Yorkshire Squash League: Barnsley seal their second league title

Barnsley eased to only their second ever Allam Marine Yorkshire Squash League title this week, after Hallamshire '“ their nearest challengers '“ lost at home to Queens.

While Barnsley were winning 16-8 at bottom club Heaton, Hallamshire – who began the evening 16 points behind the leaders – were going down 15-9 in Sheffield.

Victories by James Earles, Matt Sidaway and Connor Sheen over Alex Cutts (3-0), Jack Alcock (3-2) and Neil Guirey (3-1) sealed the Sheffield side’s fate, although Ed Walker and Charlotte Jagger made a fight of it by beating Tom Gudzelak 3-1 and Emma Gill 3-0.

Meanwhile, Barnsley were stretching their total to 310 points, a 23-point lead, thanks to wins from Miles Jenkins (3-0), Tom Bamford (3-2) and Oli Harris (3-0) over Stuart Macgregor, Mathew Powell and Phil Bowker.

South African Shaun le Roux retired when losing 2-0 to Belgium’s Jan van den Herrewegen and Ashley Davies was edged out 3-2 by Julian Tomlinson, but it did not matter.

Defending champions Dunnington clinched third place with a 19-5 home drubbing of Chapel Allerton, for whom Malaysian Nafiizwan Adnan notched a solitary away success with a 3-2 win over Nathan Lake.

Gareth Lumsdon, Danny Hockborn, Ed Shannon and Matthew Stephenson were the York team’s matchwinners, beating Declan Christie 3-0, Dom Hamilton 3-0, Pedro Pinto 3-2 and Ross Williamson 3-0.

At the other end of the table, Pontefract seconds lost 16-7 at Abbeydale, but the second-bottom club kept battling to the end, with Sam Todd and Ben Sockett defeating Tom Turner 3-2 and James Biggin 3-0 at numbers four and five.

However, it was not enough, as Abbeydale dominated the top three rubbers with wins for Adam Murrills, Nick Wall junior and Oli Turner against Elliot Ridge (3-0), Matt Godson (3-1) and Ben Hodgetts (3-0).