Round FIVE : 13-Dec

Surrey end Chichester run on a night of deciders

The twelfth season of the Premier Squash League reached the halfway stage as four matches were played out in Round Five tonight.

Defending champions Virgin Active Surrey HRC notched up perhaps the quickest win ever as they went 3-0 up over previously unbeaten Team Chichester just before the clock reached 8.30, thanks to wins from Nada Elkalaawy, Piedro Schweertman and their former number one, the now retired Peter Barker.

Ollie Pett pulled one back for Chichester before world champion Karim Abdel Gawad beat Nathan Lake in five games – as he did in the world champs first round in Wadi Degla – to give Surrey a 4-1 win.

Chichester stay top of the table, but Surrey move into second place.

The other three matches all went down to top string deciders.

In the other Division B match Coolhurst London went 2-0 up at 9 Telecom St George’s Hill, but the home side fought back to level the tie. In the decider Coolhurst’s Adrian Waller beat Borja Golan in four games, leaving the home side – finalists in the last two seasons – at the bottom of the christmas table.

In Division A Pontefract and Everards Leicester shared the first four ties leaving it to James Willstrop and Daryl Selby to decide the outcome of the match. That too went the distance, with Willstrop emerging the 3-2 victor to put Pontefract level with UWE/Elite Squash Bristol, who were enjoying a night off.

Birmingham University Lions, needing a win to go top of the table, took at two-nil lead at MB Nottingham/University of Nottingham, but the home side fought back to set up a decider between English and Welsh number ones Nick Matthew and Joel Makin.

Matthew won three close games to give Nottingham the win, leaving all five teams with a Won 2 / Lost 2 record and all to play for in the second half.