Mixed fortunes for Scarborough Racquetball against Stillington and leaders Beverley

With Stillington at home first up the team were ready to follow on from their recent victory at Wigginton.

Mark Squires, at three, had a very comfortable 3-0 win whilst Ollie Hillier, at two, came up against a tough opponent in John Henderson. Though Hillier put up a good fight he was beaten 3-0.

John Fuller was up next at one against his squash arch-rival Mark Dransfield.

The game was a cracker lasting 1 hour 5 minutes and it went all the way.

Mark took the first 13-11 and the 2nd 12-10.

With a mountain to climb Fuller dug in and extended the length of the rallies testing the fitness of his opponent.

Fuller took the third 11-6, the fourth 11-6 and the fifth 11-6 to gain a tiring victory.

With the match score at 9-5 this put Scarborough at the top of the league.

Things were to change for Scarborough at title favourites Beverley.

Scarborough fielded the same three players and at three it was Mark Squires’ turn to have a tough one.

From one game up Squires fell to 2-1 down then levelled 2-2.

The fifth could have gone either way but a couple of unforced errors edged the game the way of Squires’ opponent but it was a great effort.

Ollie Hillier stepped on court at two and against another tough, hard-hitting opponent fell to a 3-0 defeat.

At one, John Fuller came up against Paul Mankel and again it went to five games.

Fuller went 1-0 up with a great start but lost the second with some unusual errors.

Fuller went 2-1 up and seemed to have it in the bag but his opponent came back with a different game plan and entered into the rallies.

A few poor drop shots from Fuller saw his opponent take the fourth and fifth game to fall to a 3-2 defeat.

Both evenings saw a great level of racquetball and the team is certainly improving.

With their next match postponed the team sit second in the table just a point behind leaders Beverley.