Narrow defeat for Boston Squash Club firsts

Following a successful opening week, Boston’s squash teams suffered two reverses with the club’s first team suffering a narrow 3-2 defeat to Horncastle, whilst the second team succumbed to a 5-0 defeat at Metheringham.

The first team’s fixture saw Lincs Premier League squash return to Rosebery Avenue for the first time since February 2020, in what proved to be a dramatic and entertaining evening.

First up were the number three strings, with Boston’s Ady Proctor taking on Rob Jaines.

This proved to be a back and forth encounter, Proctor taking the first game comfortably, before then finding himself 2-1 down.

Luckily he then found his renowned powers of inner calm to refocus, slow the pace down, and end up the 3-2 winner.

Meanwhile on the opposite court, Jake Fountain was looking to return to form for the home side, and took on Dan Freeman.

This was another close match, with the visitor taking the first two games by narrow margins before Fountain fought back to win the third.

However, Freeman started the fourth game well, taking a 4-0 lead, and held on to this to close out the fourth game and win the match 3-1.

This left the fixture at 1-1 as captain Adam Hildred at number two (versus Jack Hughes) and Dave Stones at five (versus Chris Cave) stepped on to court.

Hildred appeared to catch his opposite number slightly cold and won the first two games comfortably, and although the match became much edgier towards the end of the third with points being traded evenly, Hildred had built enough of an early lead to hold on for a 3-0 win putting Boston 2-1 up.

Meanwhile on court five, Stones’ match was a thrilling encounter, the veteran starting slowly and going 2-0 down.

He then reeled the match back to 2-2, winning the third and fourth games 11-9, setting up a crucial fifth game.

However, this ultimately went to the visitors, with Chris winning it 11-8 in the fifth.

This meant the match was poised at 2-2, with the number ones Olly Cawston and Katie Wells playing the deciding tie.

All eyes were on this high quality match-up between two of the most promising young players in Lincolnshire - Wells plays professionally on the women’s tour - and with a number of spectators at Rosebery Avenue making for a good atmosphere this epitomised what team squash is all about.

The match started well for Boston, with Cawston taking the first game 11-8.

However, Wells then adjusted her game slightly, and started punishing the home player severely for any loose shots, to take the next three games 11-5, 11-5, 11-8 - securing a 3-1 victory and a 3-2 overall win for the visitors, 15-10 on points.

On the same evening, Boston’s second team travelled to Metheringham B.

Boston’s line-up of Dave Harris, Matt Cawston, Jason Hadland, Greg Cawston and Kelvin Limb faced a tall order against a strong Metheringham side with the advantage of home conditions, and although Hadland and G. Cawston were able to fight back and win one and two games respectively, this was not enough to prevent the home side running out 5-0 overall winners in a 19-3 points victory.

Finally, the club’s racketball side won their opening at home to Gainsborough the preceding evening, with Brett Perkins and Tim Rowland securing 3-0 wins against Jimmy Wray and Tony Arber.

At number one string, Dave Bontoft lost out in a tight 3-1 against Nigel List; overall giving Boston a 2-1 victory (10-3 on points).

All three teams are back in action this week, with the squash first team travelling to Lindum on Tuesday and the second team playing host to David Lloyd Lincoln.