Halifax Courier

Queens beat champions to stay in race for Premier league title

- Sport Reporter mark.berry@nationalwo­rld.com @courierspo­rt

Queens won a cracker 14-10 against defending champions Hallamshir­e to remain third in the Yorkshire Premier squash league.

Queens got off to a great start when club coach Sarah Campion came from 2-1 down to beat veteran Nick Wall Snr in five and fifth string Phil Taylor waltzed past Nick Hargreaves.

Matt Gregory clawed a win back for Hallamshir­e but once Cory Harding had come back from the brink of defeat to overturn Adam Turner, the win was sealed. Former world number one Nick Matthew's easy victory for Hallamshir­e at top string was merely a consolatio­n.

Doncaster dominated the table-topping clash with Dunnington to establish an eightpoint lead.

The addition of Scottish number one Greg Lobban fortified Doncaster's lineup, while Dunnington were without their usual top string Chris Simpson.

That tipped the balance in the South Yorkshire side's favour and they capitalise­d with a 17-4 victory.

Only fifth string Matthew Stephenson made any inroads for Dunnington with an early straight-games victory, but on the adjacent court, home number four Toby Ponting thrashed Sam Gibbon.

Donny captain Joel Arscott won a four-game cracker against Seif Heikal, then Doncaster's heavy-hitting top two of world number 59 Simon Herbert and fourtime Commonweal­th Games medallist Lobban cruised to emphatic wins, over Michael Andrews and Owain Taylor respective­ly.

Dunnington dropped to fourth following that setback, with Pontefract 1 in second after recording their fifth win in their last six matches by romping to victory against a much-weakened Woodfield.

The home side's line-up was so depleted that spectators were running a sweepstake on their margin of defeat.

However, they at least scored four points with debutant Caleb Boy - an 18-year-old

Londoner - beating Ponte's Tom Bamford in five games and Jamie Carmichael taking a game off Adam Taylor.

It was plain sailing elsewhere for Ponte, though, as Ben Beachill, captain Matt

Godson and stylish number one Omar El Torkey all won in straight games, the latter winning brilliantl­y against former world number 25 and England internatio­nal George Parker.

 ?? ?? Doncaster’s number one Greg Lobban. Picture: PSA
Doncaster’s number one Greg Lobban. Picture: PSA
 ?? ?? Trophy winners at Lightcliff­e’s presentati­on evening.
Trophy winners at Lightcliff­e’s presentati­on evening.

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