Cromer Lawn Tennis & Racket Club

GEAVES MAKES LIGHT OF HIS HANDICAP TO RETAIN HIS HANDICAP TITLE AT CROMER

Squash 57, formerly known as racketball, is played with a different sized racket and a larger bouncier ball, and is sometimes considered a poor man’s version of squash but this was certainly not the case at Cromer on Friday evening when Henry Geaves (-15) produced a virtually error free performance to beat the veteran Icarus Hines (+2) in an entertaining final to lift the prestigious “Dunnett Trophy” in the annual handicap tournament , for the second successive year

Despite having a large negative handicap Geaves had reached the final without dropping a game as he defeated last year’s beaten finalist Ian Love (+8) Alistair Dunnett (+6) and Alan Harper (+6), along the way while Hines had a much tougher passage beating Gerard Lawlor (+8) and Marion Lucas (+10) before winning an epic semi final against John Baker (-8) .

With a 17 point advantage in each game Hines, the popular retired butcher, believed he had a genuine chance in the final but Geaves was simply too clinical making very few unforced errors over the course of the three games as he won point after point to come out on top 15-8 15-7 15-10

The scene was set in the opening game when Geaves won the first eight points of the match and when he won ten successive rallies to draw level at 7-7 there was only going to be one winner. The second game followed a similar pattern as Hines struggled to get any length in his shots and although the third game was much closer with the scores level at 10-10 Geaves remained in complete control to take the final five points and the game 15-10.

Technical Director Barry Starling said “This was another remarkable performance by Henry Geaves. Following on from his victory last year this was another almost error free performance and even if he had started each game on -50 he would probably still have won. I hope Icarus won’t be too disheartened as he played well and there were some excellent rallies but hewas on the defensive throughout

Squash 57 has become an increasingly popular game on the Cromer courts and the large number of people who watched the various matches came away realising that this is a sport which can be enjoyed by players of all ages and all abilities.