Round Five : Tight at the top

Round FIVE : Tight at the top as RAC and Pontefract win

Round Five of the Premier Squash League saw wins for RAC, Pontefract and Birmingham Lions.

2019 Champions RAC hosted table-topping Alba Storm, and got off to a great start as Satomi Watanabe beat newly-crowned Scottish National Champion Alison Thomson in straight games. Scottish men’s champion Greg Lobban levelled the match as he beat Olli Pett in five games, and when Donna Lobban went two games up an away win looked on the cards.

It wasn’t to be though as Sarah-Jane Perry fought back to take the match in five, and Paul Coll beat Youssef Soliman in straight games to give RAC the win.

Pontefract did their title prospects no harm as they raced to a whitewash victory over Nottingham, who returned home pointless.

Birmingham Lions recorded their first win of the season as they edged past Crawley 8-7 on games countback, moving them off the bottom of the table and denting Crawley’s hopes of adding the full PSL title to last year’s PSL Cup win.

With two rounds to go Pontefract and Alba Storm top the table on 53 and 50 points with two matches to play, with RAC on 43 points with a match in hand.

Round FIVE Results

RAC 3-1 ALBA STORM (11-5)
Paul Coll 3-0 Youssef Soliman   11-5, 11-7, 11-6
Sarah-Jane Perry 3-2 Donna Lobban   8-11, 8-11, 11-7, 11-6, 11-5
Oli Pett 2-3 Greg Lobban   6-11, 11-5, 10-11, 11-6, 5-11
Satomi Watanabe 3-0 Alison Thomson   11-5, 11-7, 11-5

PONTEFRACT 4-0 NOTTINGHAM (12-0)
Patrick Rooney 3-0 Elijah Thomas   11-7, 11-2, 11-4
Hollie Naughton 3-0 Millie Tomlinson   11-4, 11-1, 11-7
Chris Simpson 3-0 Michael Andrews   11-5, 11-2, 11-8
Lucy Turmel 3-0 Faiza Zafar   11-3, 11-1, 11-5

BIRMINGHAM LIONS 2-2 CRAWLEY (8-7)
Stuart Macgregor 3-1 Perry Malik   10-11, 11-8, 11-4, 11-9
Kiera Marshall 0-3 Torrie Malik   7-11, 7-11, 10-11
Will Salter 2-3 Noah Meredith   8-11, 7-11, 11-5, 11-9, 9-11
Hana Ismail 3-0 Amelie Haworth   11-8, 11-8, 11-4