ON Saturday, Abergavenny Squash Club hosted Wellington Squash Club from Somerset in the first of a potential series of friendly matches featuring teams from across the UK.

First up for Abergavenny was ‘C’ team captain, Mike Logan, who managed to defeat a wiley opponent in Chris Short, who pushed him all the way to the finish. However, Logan just proved to be too strong.

The second match featured Abergavenny’s Welsh international, Peter Steed, who was playing a much younger opponent (to be fair, they are all much younger than Peter), Simon Buttars. The first set was as close as it possibly could be, with Steed squeezing it 17-16. Thereafter, Steed bamboozled Buttars to the point where the latter did not know what Steed was going to do next.

The key game of the match was played between Mark Nicholl and Gary Hartop, who, although an Abergavenny player, was turning out for his former side. This was a compelling tie between two very evenly-matched players, and, for a time, it was hard to pick a winner. Nicholl won the first two sets, with Hartop coming back to win the third, but the effort he put in enabled Nicholl to pull away and win the fourth set comfortably.

With the match effectively won, it was left to Abergavenny’s player of the month (according to the South Wales League!), Dean Jackson-Johns and Chronicle squash correspondent Peter Sturgess, to continue the good work, but sadly it was not to be, with both being well beaten by younger and fitter opponents in Dan Keywood and Peter Shaw, who thoroughly deserved their victories.

So Abergavenny ran out 3-2 victors, and look forward to the return leg in Wellington in May. There is still work to do for this Abergavenny side if they are to pick up the prestigious Aberwelly Cup that will be presented at the end of this gripping contest.