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.
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
