Hinckley Squash Club’s 1st team won their recent Division 1 home match against Loughborough Students by 4 ties to 1 and in so doing went into an unassailable lead that meant they would were bound to win the 2018-19 Leicestershire Squash Leagues Championship. As well as being the team’s 50th consecutive match win, this was the Hinckley Squash Club’s 8th consecutive league win - in itself both a league and club record.
On the night the successful Hinckley team comprised Owain Taylor, Lewis Walters, Guy Pearson (Hinckley’s Club Coach), Luke Parker and Richard Jackson (Team Captain). Although these five have been mainstay of the team during the long season, which began last October, they have been ably supported, as and when necessary, by the following club players: Ollie Holland, Gary Sykes, Andy Beel, Heath Jennings, Paul O’Hara, Mark Fuller, Dave Wood and Tim Cox.
Since the time of writing, the 1st team have won their remaining two season fixtures – a 5-0 away win at Cleaver and then another 5-0 win over Leicester Squash 2. Ending the season with 307 points is an outstanding return, nearly 60 points clear of the second place Leicester Squash 1 team that finished with 249 points. Northamptonshire Squash came in third with 191 points.
This remarkable run of wins by the town club began in the 2011-2012 season, when they were based in their former clubhouse on Brunel Road. During the construction of the Crescent it was necessary to demolish their Brunel Road building and the team were kindly offered the opportunity to play their second-half home games during the 2015-16 season at the Leicester Road Squash Club.
With the opening of their new Squash Club on Maple Drive in the Autumn of 2016 the 1st team were back on home soil and continued to dominate the 1st Division of the Leicestershire Leagues.
The club currently has a total of seven teams in the leagues. Our 2nd team (captain: Heath Jennings) and 3rd team (captain: Andy Perridge) both finished strongly in Division 2 with a third and sixth placed finish respectively. Our 4th team (captain: Andy Harvey) battled away all season in Division 3 to a credible fourth place finish, and the 5th team (captain: Simon Eves) and 6th team (captain: Rory Long) competing strongly in Division 4 finishing in third and sixth position.
The 7th team (captain: Paul Goodwin) offers a chance for newer players and promising juniors to experience their first forays in team squash has done remarkably well in its first year of competitive squash finishing 9th out of 11 teams.
With strong performances from top to bottom, the future is looking bright for squash in Hinckley and the club is working hard to bring on lots of junior players for the future and - it is hoped - a ladies team too!