In the weekends match against Cheshire, Merseyside, and Lancashire our three girls acquitted themselves very well, and played some excellent squash. Results were on the whole very good, with our only reverse coming against a very strong Merseyside team.

In our first game against Cheshire, Courtney Musson got us off to a flying start, serving well throughout, and out manoeuvring her opponent to win 3-0, 9/4, 9/4, 9/1. At two, Katie Penrice followed up with a tight driving power game, again serving well to pressurise her opponent. The first game could have gone either way but Katie dug deepest when it mattered, and having overcome this early resistance, easily beat her opponent 3-0, 10/9, 9/1, 9/4. With the match wrapped up Hannah Crichton applied the finishing touches, weighing up her opponents strengths and weaknesses in the first, and cruising to victory, again 3-0, 9/4, 9/1, 9/1. Overall a comfortable opener to get our girls into their squash stride.

The second match was against Merseyside, and from their demeanour on court, and the way they played their warm up shots, it was obvious that they were travelling with a very strong team. Playing the reverse order, for some reason in this game, Hannah was first up, against a girl who had blown away her first game opponent 27-0! After a whirlwind first game Hannah realised she needed to be at her best, again losing 9/0, in no time at all. The second went the same way, although Hannah was more in the game, if not on the score-sheet, 9/0. Facing a whitewash, Hannah dug to the depths of her short squash-life well, and started to out-play and out-think her opponent, doubts surfaced on her adversary that had previously not been evident, and Hannah edged the third 10/9. At 2-1, it looked like anyone's game now, but Hannah was out on her feet, and the Merseyside academy player had enough fitness in the tank to pressure Hannah into a four game loss. A creditable performance by Hannah, even though losing 1-3, 0/9, 0/9, 10/9, 2/9. (These were the only points taken off this girl all day; she won her other game 27-0 also).

Courtney and Katie took to their respective courts at the same time and both needed to prevail for our girls to win the match. Katie took no time at all to be two games up, with more excellent power serving, which her opponent couldn't handle, retreating deeper and deeper into the corners of the court. Over confidence and a host of errors, led to a sudden reversal in the third game and Katie for the first time was under a little bit of pressure. The coaches got her back on track, and she breezed through the fourth, with more well hit squash shots, to win comfortably in the end 3-1, 9/3, 9/3, 1/9, 9/3. This tied the match, and Courtney's game was even more crucial. The first could have gone either way as Courtney worked her way into a 6-4 lead, but a series of errors forced on her by her harder hitting opponent, meant the game was lost 9-6. The Merseyside girl opened up the second with a barrage of hammer blows and was quickly 7-0 up. Courtney stopped the onslaught with some exquisitely positioned lifted lengths, and her opponent unable to power the ball back, looked fallible. Having got herself back to 7-3, her opponent was only waiting for the one stray shot to latch onto, and when it came she seized the chance to close the game out 9-3. So, two games down and we had it all to do. Courtney learning from the second, played a tight length game with well played drops at the right time, and was comfortably more in control at 5-0, but again her opponent was only waiting for one loose shot to power her way back in, this she did and before long the game was tied at 6 points all. Undeterred, Courtney regained the initiative to lead 8-7, serving for the game. A well constructed rally saw Courtney out manoeuvre her opponent, who the hit the ball directly back at herself, Courtney stopped and asked for the let, the Merseyside number 1 girl was marking, she said stroke, the Merseyside coach said stroke, everyone from Cumbria knew it was a stroke, but for some reason an elderly gentleman appeared from nowhere, said it was a let, and that "two young girls should not be penalised by the awarding of a stroke", and for some reason it was decided (by others) to play a let!!! Courtney, not surprisingly was bemused by the whole thing, and lost the game 8-10, and the match  0-3. Cumbria lost the tie 1-2, and not surprisingly the "old man" was asked to leave the venue, not I hasten to add by anyone from Cumbria.This put a dampener on what had been a great tie against Merseyside, and all three of our girls really enjoyed their tussle against stronger opposition, and could really do with more exposure to this standard of opposition on a regular basis.

A tasty lunch break followed, and with only Lancashire left to play, the girls were ready to show everyone that their loss was only a temporary blip in the proceedings.

All three of our girls were easy 3-0 winners, Courtney winning 9/2, 9/1, 9/6, pushed slightly in the third by her opponent wanting to win her first game of the day, however Courtney wasn't having any of that. Katie was merciless, winning 9/0, 9/2, 9/0, as easily as it looks, as her dispirited opponent couldn't get off court quick enough. Hannah finished off the day with a resounding 9/0, 9/0, 9/5 win, playing for her opponent in the third, to avoid any bad feeling between the girls.

This was an excellent showing by the girls, finishing second, only by 7 points to a strong Merseyside team, and encouragingly a step up in performance, in the way that they played compared to their previous outing. Obviously in the meantime their club coaches have spent some quality time honing these girls' squash. Well done to all.