But it was the Weybridge club, runners-up to Croydon-based Surrey Health in the 2011 final, that drew first blood whenLaura Massaro, the reigning British champion, overcame a leg injury to beat England team-mate Alison Waters 11-5, 7-11, 11-7, 11-6 in 51 minutes – a win which moved the career head-to head tally between the two to 12/11 in Massaro’s favour.

It was the pair’s fourth meeting this year – the first being the British National Championship final won by Massaro in February and the most recent the Irish Open semi-finals in Dublin where Londoner Waters, a former world No3, triumphed.

“I really wanted to win tonight for the club – and get my revenge for Ireland,” said Massaro, the world No4 from Preston. “I knew that my match could be crucial.”

Massaro’s return to the court for the third game was delayed while she received treatment for an injured left calf. “It was a bit of a shock when it happened midway through the second game – it went into spasm. I couldn’t really concentrate properly for a bit, then managed to ignore it and focus on the squash.

“Alison’s not the easiest player to play,” Massaro continued. “And it always seems to be me that has to play her – this is the fourth time since her return from injury at the beginning of the year!”

But minutes after the women’s match ended, Surrey Health drew level when Adrian Waller beat fellow 22-year-old and career-long rival Joe Lee, the St George’s No4, 11-7, 9-11, 11-5, 11-7 in exactly one hour.

Tension amongst the capacity crowd grew as the next pair of matches got underway on the two adjacent Surrey Sports Park showcourts – the right court featuring an all-continental Europe clash between German number one Simon Rosner and the top-ranked Swiss player Nicolas Mueller, and the left court starring second strings Adrian Grant and Tom Richards, ranked 17 and 16, respectively, in the world.

Rosner lifted Surrey Health hearts by taking the first game, but the younger Mueller – looking for his first ever win over the German – soon drew level. With both players looking as if their lives depended on it, it was Rosner who eventually prevailed, winning 11-4, 5-11, 11-6, 11-5 in 48 minutes to put the defending champions back in the driving seat.

“All matches are important to me – whether it’s on the Tour, or in European competitions, or a club event like this,” said Rosner, the world No19 from Paderborn later. “I just want to give it my all – and it usually seems to pay off.

“It would be really good for the club to win tonight, as I would then have won titles this season for clubs in three different countries – Holland, Germany and England.”

By now the whole crowd was focussed on the single court where Grant, a 31-year-old former world No9 from London, had taken a 2/0 lead over his 25-year-old St George’s Hill opponent.

But, with shouts of ‘come on Tom’ ringing round the auditorium, Richards clawed back the deficit to level the match after 70 minutes.

It was nip and tuck throughout the decider, with the more experienced Grant always just slightly ahead. And, after 87 minutes of breath-taking action, it was Surrey Health second string Grant who converted his first match-ball to win the clash 11-9, 11-9, 9-11, 9-11, 11-6 – and give his club the historic fourth title.

“There’s a great team spirit amongst us,” said Grant afterwards. “We don’t just turn up and play.”

And it was a jubilant Surrey Health team manager Pete Smith who picked up the trophy and praised his players. “We really wanted it tonight – and I think you could see that. We wanted to make a little bit of history.

“It’s unbelievable – to do the triple, and win the title a fourth time. It’s quite an achievement!

“The players have done a fantastic job – not just the team tonight, who were awesome, but the rest of the squad throughout the season, including Peter Nicol, Alan Clyne, Tim Garner, Vicky Lust and Nada Elkalaawy,” Smith continued.

“Our new owners Virgin have been really supportive – and I hope they will be even more so next season.

“I’d also like to pay tribute to Danny Lee and his St George’s Hill squad. They made it a great final.

“My man of the match? It would have to be Adrian – he was fantastic tonight and did a magnificent job for us.”

St George’s Hill manager Danny Lee also paid tribute to his squad: “Our players have been absolutely fantastic this season – not just those playing tonight, but also Mark Krajcsak and Dominique Lloyd-Walter for their earlier contributions.”

The two top strings played out a best-of three ‘dead’ rubber – with world No10 Daryl Selby gaining small consolation for St George’s Hill by beating Essex schoolmate and England team-mate Peter Barker, the world No7, 11-7, 11-9.

First up were the four and five strings, Alison Waters v Laura Massaro and Adrian Waller v Joe Lee.

Team-mates just a couple of days ago in Germany, but on opposite sides tonight, Massaro gained a measure of revenge for her defeat at Waters’ hands in the Irish Open final as she put St George’s ahead.

The lead didn’t last long though as Waller got the better of the first men’s match to make it all square just a couple of minutes after the ladies had finished.

Surrey took the lead as Simon Rosner continued his winning record against his most-times room-mate Nicolas Mueller, the Swiss levelling at one-all but unable to maintain the effort as Rosner eased through the third and fourth.

Surrey were one game away from retaining the title as Adrian Grant went 2-0 up over Tom Richards – not that it was easy, both were 11-9 and Richards was particularly unhappy with a stroke against him at game ball in the second.

Richards took the third, taking the crucial points at the end of another close game, and the fourth was nip and tuck – the court was hot and bouncy, and Richards had to put in an awful lot of effort to stay in touch, was on the floor several times but managed to pull another game back 11/9 to keep St George’s in the hunt.

It was Grant though, who picked up the momentum at the start of the decider, and from 4-0 up he managed to keep the gap, despite Richard’s considerable best efforts, taking the game 11/6 to make it a hat-trick of titles for Surrey.

The evening was rounded off with a best of three win for Daryl Selby over long-time adversary Peter Barker, then Surrey collected the trophy for a fourth time, the first club ever to do so.

Full report to follow …

Lots more photos in the Gallery

Holders Surrey accumulated more than enough points over the ten-match league season to win the Southern Group B, and enjoyed a comfortable semi-final victory at home to Group A runners-up Nottingham, while St George’s, as runners-up in Group B – despite beating Surrey home and away – had a tricky semi-final away to former champions and Group A winners Duffield.

Just as Surrey did last year when it was St George’s who had won the group, the visitors came away with the win to set up an all-Southern, all-Surrey final.

Full reports on the semi-finals

Lineups and Welcomes

The Players

Surrey Health & Racquets Poised For Historic PSL Prize

Preview from Howard Harding

Defending champions Integrity Surrey Health & Racquets are poised to record a historic double when the club takes onTWP St George’s Hill in the second successive all-Surrey Premier Squash League (PSL) final next Tuesday (8 May) atSurrey Sports Park in Guildford.

Run from the beginning of the season in October, the premier England Squash & Racketball league, supported byDunlop, has seen 11 teams fight for places in next week’s final.

Victory over their Weybridge rivals for the second year running would see Surrey Health & Racquets not only become the first team in the league’s 27-year history to take three titles in a row, but also the first to win the PSL crown a fourth time.

But the Croydon club will need to beat St George’s Hill for the first time this season – after two narrow defeats in the group stages of the world’s most prestigious squash league.

Tuesday’s final promises to be one of the most evenly-contested of all-time – featuring a number of prized clashes between players with a rich history of combat on a squash court.

There is no more perfect example than the women’s line-up between England’s number two and three: Londoner Alison Waters (Surrey Health) and Lancashire lass Laura Massaro (St George’s) – both of whom boast career-high world No3 rankings – contested British Junior Championship finals from U14 to U19 between 1997 and 2002.

In February this year, the pair went head-to-head for the British National Championship title – with Massaro winning the final to avenge the defeat to her England team-mate in the 2008 climax!

Surrey Sports Park will see their fourth meeting this year – with their career head-to-head record evenly-balanced at 11 wins apiece!

Essex school-mates Peter Barker and Daryl Selby could play the decider: Londoner Barker, the world No7 and Surrey Health top string, boasts a 13-5 career head-to-head record over the St George’s number one who is ranked just three places lower. Selby is looking for his first win over the left-hander in six PSL meetings since 2003 – but became British champion in 2011, a status yet to be achieved by his England team-mate.

Adrian Grant and Tom Richards have competed against each for places in the England team over the past few years, with 25-year-old world No16 Richards (St George’s) getting the selectors’ nod ahead of the Surrey Health world No17 for this week’s European Team Championships. So 30-year-old Grant will no doubt have a point to prove as he bids to extend his 7/1 head-to-head tally.

And two of the rising stars of continental squash will also want to demonstrate that the sport is played to a high standard beyond our shores. Surrey Health’s German number one Simon Rosner has already beaten Nicolas Mueller, the highest-ranked Swiss player of all-time, this season in the league.

But the younger St George’s third string from Zurich is now only five world ranking places below his German rival – and looking for his first win over Rosner in seven years.

Just two months separate the ages of the teams’ fourth strings – and Adrian Waller (Surrey Health) and Joe Lee (St George’s) have been doing battle since contesting the British Junior U15 final in 2004. Waller moved the head-to-head record between the pair to 6/5 after beating his rival in last month’s British U23 Championship final – but the slightly older Lee has a PSL advantage of 3/1.

The 2011 Final

Both teams romped to unassailable 3/0 leads to confirm their repeat of the 2011 climax – Weybridge-based St George’s Hill ending up with a 3/2 away win over former champions Benz-Bavarian Duffield and title-holders Surrey Health crushingMB Nottingham, also ex-champions, 5/0 at home.

Croydon-based Surrey Health are now just one win away from a unique double – not only becoming the first team in the league’s 27-year history to take three titles in a row, but also the first to win four titles in all.

A packed house in the Derbyshire village of Duffield saw the hosts – themselves three times PSL champions – go down quickly to their southern visitors. The opening bout saw two of the world’s top women go head-to-head – and it took 56 minutes for British champion Laura Massaro, the world No3 from Preston, to edge out Yorkshire’s world No2 Jenny Duncalf 14-12, 7-11, 11-7, 11-8 to put St George’s ahead.

Joe Lee and Swiss maestro Nicolas Mueller clinched the tie for St George’s soon afterwards – Lee licking local boy Paul Hargrave 11-5, 12-10, 11-1 in just 27 minutes and Mueller needing three minutes less to see off Andy Whipp 11-7, 11-5, 11-6.

The capacity crowd went home with some consolation after South African Stephen Coppinger beat a probably jet-laggedTom Richards 11-9, 11-8, 11-8 – and Duffield star Nick Matthew, the world champion from Sheffield, defeated England team-mate Daryl Selby 11-9, 11-8, 11-13, 13-11.

“It was a great night for us,” admitted St George’s Hill team manager Danny Lee. “All credit to Laura for giving us a great start in a good tactical game against her England team-mate. There’s been a great team spirit all season and they were all up for it tonight.

“I’m also really pleased for our sponsors TWP who have supported us now for the past four years,” added Lee.

It was one-way traffic in Croydon where defending champions Surrey Health punished a less than full strength Nottingham squad. Londoner Alison Waters, a former world No3, beat 18-year-old Emily Whitlock, winner of a second successive European Junior Championship trophy earlier this month, 11-3, 11-4, 11-5 to put the home side in the driving seat.

And four further straight games wins followed as Adrian Waller, Alan Clyne, Adrian Grant and Peter Barkerpowerfully led the home team to their whitewash win.

“It’s very good to be in the final again,” said Surrey Health team manager Pete Smith. “All our team performed well tonight and we now look forward to meeting St George’s Hill again.

“It’ll be a good final, without doubt.”

The final will take place on Tuesday 8 May, at a venue yet to be decided.

Duffield – it’s their 19th season in a row in the league ; they’re three-time winners (1998, 2006 & 2007) and  two-time runners-up (1995 & 2009)

St George’s Hill – relative newcomers, but it ‘s still their sixth successive season; they were runners-up in 2011

Surrey Health – semi-finalists for the sixth year in a row, and three-time winners (2008, 2010, & 2011)

Nottingham – 21st season since competing in the inaugural 84/85 season;  winners back in 1989; runners-up in 2003

Going for four: If it turns out to be a Duffield v Surrey Health final, both will be bidding to become the first four-time winners of the title.

Duffield,  dominant in Group A, suffered a second successive home semi-final defeat, but whereas last year it went to the wire against eventual champions Surrey, group B runners-up St Georges arrived tonight with a full strength squad and wrapped up the match 3-0 in double quick time.

Joe Lee put the visitors ahead against Paul Hargrave, while in the women’s match Laura Massaro took twice as long to beat Jenny Duncalf, and shortly after she had come off court with a 3-1 win, Nicolas Mueller wrapped the match up with a “fast and furious” 3-0 win against Duffield’s Andy Whipp.

“It was a great night for us,” admitted St George’s Hill team manager Danny Lee. “All credit to Laura for giving us a great start in a good tactical game against her England team-mate. There’s been a great team spirit all season and they were all up for it tonight.

“I’m also really pleased for our sponsors TWP who have supported us now for the past four years,” added Lee.

The other semi-final was even quicker as defending champions and group B winners Surrey H&R went 2-0 up against a weakened Nottingham team courtesy of  3-0 wins from Alison Waters and Adrian Waller, and well before the 9pm watershed they were 4-0 up as Alan Clyne and then Adrian Grant followed suit.

“It’s very good to be in the final again,” said Surrey Health team manager Pete Smith. “All our team performed well tonight and we now look forward to meeting St George’s Hill again.

“It’ll be a good final, without doubt.”

Peter Barker made it a clean sweep of 3-0 wins for Surrey, while at Duffield Steve Coppinger pulled one back for Duffield and Nick Matthew and Daryl Selby kept the crowd entertained well after the finish of the regular match as Matthew made it 2-3 on the night.

First up on the main court tonight at Duffield was a welcome sight for all the home fans – the surprise return of Tania Bailey, first signed for Duffield in 2005, and a member of the PSL winning squads of 2006 and 2007. Facing Sarah Bowles, late replacement for Pontefract, Tania was 2/0 down when she found her length and racket skills, and raced through the points to lead 9/2, Sarah got another one before Tania finished off at 11/3. Although now retired from the professionals tournaments, Tania showed she still has all the skills she always had and, despite Sarah running all over the court and retrieving some great balls, Tania ran away with the second 11/0. Sarah started the third a little better, taking a 5/3 lead, Tania then went to 7/5, Sarah levelled at 7/7, but that was her last point as Tania took the game 11/7 and the match 3 – 0.

On the adjacent court the return of Aqeel Rehman to the Duffield squad proved far too much for young George Wileman from Pontefract, who had very few answers to Aqeel’s tremendous play, and Aqeel took a very firm 11/2, 11/2, 11/2 victory in very short time. Following on on the same court older brother Sam Wileman from Pontefract played a much tighter game against Laurence Delasaux of Duffield, but could not stop Laurence from a 11/5, 11/7,11/4 win in only a couple of minutes longer.

Back on the main court, it was the turn of Duffield’s favourite player Andy Whipp, fresh from a victory at weekend in the Wimbledon Cup, who faced Pontefract’s Neil Cordell. The first game proved to be the closest of the whole tie, with the hand changing several times to take the score to 9/9, but then Andy showed his experience to serve out for 11/9. In the second Andy moved quite superbly into a 7/1 lead, Neil pulled back to 5/7 but then Andy again served out to take the game 11/7, and again in the third proved much too strong for Neil and took the game 11/5 for another 3 – 0 win. Andy has played 7 of the 8 PSL ties this season, and has won every one!

Last but certainly not least on the main court brought us Pontefract’s veteran Lee Beachill, former World No1 and still a great favourite with the fans, even here at Duffield, who was up against Jonathan Kemp for Duffield making what is a rare appearance this season due to a long term back injury. Jonathan moved into a 7/3 lead with some tremendous play, Lee pulled level at 7/7 with some of his old magic skills, but then Jonathan got back in to take the game 11/7. Again in the second Jonathan moved into a 7/3 lead and Lee pulled back to 6/7, but then Jonathan hit back again and allowed Lee only one more point before taking the game 11/7, at which stage Lee was showing great signs of tiredness. This showed even more in the third and, despite Lee putting up a really brave fight, Jonathan took the game 11/5 for another 3 – 0 win to Duffield.

Already assured of the Group A winners spot before this match, a 20 points to nil victory gives them  great confidence for the upcoming semi final on the 17^th April.

Presented to the supporters before the PSL match was the Duffield Men’s First Team, who are set to win the Derbyshire Premier League for the first time in 12 years. Having played 13 of 14 matches this season, and remain undefeated, they play bottom placed David Lloyd Club tomorrow (Thursday 29^th) needing just 5 points to clinch the title. Thanks mainly to a strongly assembled squad consisting of the following players:-

Greg Loach – won 9 out of 10 matches.                  Chris Alcock – won 5 out of 9 matches.                   Sam Watts – won 2 out of 7 matches.                             Andy Whipp – won 8 out of 8 matches.                  Sam Yallop – won 2 out of 3 matches.                    Aqeel Rehman – won 3 out of 3 matches.             Sam Wileman – won 5 out of 5 matches.              Jason Foster – won 11 out of 12 matches.     Paul Hargrave – won 4 out of 4 matches.                                                                                                             Mike Lambert, James Barry and Felix Frixou – all played one match each.

Many thanks to Duffield Squash Club committee and member for their support.

Arthur Curran

Nottingham, who have shared second and third places in the group with Oxford for most of the season, will face Group B winners Integrity Surrey Health & Racquets, the reigning champions, in one semi-final – while the other will feature runaway Group A leaders Benz-Bavarian Duffield and TWP St George’s Hill.

Derbyshire club Duffield, now in the semi-finals for the sixth time in the last seven seasons, romped to the quickest win of the night, beating Courtcraft Pontefract 5/0, while Weybridge-based St George’s Hill earned their third successive appearance in the play-offs after crushing IGT Winchester 5/0.

Croydon team Surrey Health & Racquets took one step closer to becoming the first team in the league’s history to win the title three years in a row when they beat Exeter Diamonds 4/1 away from home to finish the season just six points ahead of last season’s runners-up St George’s Hill.

But the drama of the night emanated from Nottingham where the 1999 champions hosted rivals Oxford – with a place in the semi-finals waiting the winners. Emma Beddoes put the hosts into the lead with an 11-5, 11-4, 11-7 win over Oxford’sVictoria Bell – but team-mate Mark Fuller failed to capitalise on a 2/1 lead over Andrew Birks as the visitors drew level after Birks clinched the deciding game 11-5.

Club stalwart Lewis Walters brought Nottingham back into contention after an 11-5, 11-7, 7-11, 11-6 victory over Ben Coleman – before 37-year-old Lavigne, a European and World Over-35 champion, took on Oxford’s Mark Cairns, a 44-year-old former British National champion. Cairns led 2/1, but a gritty performance from Lavigne saw the former French international clinch a mighty 11-5, 9-11, 8-11, 12-10, 11-5 victory to see his club into the semi-finals.

The team weren’t keen to rest on their laurels, however, by throwing the largely irrelevant fifth match: Eddie Charltoncontinued the Nottingham heroics by again recovering from behind to beat the Oxford number one Scott Handley 11-3, 9-11, 8-11, 11-8, 11-9 to ensure an overall 4/1 win.

“It’s such a proud moment for the whole MB Nottingham team, managers and club members,” said team manager Nigel Taylor afterwards. “Each and every player has put in some magnificent performances over the course of the tournament and have worn the MB Nottingham shirt with pride.

“Our old pal and stalwart Renan Lavigne was really up for tonight and has been really looking forward to representing MB Nottingham. Once again, just like the good old days, he’s worked hard in the Nottingham shirt and helped the team on to the semi finals.

“It’s a fantastic result…..Bring on the semis!”

Despite already being assured of a play-off place, Duffield finished the pre-knockout part of the season by earning maximum points with a 20-0 win over Yorkshire club Pontefract. England star Tania Bailey came out of retirement to despatch Sarah Bowles 11-3, 11-0, 11-7, and team-mates Aqeel Rehman, Laurence Delasaux, Andy Whipp, and Jonathan Kempfollowed suit by wrapping things up in just over two hours.

A win was vital to ensure St George’s Hill’s return to the play-offs – and again the Surrey side achieved their objective in the most determined style, without conceding a single game.

Squad number one Tom Richards carried on where he left off in Canada at the weekend when he won the biggest Tour title of his career in Montreal. Richards beat Jethro Binns11-8, 11-7, 11-6, after Swiss star Nicolas Mueller, Hungarian champion Mark Krajcsak, former England stars Stephen Meads and Dominique Lloyd-Walter had set up a 4/0 lead for the Weybridge hosts.

“It’s a great feeling to be in the semi-finals again – and I am very proud of my team,” said St George’s manager Danny Lee. “We look forward to our visit to Duffield and, in the nicest possible way, hope we can ‘duff’ them up and make the final!”

Having once topped the Group B tables and held onto second place various times this season, Exeter Diamonds were hoping to pull off an unlikely win over visitors Surrey Health. But although Aisling Blake put the home side ahead with an 11-3, 11-4, 11-6 win over Harriet Ingham, the Croydon club powered back with successive victories by former world number one and multi Commonwealth Games gold medallist Peter Nicol and reigning Scottish champion Alan Clyne.

But it was left to the top-ranked German Simon Rosner to clinch victory for Surrey Health courtesy of a straight games win over Welsh champion Peter Creed – before Londoner Peter Barker extended the visitors’ win by beating the valiant Exeter top string Tim Vail also in straight games.

PSL stalwarts Team Chichester finished the season in style with a 5/0 win over foot-of-the-table UWE Bristol. The under-strength Avon team picked up two games from the encounter, but on-song Olivier Pett, Anthony Graham, Alex Ingham, Miles Jenkinsand Lauren Briggs brought home maximum points for the south coast side.

PSL TABLES (after 10th & final round)

For all the latest news, visit the official website www.pslsquash.com

Second place in the group, and a semi-final spot, would be decided at Nottingham where the hosts started the evening three points adrift of visitors Oxford, a gap narrow enough to mean that the winners of the match would take the spoils.

Duffield duly despatched visitors Pontefract 5-0, sending the Yorkshire outfit home pointless, while a thriller was played out a few miles South.

Emma Beddoes and Lewis Walters put Nottingham 2-0 up, but Mark Fuller couldn’t capitalise on a 2/1 lead as Oxford’s Andrew Birks pulled one back for Oxford.

Two veterans then took to the Nottingham showcourt, and with Renan Lavigne and Mark Cairns locked at two games all everything was still to play for. It was the Frenchman though who took the decider, giving Nottingham the win on the night and sufficient points to guarantee themselves a place in the last four.

In Group B, although nothing was definitively decided, the likelihood was that Surrey and St George’s, last year’s champions and runners-up, would progress.

Exeter played hosts to leaders Surrey, and needed an unlikely 5-0, 20-0 win to snatch a playoff place. Aisling Blake took the first match 3-0 to give Exeter some hope, but it was quickly dashed as Alan Clyne and Peter Nicol put the visitors ahead (Clyne no doubt buoyed by the kilted supporters that had taken the 7 hour train journey to the venue with him).

Meanwhile St George’s were at home to Winchester, and quickly wrapped up a 5-0, 20-0 win that left them definitely in the playoffs, while an Exeter win could still deny Surrey top spot.

But that scenario never materialised as Simon Rosner secured the win and top place for Surrey. Shortly afterwards came the news from Nottingham that finalised the semi-final lineups.

Rounding things off, Chichester finished on a high with a 5-0 home win over Bristol, Surrey ended up with a 4-1 win, and the Nottingham crowd are enjoying a five-game ‘dead rubber’ between Eddie Charlton and Scott Handley, Charlton sending them home happy with a 4-1 win (and Crystal Ball goes to bed happy too, after a perfect set of predictions).