The Heriot-Watt Men’s Squash Team produced an impressive team performance on Wednesday to seal a 4-1 victory over Warwick University.
After finishing 2nd in the Northern Universities playoffs in Newcastle a couple of weeks ago, it meant that Heriot-Watt’s next step would be to take on Warwick University who finished 3rd in the Southern division. The reward for winning this fixture would be a guaranteed place in the Top 4 playoffs next year so both teams went in knowing there was all to play for.
BUCS Premier National Division Squash 23/11/22 – Heriot-Watt vs Warwick
Our Heriot-Watt team were missing some key players this week due to injury, but the remaining guys were feeling confident on home soil that they still had what it takes.
Our first 2 players on were our no.5 Anoopp Nithiyanandam and no. 3 James Taylor. Both players had nervous starts and lost the first game to their Warwick opponents. However, they both bounced back and took the second game to even the scores. From there on in Anoopp never looked back, growing in confidence game by game and taking a nice 3-1 win. Meanwhile over on court 1, James was embroiled in an enthralling encounter, both players going game for game until the match was tied at 2-2. James dug deep in the 5th game and edged home 3-2 – he is quickly becoming our 5 game specialist!
We were now leading 2-0 in matches, only needing to win one of the next 3 to seal the victory for the HW team!
Next up was our no.4 Albeer Mehmood and our no.1 Alasdair Prott. Albeer has an amazing skill set, but came up against a player from Warwick that could almost match his magic, which made for an exciting match to watch! Albeer was fighting hard for his team but ended up losing a close 3-2 battle. Over on court 1, Alasdair was ruthless and never gave his Warwick opponent a look into the match, cruising home 3-0.
Last up was Martin Ross, our no.2 string. Having already won 3 of the 4 matches played, Heriot-Watt had already secured the win and Martin could have been forgiven for taking his foot off the gas as his match was a dead rubber. However, inspired by his teammates wins, he looked as determined as ever to chalk up a win for the Watt Warriors. He played a tough opponent but fought hard and came out on top in an impressive performance 3-1.
Heriot-Watt ended the day victorious 4-1 against the visitors from Warwick and you could hardly wipe the smiles off their faces. It was great to see our most consistent trainers Martin, James and Anoopp and get the wins after all the hard work they have been putting in day-in and day-out.
Heriot-Watt will now go into a play off as one of the Top 4 teams in the UK to see who will become the National BUCS Champions at Warwick on the weekend of the 4th/5th February. Keep your eyes peeled for more info on how to watch the team’s matches live as the date approaches.
Match Report by Donna Lobban (Head Coach)