UKAEA Handicap - Season 2007-2008 - 06-07/10/07

Winner - Sean Miller

Thurso Squash Club's 2007-2008 season started with the UKAEA Handicap and brought together players of varying standards, styles and ages for this one day event.

After a tough day of battling and tiring squash throughout the rounds, the final produced two fairly even players.

Young, Sean Miller (-32) is rapidly progressing in this sport, is a definite player for the future and has a style of play that players find difficult to break down and the person to try and stop him lifting the trophy, was a regular nemesis of his within the leagues, Brian Farmer (-25).

The first set was a quickfire, short, sharp rally affair with both players trying to find their feet and there was a certain amount of impromptu and nervous shot choices, unseen from these two players in previous rounds.  Sean stepped up the play and pulled back his seven points difference to just capture the first set leaving Brian with a lot of work to salvage the silverware.

As ever, Brian rose to the challenge, found his trademark high pitched lob that dies in the corner, started producing effortless killing shots that the crowd are more accustomed to him playing and within no time his wily young opponent was left searching  for answers, as he grasped the second set and pushed the tie to its limit.

Sean proved to just have the edge in the final set, accumulated a bunch of quickfire points and managed to kill the match off in the final few points with a sweet drive into the corner, leaving Brian wondering what he had to do to trap the youngster.

A plate competition was also available for players who were unfortunate to go out in the first round.

Last years losing plate finalist, Alan Williamson (0 - scratch) decided to have another go at taking this trophy but Colin Paterson (-46), although having a large amount of points to pull back, was also keen on winning the prize.

Colin managed to win the first, was the 'bookies' favourite to steal the second and walk away with the trophy but Alan had other ideas and, as cool as a cucumber, knocked a tight shot for a winner to win the set 15-14, much to Colin's dismay as he had another mountain to climb.

After a quick wipe down, Colin returned to court and produced the sufficient amount of points to deny Alan of winning this trophy for the second year in-a-row.

The club would also like to thank Carol Paterson, Stevie Spargo and Sean Bremner for their excellent spread of nibbles on the day, which was much appreciated.

Photo

L to R Back:- Colin Paterson, Brian Farmer, Sean Miller and Alan Williamson

Brian and Sean	Colin and Alan

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