Our Division III fixture on 27 January was on the smart new courts at King’s College School in Cambridge, where we were up against the host club and divisional leaders Fenland.
Against Fenland our no. 3, debutant Sam Pritchard, struggled to get into his match against the Girls’ County Under 13 champion, but his points tally increased with each game after a nervous start. Our second string, Joe Hicks, played some good squash but wasn’t able to match his opponent’s all-round skills and also lost 3-0. Orlando Hodgson at no. 1 played some lovely squash, most notably his lofted backhands, eventually losing 11-8 in the fifth game.
We hoped for better results against King’s School and weren’t disappointed. Sam dug in superbly after losing his opening game to clinch a 3-1 win with a 15-13 victory in the fourth. Joe proved way too strong for his plucky young opponent to record a 3-0 win. Orlando again played with great skill against the Under 11 County champion, but couldn’t quite match his opponent’s speed and racket preparation, losing a close match 3-0 despite taking the final game to 14-12.
Overall results were: Fenland – 12 points, Comberton – 2 points; Comberton – 9 points, King’s School – 4 points. It’s perhaps worth noting that we were fielding one of our Fourth teams against the Fenland and King’s School First teams – our other Fourth team (the Girls’ team) were also in action at the same fixture. This gives some indication of Comberton’s strength in depth!
