8:30am Tuesday 22nd January 2008
DEFENDING champion Paul Clark failed in his bid to equal a 27-year record in the Wiltshire senior squash championships.
Clark was hoping to equal Jonah Barrington's record span of 27 years from when he first won the title at the age of 17.
A total of 31 players competed for the title of Wilts county champion.
The first round produced some classic matches with the Dave Ridgeway -Luke Packman match providing a great spectacle and excellent squash, with Packman eventually winning 3-2 in just over an hour.
The other match involved Neville Buckle playing the seeded Buzby Williams.
Buckle led 2-0, but Buzby worked his way back in and managed to edge the match 3-2.
The quarter-finals produced the first upset with Steve Wakefield defeating number three seed Julian Beckett 1-9, 9-6, 9-6, 9-5.
The match of the quarter finals was between Clark and Ade Warren.
Clark led 1-0 only for Warren to draw level. But Clark upped the pace and ran out a 3-1 winner.
In the semi-finals, the key match was between Simon White and Nigel Rowe, White winning 3-0 (9-3, 9-4, 9-7), avenging his defeat the previous year.
The other semi-final was a one-sided affair, Clark defeating Wakefield 9-4, 9-1, 9-3.
In the final, Clark, 21 years older than White, took the first set 9-7.
But White's youth and movement around court saw him take complete control of the match, eventually winning 7-9, 9-4, 9-2, 9-3.
The losers from the first two rounds fought it out for the plate, which also produced some great matches.
Dave Ridgeway and Mike Stannard produced a classic in the first semi- final.
Ridgeway led 2-1 only for Stannard to get back to 2-2 and then win the fifth set 9-0.
Nightingales South Marston, the host club, showed what an up coming squash club they are with three of the four semi-finalists in the plate and one semi-finalist in the main draw.
In the other plate semi-final Luke Packman from Nightingales took on Anthony Dennington, also from from Nightingales.
Packman eventually won 3-0 (9-4, 10-8, 9-3).
The final between Packman and Stannard was a hard-fought match but Stannard's earlier five-setter took its toll, with Packman winning 3-1 on his debut in the tournament.
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