Barrow shows that age is no barrier

With the most entrants for many years this year’s handicap competition had involved some good ties and very close matches. The main final was between former Club Championship Runner up Ian Chalmers and the veteran John Barrow, also the club chairman. John has only just started playing squash again after a break of several years and has proved it is never too late to pick up the game again. In the final Barrow started on +7 and Chalmers on -4, the games were point a rally to 15 and the match was best of 5 games. Ian Chalmers took the first game 15-11; Barrow didn’t do much wrong or make many errors but Chalmers was focussed and knew he had a large deficit to overcome. Barrow then made it 1-1 after taking the second game relatively quickly as Ian Chalmers seemed to take his foot of the gas a bit. The third game was almost a carbon copy of the first, Chalmers near faultless performance saw him take it in a close 15-12. At 2-1 up and well focussed, Chalmers was confident going into the fourth game and this game produced the best squash in terms of long rallies and tight shots, John Barrows 11 point start proved vital and he took the fourth 15-12. The match headed into a decider and Barrow triumphed with an emphatic 15-3 victory; in this game Barrows serves proved to be the key factor as the ball seemed to find the nicks and some lucky bounces meant Chalmers struggled to get into the rallies. The final result was: John Barrow beat Ian Chalmers 3-2 (11-15, 15-7, 12-15, 15-12, 15-3). John, who was making his debut in a final at the club, was stuck for words at the end as the match had taken so much out of him. Club Captain Del Sharratt said of the match “What a great advert for squash, the match was of extreme high quality and neither player wanted to concede an inch. Well done both players.” Next up at the Squash Club is the Handicap Plate tournament final, which is a competition for the Tournament’s first round losers and the members can look forward to a Luis Molero v Andrew Dowlen-Gilland Final.

2016 Handicap Finalists
2016 Handicap Finalists
The winner, John Barrow
The winner, John Barrow

 

The gallant runner up, Ian Chalmers
The gallant runner up, Ian Chalmers