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Herts Crowned Inter-County Champions!

12/5/09
by Faye Kowalewsky
The listing was posted by England Squash - East Area

The Hertfordshire Men's team survived a nail biting final in the recent 2009 Harris Inter-county Championships to claim the title.

Herts had to come through a tough First Round Match against local rivals Essex (3-2) before decisively beating Yorkshire 4-1 in the Semi-Final. The following day they took on the favourites Sussex in a Marathon final that could have gone either way. Herts No.3 Adam Fuller's early loss to Olly Pett was cancelled out by 5th String Keith Timms' excellent 5-game victory shortly after. Herts No.1 Chris Ryder beat Tim Vail 3-1 to give Herts the advantage but Marc Woolhead's (4) defeat meant all the pressure fell upon the shoulders of young Adrian Waller.

After a cagey start, Waller showed his class to outplay his opponent Tom Pashley and claim an impressive 3-1 victory to give Herts the title; a great achievement considering that only 4 years ago they were languishing at the bottom of division 2.

Thanks to the new format of the Inter-counties this season, the top 8 teams were involved in the finals where they played off for final positions, with the bottom two teams facing relegation.

Essex had two teams in the finals with their ladies finishing a credible 4th and the men finishing 5th after smashing Lancashire 5-0 in the 5/6th play-off.

Throughout the weekend the squash was of the highest standard and was played in the best of spirits - congratulations to Hertfordshire and all the players from the Eastern Region that took part throughout the season!