Imperial Squash: Mad dog and Imperial men
Continuing on from the success of the Roehampton Uni Cup, Imperial College Squash Men’s 1st Team travelled up to Birmingham last weekend (9th & 10th of February) to compete in the BUCS Premier Division play-off where the top 8 universities around the country gather to decide their placings for the upcoming BUCS knock-out stages.
Imperial Men’s 1st were once again playing for a spot between 5th-8th hoping to repeat last year’s success in finishing 5th by winning all of their matches.
The first match was against Newcastle on Saturday morning who finished 6th last year by just narrowly losing to Imperial in a closely contested match. The Imperial team knew that this was an important match to win to carry momentum into the weekend and nerves were running high.
So it was a soothing surprise and a huge moral boost when the team turned up to the venue to find that the “Tree Chopper” aka Patrick Brandl was there waiting for us. He had made the effort to catch a 6am train to come all the way from London to cheer his team-mates on.
What difference does that extra support make? Well Imperial beat Newcastle 4-1 this time around with Seigo “Top knot’ch” avenging his last year’s defeat by saving 5 match balls against him to win 3-2.
The second match was rather straight forward for the team against Loughborough. Everyone won their matches, meaning that the team won by 5-0 and it was looking like 5th place would once again be within reach with just Nottingham Trent, only recently promoted to the big leagues, to beat on Sunday morning. But Nottingham Trent had shown already that they were at home in the top division by inflicting defeats on both Loughborough and Newcastle on the Saturday. Imperial would therefore need to steel themselves for a close fight for that coveted 5th spot at the top of their group.
With the “Tree Chopper” on his way back to his cabin in the woods, the team made their way to the venue the following morning with some trepidation. Would Dave “N’iceman” Newman’s ageing body hold up to another tough match? Would Puven “Psych” Sivasangari finish digesting the all you can eat carb loading sushi session from the previous night? The answer to these questions and the outcome of the match were all going to come down to the wire. Up steps James “The Hound” McCouat, somehow full of energy despite only a couple hours sleep, to commence the final battle, and what a battle it was…
Squash is a brutal sport. Like any other racket sport, skill and tactics are important but the physical demands that squash places on the body are widely considered to be the toughest of any sport. Players will hit their maximum heart rate repeatedly in even just a single rally.
A rally can last in the region of fifty shots and it is common for players to average between 5km and 10km in lunges alone over the course of a match.
In the case of the hound’s opponent, he hit his maximum heart rate one too many times, vomiting from sheer exhaustion on court in the middle of an epic rally. In squash terms, this is a TKO – match forfeited.
James was not alone in proving his physical superiority, with veteran Dave “Iceman” Newman rolling back the years to floor his opponent (literally – he passed out after the match only to resurface two hours later). Marco “Amy” Alves then closed out the match in style and 5th place in the country once again belonged to Imperial Men’s 1st.
Now Bristol and Oxford await us in the knock-out stages, but you’d be a brave punter to bet against the mighty mad dog and his Imperial men.
