Knights vs Northumberland

Knights vs Northumberland

North Jesmond Avenue, Jesmond, Newcastle upon Tyne

Can't beat this fantastic article written in the local newspaper by George Welch: http://jesmondlocal.com/2015/01/northumbria-select-squash-team-suffer-international-defeat/

It's got pics and footage from Kyle's match against Dave Barnett...

Graeme took both teams out for an absolutely delicious and filling Indian meal of various curries and rice dishes along with crisp beer for the night ahead. We were glad to have the Northumbria boys joining us out in town, with Will leading from the front for our much anticipated 'jol' in Newcastle. We went from being a tall team to a bunch of midgets beside the Newcastle Eagles basketball team that were also out for the night!

Mike and Kyle were graciously hosted by Graeme and Charl, Stef and Dan were with Will at his Gran's home where they had a lovely breakfast in the morning only to be spoilt at the club restaurant again!

All we can do is thank Northumberland Club, manager Graeme Manwell, Will for hosting us and showing us the town and all who came down to watch the close contest! We really enjoyed the banter on twitter and the build up it created, long live the Knights vs Northumberland fixture!

Knights vs Aberdeen Squash Racquets Club

Knights vs Aberdeen Squash Racquets Club

Cranford Road, Mannofield, Aberdeen

Our next stop on the tour took us to our most northerly city we would visit, Aberdeen. It's a 2 and a half hour drive north and we drove on snowy, frosted roads to this oil-rich Scottish town.  We booked into a Premier Inn and met up with Karen Schultz who had made the trip from London to support the Knights.

We got to the courts which were rather on the cold side and started the fixture at 5pm.

Results from the night:

Saturday the 10th Vs Aberdeen

Kyle Maree vs Chris Shinnie 0-3 6/11, 7/11, 7/11
Stefano Garas vs Jamie Jacobsen 1-3 7/11, 13/11, 7/11, 10/12
Michael Shean vs Mike Black 3-2 11/5, 9/11, 11/5, 8/11, 11/4
Daniel Thomson vs Gavin Sutherland 3-1 11/4, 11/4, 7/11, 11/9
Charl Fourie vs Mike Hegarty 3-0 11/4, 11/4, 17/15

SA Knights won 3-2.

First on court was Daniel who played some of the best squash he has played on the tour to win 3-1. Charl went on and played some good squash for two games before Aberdeen captain, Mike Hegarty, put up a real stern test in the 3rd before Charl closed out 17-15 to win the match. Michael went on next and did just enough to win the match and close out the fixture for the SA Knights. His opponent never gave up. Stefano then went on against “Farmer” who played in a slinky vest. The two big guys slugged away but the previous night may have hindered Garas’ performance and he wasn’t his accurate self. “Farmer” won in 4 sets before the speedy Chris Shinnie took on Kyle Maree and put a great deal of pressure and used his great movement to apply pressure on Kyle and win in 3 straight games.

We had a delicious meal of pasta but struggled to get beers down after the previous night's events.
We knew we'd be going out either way with Karen making the trip so down they went! Some Scottish banter was being thrown around, and our referee for the night was chucking oranges at a junior to keep him in check apparently! We headed out to a club and had a massive night with our South African supporter, Karen. Mike and Dan got utterly lost on the way home and had to get a cab but it was a fantastic night in the end all round!

Knights vs Edinburgh Sports Club

Knights vs Edinburgh Sports Club

7 Belford Place, Edinburgh

From Glasgow we were off to Edinburgh next, just over an hours drive. Coming into the city, we immediately noticed how beautiful it was. The older buildings were works of art and the newer parts of town were clean and chic. The club is very close to the centre of town and is nestled next to a fast flowing river, with tennis courts surrounded by trees and shrubbery. It had a historic feel and as we explored the club we came across an original fixed-wall doubles court, which is much longer and wider than a singles court and the only one I'd ever seen!

We walked to town as a team, in search of a good view of Edinburgh Castle up on the hill. A starbucks on the high street was exactly what we needed and we wasted no time in scrambling in and ordering coffee and hot chocolate all round. We set up our usual card game for a few rounds. Dan continued to forget the rules but somehow did not end up being the turd. Mike then took care of his duties while the rest of us ventured out to shop and Dan and Stef neatened up at the barbers. After a warm Subway we hurried back to the courts in the cold.

We met Simon Boughton and our opponents, with one Saffa, Jacques Laas, playing against us at number 3 and another in the crowd who spurred us on with a South African flag hanging over the rails!



The results from the evening:

9th Vs Edinburgh Sports Club (ESC)

Kyle Maree vs Simon Boughton 3-1 10/12, 11/9, 11/6, 11/8
Michael Shean vs Ross Michoul 3-2 12/10, 9/11, 8/11, 11/7, 11/7
Stefano Garas vs Jacques Laas 3-0 11/5, 11/9, 11/5
Charl Fourie vs Gareth Brown 3-0 11/0, 11/7, 11/9
Daniel Thomson vs Simon Gocolin 3-1 11/7, 11/4, 6/11, 11/6

SA Knights won 5-0.

We played a truly international side that day with Simon being English, Ross Scottish, Jacques South African, Gareth Irish and Simon who had recently moved from Sydney, Australia! We got away with a 5-0 win on courts where lobbing was not an option because of the incredibly low roof and overhead heater. That South African flag must have brought something out in us!

We then had a tasty lasagne with some drinks and Jacques, our host for the evening, said he'd accompany us out that night. We met him at a local bar but this was not 'IT' for us and we went onto the streets in search of a more festive club. After strolling around we found a place called 'WhyNot,' a suggestion from a Tinder match. The lady obviously knew what she was talking about because when we'd brushed everyone aside to get to the bar we found that drinks were costing £1 each! We whipped out fivers with smiles from ear to ear and had a fantastic night ending around 04h30 when we crashed at Jacques' house.. 

We had to get up relatively early (for us, that is...) because Jacques had to make it to team squash practice, after that night! Rather him than us we thought, and all made our way to the club. 3 of the guys went out in the car and came back with some miracle egg and bacon sandwiches and Costa coffees to bring us back to life. We watched two older gentleman having a game of tennis outside as we finally got to see a snowfall around them! Very brave of them!

To Simon, the team at Edinburgh Sports Club and our 2 South Africans, thank you for a special evening in your beautiful city that future Knights will be lucky to visit!

Knights vs Newlands Lawn Tennis Club

Knights vs Newlands Lawn Tennis Club

18 Mochrum Road, Glasgow

We headed into Scotland for the first time on Thursday the 8th en route to Newlands Club in Glasgow. The trip is about 2 hours and Mike and Dan were on the lookout for snow in the Scottish countryside. We watched the indicated temperature drop to 1.5 degrees and thought we'd see snow before it started to rise all the way to 6.5 degrees in Glasgow. The guys in the Peaugot had to turn back after about 20 minutes when Kyle realized that Stef and him had forgotten racquets that were being restrung at the club.

We found that Glasgow was a very industrial city, the courts were in a very nice area and we checked them out before heading to our accommodation for the night at the Eurohostel on the banks of the Clyde River. We booked an 8-man dorm room for the 5 of us and we met up at a Nando's of all places where we had to listen extremely carefully to the staff to get through their thick accents! A jumbo Costa mocha was the order of the day after Nando's before it was time for our match.

The results and a few pictures can be seen at Jason Broadberry's site: http://broadberrysports.co.uk/2015/01/09/results-of-west-select-team-v-south-african-knights/

The Knights won 3-2 with wins from Shean at 2, Maree at 3 and Fourie at 5 and losses from Garas at 1 and Thomson at 4.

Stef played Peter O'hara who hit the ball harder consistently than anyone any of us had seen. Stef thought someone must have made a bet with Pete to hit the way he did in the warm-up as a joke. The first game was one of Stef's easiest as Peter hit 10 tins, the next was Stef's hardest as 10 nicks were produced!! Michael sealed the deal in a great performance against Stuart George in 3 games after the fixture was up in the air at 2-2.

Feeling like we needed to celebrate our close victory and arrival in Scotland, we got Peter Halliday to take us out on the town. Mike decided to get some rest and stay in and Kyle and Charl opted for a casino adventure. Dan and Stef went out briefly with Peter only to find the night was in vain as there weren't many people out. 3 pint sized jaeger-bombs from Peter's bottle gave Stef the confidence to try his luck at the casino with Charl and Kyle. Within 30 minutes and one extremely fortunate 'perfect pairs' bet, Stef had doubled his money and went home. Kyle and Charl arrived an hour later having broken even...

Knights vs Carlisle Squash and Racketball Club

Knights vs Carlisle Squash and Racketball Club

Rugby Ground, Warwick Road, Carlisle, Cumbria

We awoke to a small comedy of errors but luckily was not too serious. Dan and Kyle thought they were getting up early at 10am for a breakfast only to be informed that breakfast had ended at 09h30. After going back to bed we all got a call from reception politely informing us that checkout was at 11h00, it was now 11h25. Again we'd strewn our partially dry washing from Durham on all surfaces and had to make tracks quickly before the hotel got too tired with us. We were on the road in little time with a short hour's trip north to Carlisle, which is just 6 miles south of the Scottish border. Driving on the narrow country roads requires full attention and really gets fun compared to the endless straights at the same speed on the motorways which makes it less of a task..

We popped into the courts so we knew where to come before heading to the local Premier Inn for lunch, a game of turd and some free time. We always treasure even just an hour or two's free time to sort through matters outside of the tour, which of course see little attention otherwise!

The guys at Windscale had told us the team at Carlisle would be a lot stronger than they were and that lots of people would turn out as the viewing gallery above the two match courts is absolutely massive. You would not like to do any stair challenges as the stands went up about 3 floors! We checked the knights record book which has full details of all previous knights tours dating back to 2000 and found that the club had indeed put out strong sides in the past. Their number one, Paul Bell, who coaches throughout Cumbria, had not lost to the Knights for the past 4 tours!

The crowd was truly massive, easily 150 people strong and our biggest yet on the tour. Once again, skipper Mike introduced us all and by now knew what to say to a crowd to get the point of what we are doing across and to get a couple laughs when introducing each one of us. Starting at number 5, Dan is always described as absolutely loving a 5 setter and getting as much court time as possible. We announce Charl as being 13 years old as his innocent baby-face often gets asked for ID at the clubs. Stef has gained a reputation for smashing the ball with his 'Hammer of Thor' squash racquet, as the team call it and the crowds love to see him winding up for a big 'klap.' Mike tells the crowd that Kyle is from the city of Johannesburg in South Africa and consequently that they must 'watch their stuff' when Kyle's around. Last but not least, Mike has to introduce himself. This almost deserves a story of its own, but when we were in Jersey we also had a huge crowd and an MC on the microphone who announced achievements of each of us before we went on court. This MC introduced the Jersey player and covered him with achievements, telling the crowd how Scott had been a finalist in the Jersey Open, had represented Jersey in the Commonwealth Games and everything else. He then moved onto Michael, who's list of achievements would take an age just to touch on, and said, ' MICHAEL SHEAN, HE'S FROM EAST LONDON, AND HE HAS 3 BROTHERS, GIVE IT UP FOR MICHAEL SHEAN!!! The team packed out laughing at the sound of this and its stuck as a good story for him.

The results were as follows:

Wed 7th Vs Carlisle Squash & Racketball Club

Michael Shean vs Paul Bell 3-1 11/9, 11/9, 8/11, 11/4
Kyle Maree vs Tony Hetherington 3-0 11/9, 12/10, 11/8
Stefano Garas vs James Worsick 3-0 11/6, 11/4, 11/5
Charl Fourie vs Dave Gray 3-1 11/5, 10/12, 11/9, 11/7
Daniel Thomson vs Ben Hetherington 3-2 11/7, 11/5, 10/12, 9/11, 11/7

SA Knights won 5-0

Another fantastic team performance saw us whitewash our opponents, Dan lived up to his 5 setter reputation and Michael ended Paul's winning streak against the Knights.

We enjoyed a curry and some hard earned beers in the clubhouse before returning to our hotel for the now usual games of turd. What a feeling to all be performing as a unit!

Thanks to Ronnie Bell, our opponents, and the massive crowd that came to watch us!

Knights vs Windscale Squash Club

Knights vs Windscale Squash Club

Falcon Complex, Egremont, Cumbria

We woke up in Andy's home following the Durham fixture and the guys were faced with the trade-off between more sleep and getting washing done, the latter being the important thing to get done! We'd been on the road for 10 days and washing was now reaching extreme urgency. We found that the drier had not dried the stuff we'd put in overnight and only operated on 2 hour cycles it seemed so we draped clothes, sweat towels and bandanas on every available surface but still ended up leaving with some partially wet kit.

The team piled into the 2 hatchbacks for a 3 hour trip from the east coast of Britain right across horizontally to the west coast to Windscale Squash Club in Egremont, Cumbria. Long, narrow and windy country lanes meant the going was never too fast and you'd often find yourself stuck behind a truck for miles before an overtaking opportunity arose, especially when lots of space was needed in a 1.2 litre overladen Corsa!

We were being put up in a beautiful and historic hotel called the Ennerdale in exchange for an hour or so's time spent coaching some local youngsters at the club. The kids were all extremely keen and responsive with our drills and match play and it was a fun experience all round. By the end of the coaching a large crowd of about 80 people had gathered in the gallery of the match court. Michael introduced us all and we then had some photos with the children and handed each of them a signed Knights brochure with an encouraging message on each. A fantastic atmosphere had been created by everyone at the club and it was time for the us to get on with matches and give the crowd something to cheer about.


The matches went as follows:

6th of Jan Vs Windscale Squash
Stefano Garas vs Daniel Harrison 3/0 
Michael Shean vs Michael Metherington 3/0 
Kyle Maree vs Chris Musson 3/0 
Charl Fourie vs Jackson Holiday 3/0 
Daniel Thomson vs Brandon Groggins 3/0
SA Knights won 5-0.

As a team we put on a superb effort without giving away a single game. We were very proud because Windscale brought out some very talented players and we'd had to play very hard to get the result we did. A lot of the guys were very young still and we reckon in a few years time the same team could be a very formidable force for future knights sides. 

We went across to the bar area for a delicious supper. A few of the spectators came to wish us well for the rest of the tour and said they'd enjoyed the night which is always lovely to hear. Afterwards, we headed back to the comfort of a wonderful hotel and had some extremely close games of turd, unfortunately Charl had to be the turd of the last game, when almost everyone had been in the games before. Phew!

Knights vs Queen's Sports Club

Knights vs Queens Sports Club

Halifax

After the unexpected rest day in Chorley, we travelled north east to Halifax, about an hours drive through some scenic countryside. Mike had to abandon his usual travel buddy Dan, who was sick as a dog , and drove with the other 3 in the Peaugot. We got to the Premier Inn where we would be staying for the night and rested up before heading to Queens Club.

David Hymas showed us the club and we got down to the matches which went as follows:

4th January Vs Queens Sports Club
Stefano Garas Vs Sarah Kippax 3/0
Kyle Maree Vs Amanda Murphy 3/0
Michael Shean Vs Tom Whiteley 3/0
Daniel Thomson Vs Danny Bray 1/3
Charl Fourie Vs Lewis Scott 3/0

SA Knights won 4-1.

Queens had fielded WSA no.20 Sarah Kippax to play at 1 and Stef managed to win in 3, although the 3rd set ended well into the teens and we thought Sarah had figured out a good strategy against him. Amanda Murphy, who is ranked at 44 in the world, had some brilliant shots against Kyle Maree too but it was good to get one over the talented New Zealander! Mike and Charl closed out well in 3 and Dan went down in 4 to a gritty junior.

After the fixture we had a traditional English meal of pie, wedges and mushy green peas and South Africa's world renown and publicly aired murder trial involving Oscar Pistorius was the topic of conversation for the evening. We chatted late into the night with Sarah and Amanda before heading back to the Premier Inn.

Knights vs Durham Select

Knights vs Durham Select at Norton Hall Squash Club

After a more tame night in Halifax where we got some much needed sleep, we awoke at the Premier Inn and left by checkout time of 12h00. We needed to get to Durham, which is about a 2 hour drive along the A1, pretty much travelling directly north. Dan was is one of his last days of quarantine in the Vauxhall and the rest of the team drove together. We got to the courts in the afternoon and met Dave Geldert who had put the evening together, before setting out for a shopping mall to look around before our fixture.

We found a Starbucks where we could relax and play a card game endearingly known as 'Turd' or the more straightforward South African equivalent 'S**T-HEAD.' All you need is a set of playing cards and a decent playing surface. The loser is the 'turd' and has to perform all the tasks the rest of us would rather not do, for example, paying bills, carrying bags, making hot drinks etc. You don't want to be losing the game... After the others had learnt the game at the premier inn in Halifax, Dan played for the first time in Starbucks and evaded losing whilst Kyle took on the responsibilities for the evening.

We headed back to the courts to find a large crowd gathering to watch our matches across two courts. This was the Knights 1st fixture in Durham and we were keen to put on a show. The crowd had paid some money to watch us play and this was kindly donated to us after the match! Michael introduced the Knights and the team individually before we set off to play. The results were as follows:

Kyle Maree vs Daniel Hockborn 1-3
Stefano Garas vs Gareth Lumsoen 3-2
Michael Shean vs Josh Harris 3-0 

Charl Fourie vs Chris Gillespie 1-3
Daniel Thomson vs Paul Davies 0-3

SA Knights lost 3-2.

Dan struggled in his sickly state against a hard-hitting and fast paced player. Charl got close to extending his match to 5 but it was not to be. Mike's opponent had to forfeit after the first 2 games with sore shins. Stef dug deep for the team to win his match in the 5th and keep the fixture alive before
Kyle took to the court against a slightly unconventional player the team compared to Migs Lombard from UCT and northerns. The no.1 gave nothing away and took the close match in 4, meaning a loss for the Knights. The matches had been great to watch and the crowd was fantastic with applauding both teams for good squash and getting behind their own players when needed.

We had a wealth of pizzas to choose from for supper along with beers or our new favourite recovery drink, J2O. The players, Dave and our hosts stayed on to share the meal and some stories with us. Kyle and Stef decided to put on a mediocre-at-best 501 darts contest following the World Darts Championship that we'd all been watching that week. Needless to say, the rematch was a 301 contest as we might never had left had it been 501! Mike played right handed against a righty that played left, before it too was clear that a switch was needed to speed things up. Mike gave a warm-hearted thank you speech and Dave said some words too. He also gave us each a Norton Hall T-shirt, we weren't sure whether or not he was being serious or not when he said he had heard that we needed some fresh playing kit. We were on our last legs on the clothing front and luckily enough our host, Andy, let us do as much washing as we could possibly fit in overnight and the next morning. At Andy's, we played a bit of Turd before going to bed...

Even though we lost, we all agreed that the Durham fixture was one of the best and definitely a club the Knight's would love to visit again in the years to come!

Knights vs David Lloyd Chorley

Knights vs David Lloyd Chorley

Moss Lane, Whittle-le-Woods, Chorley, Lancashire

On Friday the 2nd of January we drove from Conwy in North Wales to David Lloyd in Chorley, near Manchester. We were immediately impressed by the professional feel of the club, where Laura Massaro (currently 3rd in the world with a highest wsa ranking of 2 and many world titles) bases herself along with her husband, Daniel Massaro, and her brother who is the head coach, Chris Lengthorn.. There are indoor tennis courts which the guys had a go on, 3 glass-back squash courts, spa and pool facilities and a restaurant serving some much needed health foods. We were generously allowed the use of all the club's facilities before and after our fixture.

The team we faced was Daniel Massaro at 1, Chris Lengthorn at 2, Laura Massaro at 3, Julian Tomlinson at 4 and Dan Turner at 5. All of these players train at David Lloyd but 2 of them play for different clubs to get to play higher up in the leagues. Dan and Charl both lost in 3 and we realized we were up against it. Michael played Laura in a very closely contested 5 setter where he came out on top in the 5th. Kyle played a very clinical player in Chris, making Kyle move all over the court. The match went to 5 but Kyle went down and the fixture was unfortunately lost. Stef went on against Dan Massaro, a grafter who moved Stef relentlessly around the court and did not make many mistakes. Stef lost in 3 and we received our worst loss of the tour 4-1. We took a lot away from it however, and noticed how well their players were able to absorb pressure and pace and then dish it out when they were on the front foot again.

We had a lovely healthy dinner and a good chat with the team. Chris told us that their team had a financial benefactor who agreed to sponsor them for a season for anything they needed, as long as they won the league. Apparently they were well clear of 2nd place on the log and the plan was working well. It's amazing what can be achieved with some financial backing and incentives!

We were hosted at the 'squash house' co-owned by Laura and Chris. Julian and another top player from the club, Ashley Davies, lived there permanently and we stayed with them. Julian taught Kyle how to string racquets using the machine and Kyle strung his prince and Dan's Harrow. Charl had a room to himself, Mike and Dan roomed together and Stef and Kyle took to the makeshift beds of pillows in the lounge. Dan was so sick after the knock on effects of the past few days that Mike thought it would be a better idea to move downstairs to the lounge to avoid catching the same flu. After all those nights out, it was both a relief and a disappointment to hear the following day that our match at the famous Pontefract club was not going to happen. We don't know exactly why it didn't happen and we never heard back from Mr Malcolm Willstrop afterwards. The courts at Pontefract had not been booked, we were told by the club's front desk, and Malcolm was unreachable.

Dan was sick in bed for the whole day after the Chorley fixture after we were able to spend another night at the squash house thankfully. We could use the club to freshen up and eat the next day too. The world darts championship was on tv's and in the news and we all began to follow the tournament in the quarter and semi final stages. The guys became experts with the scoring and tactics of the interesting sport!

We had a lot to learn from and take away from the Chorley fixture. Winning matches with clever play, little risk and good pressure management seemed to be what this strong outfit of a team did best and we could all try to emulate this in our games going forward.

Thanks to Chris, Laura, Dan, Julian and Ashley for the match and hospitality, especially the next day when the Knights had nowhere to go!

Knights vs Le Sport Health and Fitness

Colwyn Avenue

Rhos-on-sea, Conwy

The team awoke in the Sumner's home and Lisa Sumner brought us back to Fort Stamford for breakfast where we met back up with Kyle and Charl who had stayed at Duncan's house. We used the gym's spa facilities to freshen up once again before our longest trip on the road so far, from Plymouth to Conwy in North Wales on New Years Eve.

Mike and Dan missed a turn on the gps which actually shortened the length of their trip substantially, as they were on the motorway for longer. They got to Whitehall BnB and checked the team in. The next task was to find a nice place to eat and find somewhere festive for the countdown to 2015. We all met up at an American style restaurant called Hickories for some delicious burgers and ribs and were told that the restaurant was probably our best bet for a new years party as no one knew of anywhere else and the place was supposed to fill up closer to midnight... We took the staff's word for it but headed back to the BnB for an exclusive team fines meeting. The fines came thick and fast for us and Dan and Kyle soon had to down 3 man cans each out of the cans which would prove to make both of them sick in the days to come, after 3 consecutive rough nights out. By now there is no shortage of fines to be handed out...

Once we got back to the restaurant, we had 10 minutes until midnight and just enough time to get a round to say cheers to 2014 and howzit to 2015! We made mates with a bunch of the staff, and everyone not working there on the night did actually work there anyways as we found when we started chatting... It wasn't a huge night but it was spent with great people, which made it a memorable one.

We headed home at about 3 am,  to finish off our last case of beer with some of the friends we had made at Hickories. Duane and Schalla had a physical encounter outside Whitehall and Schalla did well not to put his squash bag through the massive bedroom window when Bakkies joined in.

We got up very reluctantly to go and play our 11am fixture the day after new years. Let it be known that we had no say in our schedule and think the organizers must have had a good chuckle scheduling our earliest match yet on January 1st! Either way the playing fields would probably be level with whoever we play against also going through the same thing...

We met Rob Ford outside a chilly and rainy Le Sport club. Evidently our opponents had had a big night too and we were told that our start time would be delayed slightly. One player was fresh however and that was Emily Whitlock, who was playing number one against the very unfortunate Charl who had drawn the short straw in playing up the order that day. While the guys took what supplements and energy boosters they could, Charl battled to save face against a world top 30 player. The lengthy match eventually came down to the 5th, where Charl found himself match ball to 9 down and staring a loss in the face as Emily controlled proceedings without a flinch.. After a tough rally where Charl did most of the work, Emily played a shot which had Charl scrambling from the front of the court to the back. Facing the back wall, he hit a backhand frame that miraculously landed in the front backhand nick and could not have been hit better if he tried!!! That drew the score to 10-10 and more importantly had Emily in a seriously pissed off mood. Charl took the next 2 points and the match, and was definitely the most relieved man in Wales that day....

The rest of the matches were played against guys who seemed to be suffering from the previous nights effects more than we were and all of us were able to win without too many hassles. We were relieved and surprised to walk away with a 5-0 victory!

Rob and the team took us to a local pub for a non alcoholic (bless them) drink and some snacks. We then went to Robs house and relaxed a bit before our hosts arrived to take us to where we would be staying that night. Mike and Kyle stayed on at Robs home, Charl went off on his own and Dan and Stef went to local member, David. The latter were very pleased to hear that David was having a big new years family supper so the guys would not go hungry!

The Knights all seemed to get the much needed rest they required and the next day we headed off to Chorley near Manchester to face our toughest opponents yet...

Knights vs Plymouth

After our night out in Torquay, we gathered at the courts for a bacon and egg roll for breakfast and some much needed coffee. Then we were off to Plymouth for our next fixture. The drive was quick and we soon arrived at Fort Stamford Health and Fitness Club. We milled around a bit at the club before the club owner and organiser for the evening, Royston Sumner, introduced himself and gave us free access to use of the facilities. We didn't hold back and took the time before the matches to use the sauna, steam room,  pool and showers to detox and freshen up.

It was then time to play and Dan and Kyle went on court at number 5 and 3. Both came away with convincing wins. Stef and Charl both won too at 2 and 4. Mike played a tough customer in Jon Gliddon at number one and managed to keep his head and win 3-1. We recorded another 5-0 victory!

Afterwards we had a big portion of chilli and some beers. A few of Josh and Mel Sumner's  (Royston's children) had arrived at the bar and we decided to take their strongest selection of drinkers on in a strawpedo boat race, our speciality by now.. It was a close shave as Mel surprised us all by finishing quicker than most of her team mates but we won and continued our unbeaten strawpedo streak..

Mel then whipped out a vast range of drinking games and it was clear she must have been fresh out of her first year of university, which explained her incredible downing ability. We raced horses with cards, along with our usual golden rules which that night continued to be a problem for Mike as he soon showed signs that Schalla was raring to come out again.. We attempted a round of tink but this seemed too complicated at the late hour and we went out after Mel poured a round of some party tequila..

We hit  a student bar with very few students, who must have been gathering their strength 2 days before new years.. Mixed rum was on special so we all indulged. Kyle found himself graciously giving  a birthday kiss to a girl and Dan tried the Kamikaze drink concoction of 4 shooters with mix. We then went to a club around the corner where all the Sumner's and Kyle got up on stage and Kyles hookup may have got a bit more than she bargained for when she asked for a birthday drink. An image of a topless Kyle and whipped cream will unfortunately always be burnt into our heads...

Knights vs Torquay

Knights vs Torquay

After a solid 4-1 win against Devon & Exeter we did the 40 minute drive down to Torquay on the coastline. We got to town early and had some time to stroll around, eventually settling for lunch at Lounge Cafe, just opposite the beachfront. The sun was out so we sat outside for a bit, as it was still barely 5 degrees! After a burger and smoothie it was time to head to the courts and get down to business..

All matches were to be played on the glass - back match court, and the heaters were doing overtime trying to warm up the place! The team we were facing was, in playing order, Matt Marshall, Dave Palmer, Ben Sutton, Steve Lewis and Jack Barnes. We had a good audience watching on as Dave introduced the Knights and then Charl and Steve were given some interesting introductions from Mike and Dave. The number 4's played well and Charl's touch was on top form. The match went down to 5 but our player saw us through to a 1 nil lead. Next up was Stef "the gazelle" Garas against "the real Dave Palmer." Stef played to perfection, hitting the right shot at the right time constantly and got a great 3-0 win which does not come easily from a player of Dave's calibre. Kyle went up 3-0 against a tricky Ben Sutton and we had the fixture in the bag. Dan played a solid Jack Barnes and went 2-1 up before living up to his introduction of Dan "loves a 5 setter" Thomson. He won in the 5th after a good grind. Mike was up against Matt Marshall, who he had lost to two years ago in a league match in Cape Town. It's always great to see two lefties go at each other, especially Mike and Matt with their great hands. After being down in the 1st, Mike pulled the scores even and won the game. In the second, Matt strained a hammie and severely limited his movement. With his shot playing ability, it was still important for Mike to focus and get the job done, which he did in 3 sets. The Knights got their 3rd 5-0 clean sweep victory!

Mike thanked the crowd as he came off and we hit the showers before a lovely supper in the club. We got to know some of the members in the bar and Dave started coming up with a few acrobatic Torquay squash club bar games to get things festive... In the first game, a challenger is given 2 empty beer bottles and is standing on the edge of the fireplace. Then, without letting his toes touch the ground off the fireplace, he must reach out with a bottle in each hand as far as possible without letting his hands touch the carpet. He must place one of the bottles as far as possible while balancing on the other bottle and once placed, must return to the starting position with the remaining bottle and no hands or feet touching the carpet. It's definitely a game suited for taller players with reach so Dan and a Torquay member ended up placing the bottles furthest. The other game is sure to cause some stiffness the next day. A player must balance his head on one bar stool and feet up on a other facing upwards. He must then pass a third stool around his body and underneath while balancing for as many passes as he can. Charl took out the Torquay record with 13.

We then headed from the  courts to a nightclub in town, but everyone seemed to be saving themselves for new years eve on Wednesday and the town night life was quiet. After that some of the guys fared better than others at a local casino and Dave Palmers 10 times return on his original bet meant the drinks for the night weren't too expensive!

A big thanks to Torquay for a great evening of squash with a fantastic  vibe!