Honours by year

Simon Free maintained his grip on the gxsquash Handicap Tournament titles by taking his third in succession against his fellow league 1 opponent, Ian Swallow on Sunday 5th October. The crowd was treated to a second enthralling final of the night which also ended on the dream scoreline of 100 - 99 as Simon retained his Summer Handicap title sandwiching the Winter title he won in February.

Starting level on 75 points each, the pair went almost point for point but with Simon edging ahead slightly until they reached the early 90s. At that point, Ian caught up and looked like taking the spoils before hitting into the tin on 99 - 99.

It was a fantastic conclusion to the tournament and to have two 100 - 99 finals went some way towards alleviating the disappointment of such a lowly turnout.

The Ken Hewison Winter Handicap Tournament reached an epic conclusion on Sunday 2 March with a terrific final between Simon Free and Mike Burnett. Simon took the honours finishing on 100 points to Michael’s 97 from a starting scoreline of 75 – 50 but was pushed every inch of the way in a match that ebbed and flowed. You might imagine that trying to overcome a 2:1 handicap is a somewhat daunting prospect when your opponent has topped the leagues for the last 4 months but for most of the match it seemed that Mike would do just that as he gnawed away at the deficit. Simon was able to take the odd few points here and there though and always managed to keep in the game and a late flurry of points as Mike was threatening to achieve parity saw him through.

Simon currently holds the Summer Handicap title also, the only other members to achieve this Handicap Grand Slam being Roger Francis and Mike Burnett who has done so twice in 1994-5 and in 2009.

The beaten finalist in last year’s Summer Handicap Tournament, Chris Hockin won the 2014 Plate competition by beating newcomer Fredrik Wolff in a thrilling final that ebbed and flowed before reaching a highly satisfying 100 - 99 conclusion. He adds the Plate trophy to a long list of honours at the club especially, though not exclusively, in the Handicap Tournaments.

Starting from an opening scoreline of 65 - 75, the league 1 regular, Chris took the first 8 points of what initially looked like being a quick affair. With his handicap having almost evaporated, Fredrik found his feet and started to fight back managing to claw back a few points here as the exchanges grew in length. A brief run of rallies in Fredrik’s favour saw him leading 93 - 86 and at that point, it looked as if the momentum had switched as Chris swapped rackets at the final break. Chris is not one to give up, though and a good run for him saw the scores level on 95 each. From that position, they went point for point before Chris sealed the match on that magical 100 - 99 scoreline.

View Chris Hockin's Honours list

Ian Swallow took the honours in the Plate competition of the Ken Hewison Winter Handicap Tournament on Sunday 2 March by beating Dick Foskett in the final. Starting from a score of 60 – 80, Ian took the match 100 – 95. Dick made a good start winning several of the opening salvos but once Ian got into his stride, he slowly reeled in the handicap. Dick scored a few points here and there but was never able to mount a sustained attack. Ian drew level in the early 90s and went on to take the trophy with 5 points to spare.