DEPLETED MAGHERAFELT STRUGGLE MANFULLY

Magherafelt had to face Lloyds without Jeremy or Laurence Hastings or Dwayne Owens (who were all unavailable) in their crucial Spar Ulster Squash Premier 1 League match this week.

A win or even a draw would have left Magherafelt well clear of relegation trouble. However, this was always going to be unlikely having been so drastically weakened. In the end a 4/0 (13/4) defeat was perhaps better than could have been expected.

Magherafelt had to concede at No. 4 because they only had 3 players.

Paul Donnelly was matched with Adrian Leeson in the No. 3 rubber. Paul started slowly and although he got into the second and third games Adrian had too much firepower and experience for him. Adrian won in straight games 3/0, (9/1, 9/5,9/4).

In the top rubber Nick Hastings came within one point of a 3/0 victory over John Gillon. However, despite putting in an excellent performance he eventually ran out of steam to go down 3/2 (2/9, 9/8, 2/9, 9/4, 9/5).

Tayna Owens also put in an excellent performance in the No. 2 rubber against Michael Ellis. Tanya started well sneaking the opening game but lost the next two games to go 2/1 down. Tanya dug in to take the fourth game and the match to a decider. Unfortunately Tanya's tank was now registering empty and Michael went on to take the match 3/2 (9/10, 9/4, 9/5, 6/9, 9/0).

Magherafelt have now only 2 league matches remaining and will almost certainly have to beat Windsor, away, to secure a Premier 1 slot for next season.

Magherafelt's next match is away to Ballyearl in the Ulster Cup - by no means a foregone conclusion!

MAGHERAFELT B FLY THE FLAG

Magherafelt B defeated Queens's students in the final of the Ulster up E section by the narrowest margin to secure the trophy. Sean Hatton battled well but lost 3/2 at no.4; Brian Young went down 3/1 at no.3 and Johnny Mawhinney won 3/1 at no.2. In the top match Mark Hatt managed to win, with match going right to the wire, 3/2. It then went to a calculation of "points difference" on count back to separate the teams. Magherafelt A team were not able to emulate this success - going down 3/0 in the semi final of the Ulster Club Championship. Again they were victims of the very strong (young) Boat Club side who went on to secure the league, Cup and Club Championship treble. On the day Paul Donnelly and Tanya Owens both lost 3/0 at nos.5 and 4 respectively, and Jeremy Hastings put in a tired performance to go down 3/1. With the match over, the dead rubbers at nos.2 and 3 were not played. The team can now play fun squash for a while before getting into pre-season training for next season.