2017 Ladies Club Championship Final
2017 draws to a close with one of the most swashbuckling and intense squash matches ever; no we’re not talking about the World Championship Finals in Manchester where brothers Mohammed and Marwan El Shorbagy fought out a 5 game thriller. But on the same evening several miles north, a much more important game was happening – the Galashiels Ladies Squash Championship Final. Two Time Champion Rachel McAleese and on her debut season, Kerri Andrews were putting on a much more exciting affair.
Rachel hadn’t had a straight forward title defence so far, Sandra Frizzell fought valiantly in a 3-1 Semi-Final whereas Kerri had swept aside Joy Dawson in a more straightforward 3-0.
Kerri started fast as she exploded out of the blocks with several deft serves that found the side wall at the sweet spot and ran off to a 6-0 advantage before Rachel managed a cross court return that hit the nick and with Rachel having the hand {serve} Kerri didn’t have much more to her game and Rachel pulled it back to 6-5. But as soon as Kerri got the hand back her serves proved key as not to many rallies ensued and Kerri won the first 15-6.
The second game was a lot closer as Rachel played the returns slightly earlier to produce cross court drop shots, then at 6-6 Kerri got the hand and again produced several Aces to go 11-6 which was too much for Rachel to claw back and Kerri went 2-0 with a 15-12.
Rachel composed herself during the break and came back more focussed, in the third Rachel Bossed the rallies and the game was exciting as the different styles were evident in this game, Kerri was more power and lobs while Rachel was more graceful in her court movement and was picking where to play her shots. Rachel led all the way in this game although had 5 game points at 14-9 was brought back to 14-14, Rachel adjusted to using drop shots and took it 16-14.
Neither player was wilting and although the players were close in this game, rallies were long and fast and it was 9-8 to Kerri before Rachel started dropping her racket slightly and hitting the tin on key points in the rallies, Rachels head went down and she couldn’t rescue the tie as Kerri took this one 15-10 and won the title 3-1.
Kerri said after the game “I’m exhausted I didn’t know what to expect as I’d never seen Rachel play, I’m so chuffed as I’ve never won anything before”.
Match Umpire and Club Captain Del Sharratt said “It’s good to see the newer members coming through, that’s the Gents AND Ladies titles both won by debutants this season, the competition in the club is thriving as more members are joining, and indeed some old faces re-joining, this makes for an exciting future at the club.”