PSL back with a bang
The Premier Squash League, organised by England Squash, returns this week with a trio of enticing matches to kick off the 2022/23 season.
Seven teams from across the UK will be competing for the title in a home or away round robin format over seven rounds between October and April.
Teams of four – two men and two women with at least one of each eligible to represent one of the home nations – will play best of five matches to 11 points, with a sudden death point at 10-all.
The competing teams are :
Alba Storm – Scottish Squash’s entry in for their third season
University of Birmingham – back for their seventh full season
Crawley – winners of the PSL Cup earlier this year
Pontefract – PSL stalwarts who lost out in the 2019 final and the PSL Cup final
University of Nottingham – champions in 2017, 18 years after their last title
St George’s Hill – champions in 2018 after losing out in four previous finals
Royal Automobile Club – champions in 2019, the last full PSL season
Round One matches will take place on Tue 25th October, with Pontefract at home to RAC, St George’s hosting Alba Storm and Birmingham meeting Nottingham in a battle of the Universities.
Pontefract have a very strong squad, headed by Mohamed ElShorbagy and Joelle King, where in Tuesday’s match rising star Patrick Rooney will take on veteran Daryl Selby while Commonwealth Games medalists Hollie Naughton and Sarah-Jane Perry meet in the top women’s match. RAC, with Paul Coll and Diego Elias to call on in future matches will surely be contenders for the title.
On the all-glass court at St George’s Hill the home side, who have also assembled a squad with title ambitions, will be headed by top ten players Joel Makin and Gina Kennedy, taking on Malaysian and Welsh stars Eain Yow Ng and Emily Whitlock for Alba Storm.