody knew so well.

Both matches were straight-forward enough wins for Nuffield with only captain Tom James losing a tough five-game match against Harpenden. Nuffield’s number one Adam Auckland, recent winner of a PSA world-ranking event in Colwyn Bay, had to work hard to beat Harpenden’s highly experienced Eamonn Price, but still managed to win in three games.

Jack Fowler dropped a game against Peter Foley but pulled through to win 3-1 at number four and both Ondrej Uherka and Will John enjoyed 3-0 wins at 2 and 3 respectively.

Potters Bar Seconds were the visitors to Nuffield for the final match of the season. James got his team off to a perfect start by winning 3-0 at number five and Ondrej Uherka, Will John and Jack Fowler all followed their captain with straightforward 3-0 victories.

The best match of the night was at number one with Auckland involved in a fierce battle with Potters Bar’s gifted shot maker Yousef Abdala. Auckland dominated the first two games, playing at a pace and accuracy that Abdala found difficult to handle.

The third game was just played at a slightly lower pace and Auckland lost his accuracy, allowing the Potters Bar player to take advantage by hitting winning shots from the front of the court. Abdala looked dangerous when he won the third game and the match looked as if it was destined to go the full distance of five games.

Auckland responded well though and took back the initiative in the fourth game by lifting the ball higher to get Abdala playing more defensively from the back of the court.

He worked himself into a two point lead which he maintained throughout the game to win a highly entertaining and high quality match 3-1.

Potters Bar were worthy winners of the league but the season will always be remembered for the tragic events that unfolded at Nuffield St Albans last month.