Having been promoted to Division One of the Berkshire League, for the first team in its history the previous season, the Hart Squash first team has incredibly won a second successive promotion to the Premier Division.

Ian, Chris, Rob & Ash were in celebratory mood at the end of the season

Throughout the Winter season, their division was very competitive with 6 of the 8 teams being closely matched, and all these teams were capable of beating each other. However, whilst Hart did lose 5 matches overall, their consistency was such that they were never below 4th place and always within touch of the leaders.

It made for a very exciting season and some very tense matches. Most notable of these was in early February against a University team that had already beaten us on their courts. It was always likely that it would be close – and so it proved as the drama unfolded. Ashley Stanton won his marathon 5-set match to level it up at 2 games apiece, leaving Rob Barker the opportunity to win the match. From 2~1 down, he found hidden reserves to turn his match round winning the 5th after a titanic battle.

In the last 2 matches the team played weakened opposition that enabled them to pick up maximum points, but until the final table was issued everyone could only speculate whether it was good enough. In the end Camberley who play at the Staff College in Sandhurst finished top by 3 points from Hart and Fitness First who both had 193 points. But Hart had the advantage by virtue of winning 9 matches throughout the season against the 8 victories of Fitness First.

The challenge will be immense next season for the team to hold their own in the top flight of Berkshire squash, but after this seasons success, who knows what’s possible?

Great credit goes to Ashley and Rob who played the majority of matches and played a major part with key wins. But the most consistent performances were from Chris Locks & Ian Smith who both played every match and had a success rate of over 70%.

And other team members during the season were Kim Neilson, Stefan Stanton, James Woodhall and Simon Wood.