Last weekend the Northumberland Club, Jesmond, hosted the Men’s over 45 Inter County Squash Championships. Northumbria lost two of their three matches, meaning they now face a relegation play off.

Team Northumbria’s over 45 men’s County team took on Yorkshire, Merseyside and Derbyshire in Division One, convincingly beating Merseyside 5-0 but losing 3-2 to both Yorkshire and Derbyshire.

As a result of their performances, Northumbria will participate in the relegation play off in March 2015 to determine whether they stay in Division One or face relegation to Division Two.

Yorkshire topped the group with Derbyshire taking second spot, meaning they will both enter the promotion play offs in March with the hope of winning promotion to the Premier Division. Northumbria narrowly missed out by one point in third place and will be joined by Merseyside in the relegation play offs.

The weekend’s matches were the first stage of the Championships, with Stage Two – the relegation and promotion play offs – taking place on the weekend of 21st and 22nd March 2015.

Glenn Ward, a member of the Northumbria team, reacted to the weekends defeat by saying: “it’s a well used cliché but we were unlucky this weekend – we missed getting into the promotion group by one point. So it was very close. Really, we should have tried just one point harder!”

Despite the loss for the host county, the competitive nature of the Inter County Championships offers players a valuable experience, according to Ward. Ward told JesmondLocal that, as a member of the over 45’s team, “it’s great to see how you stack up against the rest of the country in your age group.  More and more these days we are given the run around by the young guns coming through, which is fantastic for the development of Northumbria squash but so hard on your body. So to play someone who has the same aches, pains and general moans as yourself is a great leveller”.

Despite being disappointed in defeat, Ward praised the social element to the tournament, commenting “we all love it, the other County teams are always a great set of lads and the banter is classic”.

The Inter County Championships have a vast number of categories, including men’s and women’s over 40/50/55/60/65 groups, as well as junior boys and girls classifications. There are also a couple of racketball categories.

According to England Squash’s website the Inter County Championships are the largest events that England Squash run, with over 2000 players representing their counties throughout the season.

Northumbria Squash provide coaching at various locations around Newcastle, including at the Northumberland Club in Jesmond, as well as at Eldon Leisure and Northumbria University. The Northumberland Club itself has one ladies team and 7 men’s teams playing in the Northumbria Squash Leagues.

For more information on Squash and Racketball opportunities at The Northumberland Club, please visit: http://www.northumberlandclub.org/squash-and-racketball