Inter County Squash

Pictured from left to right: Kacper Kwiecinski, James McCouat, Ben Hedger, Jason Varrie and James Hempstead.

Ben Hedger vs Surrey B

James Hempstead vs South Wales A

Jason Varrie vs Wiltshire

Kacper Kwiecinski vs Surrey B

Men’s Over 65’s: Lucky Losers!

The County Men’s Over 65’s came away from their recent Stage One round robin clashes with Berkshire and Hampshire thinking they had missed out on the National Inter-Counties Finals Day in early April. However, a strong showing against the former and a narrow defeat to the latter were good enough to secure the Lucky Loser spot at the showpiece in Manchester.

Hants were strong, as expected, and our chaps had their chances, particularly Aubrey Bell and Robert Warner, but it was not to be. Whilst Aubrey succumbed agonisingly 5-11 in the fifth, Robert (playing at one) was very pleased to nearly triumph (he also went down 5-11 in the fifth!) over a world semi-finalist who had beaten him 3-0 on two previous occasions in the last 6 months.

Berkshire were no walkover, and Aubrey made a convincing effort to clutch defeat from the jaws of victory over an always tricky Ripley Oyler (2-0 and 8-5 up, what’s the problem….?), but he zoned back in, just in time in the 5th.  Similarly, Warner nearly stumbled at 2-0 up, with the body reminding him of the tough 5 setter not 3 hours beforehand, but he edged through, 3-1.  The Andrew’s (Smith and Wilson) put in good performances against Berkshire and Hampshire respectively, and at 1-1 in each match they could have gone either way, but it was not to be, both losing 1-3.

Some interesting squash to say the least and overall the ties were played with great sportsmanship but very, very competitive. Andrew Wilson noted, ‘I can only imagine that there was serious money riding on the results given the fist pumping and shouting at key moments. The other teams were well presented but we were clearly the best turned out (in their Oxfordshire garb!) and undoubtedly had the best team spirit. Hurrah for Oxfordshire!’

Hurrah indeed and good luck in the 1/4 Final v Lancashire on April 5th.

Men’s Over 35’s

Of their recent Stage One qualifiers against Berkshire and Hampshire played at Abingdon Squash Club, Men’s Over 35 skipper, James Hicks surmised, ‘Overall a very positive weekend for us, we managed to get a good team together despite missing some of our big hitters. The guys that filled in played very well and fingers crossed we can get through as a high placed runner up?’ Sadly, they have not been as fortunate as their Over 65 counterparts and will miss out on the Big Day!

Whilst the Senior Men’s team and the Over 65’s were both able to secure victories over Berkshire, it was quite a different story here. The lowest squash levels the opponents fielded was 6000 so perhaps no surprise that all five ties went 3 zip in favour of our near neighbours. Despite the fatigue felt from this first match though and with just one change to the line up, our lads dug in and despatched Hampshire in the afternoon in a really tough scrap, 4-1.

Alex Cumming, Francois Louw, Donovan Eastes and James Hicks all pushed their individual setbacks of the morning to one side to secure the necessary wins. Great credit should go to the captain who not only made all the fixture arrangements but played back to back matches after 5 months out injured!

So Close! Mens’s Inter county report.

On the weekend of 1st/2nd February, at Abingdon Squash Club, Oxfordshire hosted their group section in the Senior Men’s Inter County Championships. Vying for a place at the National Finals in March, County Coach and England International, Jason Varrie led a very youthful and inexperienced side against 3 extremely doughty opponents.

In their opening fixture, our chaps encountered Surrey B. Wins for Ben Hedger (Thame) at 1, Jason Varrie (unattached) at 2, Kacper Kwiecinski (Abingdon) at 4 and James Hempstead (Witney) at 5 contributed to a 4-1 success and set them up nicely for their next encounter against Wiltshire whose team exclusively comprised players from Defence Academy.

2 games in a day at this level for Under 15 Boy’s Champion Kacper was a tough ask and he fell agonisingly short of a perfect record losing 6-11 in the last of a 5-set thriller. Fortunately, all his teammates won their rubbers including James McCouat (University) who bounced back from earlier defeat to despatch Adam Oakley 11-9 11-3 11-9.

The Round Robin now moved into Day Two with a very simple equation, Oxon v South Wales A = Winner to Finals Day.

Sam Greenrod (University) stepped in for Kacper and justified his selection with a 3-0 victory before James Hempstead claimed his third success from three outings prevailing 3-1 at String 4. Unfortunately, our Welsh cousins fought back gallantly at that point and reverses for Ben Hedger (0-3), Jason Varrie (1-3) and James McCouat (2-3, 9-11 in the fifth) left our charges disappointed to have missed out on the Big Show.

Jason best summed up their heroic efforts….’We had 4 young debutants in our squad for this tournament and they all did tremendously well and made Oxfordshire proud.’

And so say all of us.

The Inter County Championships (ICC) is the largest competition run by England Squash with more than 2,000 players representing their counties in 22 categories throughout the season across Senior, Masters and Junior levels.

These tournaments provide competitive opportunities for players beyond club level in a team environment and the opportunity to represent their county.

The Senior (Open Aged) Inter County Championships is split into two Divisions, Division One and Premier, and matches are played across two stages which are each hosted over a designated weekend.

The Masters Inter County Championships is split into the following categories: Women O40 and O50, Men’s O35, O45, O55 and 065

Qualifying Stage 1 will be held on 1st and 2nd March 2025 at venues to be decided

The Finals will be held on 5th and 6th April 2025 in Manchester (The Northern Club and Grove Park Squash Club)

ICC Captains – 2025

• James Hicks – Men’s Over 35’s – [email protected]
• Alex Perry – Women’s Over 40’s – [email protected]
• Jeremy Shayler – Men’s Over 45’s – [email protected]
• Ken MacMillan – Men’s Over 65’s – [email protected]
• Jason Varrie – Men’s Senior Captain – [email protected]

OSRA does contribute to the expenses, both travelling and accommodation, of our representatives. For the details and claim form, go to the Documents page