Thurso Club Championships - Season 2004-2005 - 05&06/02/05

Sixteen Men and Two Women congregated in the piping hot caldron of Thurso Squash Club, to pit their wit, strength and fitness against each other, to lift the TSC Championships trophies.

Unfortunately, only two women - namely, Carole Cameron and Carole Mowat entered the Ladies event, leaving them both as definite prize winners no matter what the outcome. Although, Carole M is gradually getting closer to taking Carole C's crown of being number one Ladies player in the county, there is still that extra bit of bite and experience within the slightly older states-women and, with the fact that she has won 22 ladies' titles, she isn't keen to let her treasured trophy go.

On the day, Carole M looked like a couple of earlier round games would've allowed her to grasp her touch and 'open herself out', as her usual finishing just wasn't there, this time around. With this in mind, Carole C - floated shots into the corners on numerous occasions, leaving her opponent scrambling to hold her own, and finished the contest earlier than anticipated.

The Men's contest proved to be slightly tighter and provided some excellent games on the run up to the final.

Two fairly new members to the club - namely, Gareth Edwards, Wales and Ian Adamson, Dingwall both had to play against the expected finalists, James Henderson and Les Mackay and they were determined to wreck the chances of this happening. Gareth had already managed to beat one of the seeds, Davie Swanson, in a tight match, and the Welsh Dragon was ready to blow away the number one seed. This was not to be as James staked his claim early doors and never allowed the Welshman in, throughout the encounter.

In the other half of the draw, Les and Ian were well matched and the watching crowd were not sure who to put their money on. Ian, may still be trying to acclimatise to the various styles of play in the Caithness squash scene and this showed during the tie. A cool, Les performance left himself in no doubt who the winner was going to be and he cruised into the final against the number one seed.

In the final, James refused to give Les an inch of room to apply his killing nick shots and upped the pace right from the start pushing his opponent from corner to corner and front to back. This was trademark, Henderson play and something that doesn't look like changing for a few years, yet. James, lifted the title with a few points to spare in the third game and his opponent shook his hand wondering what he has to do to grab a title.

The men's plate was won by Alistair Miller who beat Malcolm Lord 3-0 in a closer game than the scoreline suggests.

Photos

Front L to R:-Carole Mowat-|-Carole Cameron-|-James Henderson-|-Les & Sam Mackay- Back L to R:- Alistair Miller-|-Malcolm Lord-

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