End of Winter Season Report

The Henley teams – who are sponsored by Invesco Perpetual – finished the winter season in a strong position in both Division 1 and Division 2 of the Oxfordshire League .

Player-of-the-season was awarded to Stefan Stanton, a regular member of the 1sts, James Knight of the 2nds, Chris Pullen of the 3rds and Paul Ireland of the 4ths, with Jonathan Betts being the most improved player.

In addition, two of the team members were recently selected to play for England at their respective levels: Simon Street at the O’40s level, and Jill Campion at the O’45s level.

Henley will be fielding 4 teams in the Oxfordshire Summer League and are expeceted to do well in each of the Divisions in which they are represented, Div 1, Div 2, Div 4 and Div 6.

Final Week Match Reports:

In the last week of the season Henley struggled to field a first team, with many of their players away for Easter. Knowing that they would finish fourth regardless of the result, Henley played the fixture with just three players, conceding walk overs at fourth and fifth string. This resulted in a 4/1 (18/4) loss to Oxford Brookes, a team Henley would normally expect to beat easily.

At first string, Luke Power played a physical game against Nelson Fung, keeping a tight and fast pace to limit Fung’s chances. Power took the lead in the first game but failed to take his chances, eventually losing on the tie break. The next two games were also closely contested, but Power narrowly lost ecah game, resulting in a 3/0 loss.

At two, Damon Chase lost 3/1 to Jason Varrie in a long match where both players were determined to win. Despite taking the first game, Chase’s errors cost him in the end as Varrie proved too consistent.

At third string Stefan Stanton Stef started slowly against Hao-Sum Yuan after a long journey and lost the first game. However, Stanton used his experience to slow the game down, playing tight squash, and won the next three games to win 3/1.

Whilst a disappointing end, Henley will be pleased to finish fourth with the newly crowned champions Thame having strengthened considerably and Wallingford and Abingdon still being as strong as ever.

Henley 2nds entertained Wantage and beat them 17 points to 10 points.

At 1st string Paul Sayers matched Rob Camden for the first four games with Sayers easily taking the first and then succumbing to Camden’s tight game in the second and third. Sayers came back strongly in the fourth keeping the ball deep and not allowing Camden any leeway. However, Camden changed his game in the fifth and despite Sayers taking the ball early he could not maintain the pressure succumbing 9/4, 3/9, 8/10, 9/2, 0/9.

James Knight managed to irritate Ed Westmacott with his retrieving game in a match that extended until 10.30pm. It always seemed that Westmacott had to hit three “winners” in a row in order to even get back the serve. Knight continued to chase the ball and keep Westmacott under pressure, who eventually gave up in the last few points as he was so tired of the ball continuing to come back at him with Knight winning 9/7, 1/9, 9/1, 9/4.

Derek Oswald found his form against Chris Latham and despite losing a tight first game, was too skillful winning 8/9, 10/8, 9/5, 9/7.

Nigel Richardson played his normal running game against Chris Ayres but in tight situations played the wrong shot and after having the match at his mercy at 6/1 in the final game, succumbed 8/10, 9/4, 8/10, 10/8, 8/10.

Roger Booker started well against Tim Strain but then proceeded to lose the next two games. After some timely advice from the balcony he changed his game and started reverse boasting that left his opponent stranded at the back of the court with Booker eventually winning quite easily with a straight forehand drive that his opponent had no chance of returning.

Henley 2nds after a torrid mid season hiccough finished quite strongly well above the relegation zone in Division 2.

In Division 5, Henley 3rd team safely avoided demotion. In the last fixture of the season, they overcame University Club with Terry Whiter showing a welcome return to form, beating his opponent 3-0 and victories for Jill Campion and Tim Budden. The challenge for the 3rds next Winter is to close the gap on Henley’s two top teams and get promotion to Division 4.

In Division 8, Henley 4ths avoided the wooden spoon in the Oxfordshire League with a convincing victory over bottom team Abingdon. Paul Ireland, James Gildersleve and Jonathan Betts all had 3-0 victories over their opponents and Matt Blagg turned in his usual nail-biter to win 3-2. Overall the Winter season provided a few excellent results for the 4ths, but too often they were forced to field weakened line-ups, as players were called up for duty in the teams above. The highlight was seeing promising juniors like Jonathan Betts, Freddie Borg and Rebecca Dixon coming through.

The final Oxfordshire League Tables for the Winter2 Season can be seen here.