Abingdonian 2018

31 www.abingdon.org.uk Lent Term Abingdon Squash Club again entered the National Schools competition this year, and the first match was against Bradfield. The team consisted of Nikhil Vyas, William Pearson, Will Taylor, Ben Goriely-McDonald, and Felix Loeffen making his debut for the school in his first year. Our four old hands played superbly, winning without dropping a single game. Felix, playing a boy twice his size, fought through fatigue to secure a memorable victory on his debut. He was unanimously voted man of the match by the others. Next in the same competition we played St Edward’s, fielding our strongest team ever, consisting of Nikhil Vyas, William Pearson, Hector Chambers, Will Taylor and Ben Goriely-McDonald, and the quality was clear from the start. All five members of the team won their matches with complete conviction, and no one dropped a game. We then played a friendly against Cheltenham College for the first time. Felix played again at 5th string, and narrowly lost against a sixth form opponent. James Munday made his debut in the team at 4th string, and played some impressive squash. Nikhil, William and Will then played outstandingly well to win their matches to clinch the fixture 3-2. Back in the Nationals again, we next took on Wellington, always a formidable team. We had our strongest team again, however, and showed how much progress we had made. Nikhil, William, Hector, Will and Ben exacted revenge for the last time we played them by winning an impressive 4-1 victory. This also ensured our qualification for the next round for the first time ever. We then played a friendly against RSG High Wycombe, and it was a useful training exercise for the team. RGS are a very good side, but we played another clinical game for an impressive 4-1 win. For the last Nationals game in the group we played Eton, one of the strongest schools in the country. Ed Pettitt came in at 5th string, and was unlucky to lose out. Nikhil and William had daunting opposition and lost at 1 and 2, but Hector and Will played brilliantly to win their games. Although this meant a 3-2 loss, we had won enough individual matches to secure first place in our qualifying group; an outstanding achievement. Having qualified for the knock-out stages, we were unlucky to draw Wycliffe, a squash academy and the strongest team in the country. Ed Petitt did extremely well to win at 5th string. Everyone else fought hard and played great squash, but the opponents were nationally ranked players, and we ultimately lost out 4-1. Wycliffe went on to be crowned National Champions again, so this was no disgrace! After the great run in the Nationals, Abingdon took on our old rivals, Radley for the last match of the season. Toby Rowles played well in a fine debut match but narrowly lost; Nikhil, William, Will and Hector all then gave a superb display to score a thumping 4-1 win against a very strong team. It rounded off our best season ever. David Franklin Squash