The Abingdonian 2019

31 www.abingdon.org.uk Lent Term Squash Abingdon squash had a quite outstanding year. Our senior squad was the strongest ever, including Nikhil Vyas, Will Taylor, James Munday, Toby Rowles, Alex d’Arcy, Felix Loeffen, Sam Christie and Max Hall. Our juniors were Max Struthers, Jai Biswas-Gladwin, Max Sheppard, Joshua Massey- Thompson and Joseph Betts. Apart from playing our usual local fixtures, we focused on the National Schools Competition. In the first round we had a convincing win against Bristol Grammar School, but were unlucky in encountering two of the top teams in the country, Wycliffe and John Hampden. We then went into the Plate Competition, and qualified at the top of our group, beating Bryanston, Merchant Taylors and John Hampden B by convincing margins. In March we travelled to the National Finals in Nottingham. The team for the tournament consisted of Nikhil Vyas, Will Taylor, James Munday, Toby Rowles, Felix Loeffen and Alex d’Arcy. Every boy played outstandingly well against strong opposition. We beat Bryanston again to take us into the semi-final, where we then defeated King’s Canterbury to reach the final. There was great play throughout the order, but we were unlucky in the end to lose by a narrow margin to Exeter. We received silver medals as runners up, and we will be even stronger for next year with almost all our players still with us. It was a great performance and a real achievement for Abingdon squash. David Franklin