Bowdon beat Warrington in a thrilling NW Counties Grand Final
Two of Cheshire’s top clubs found themselves pitted against each other in the North West Counties Grand Final held in conjunction with the PSA Manchester Open last weekend.
With Joel Makin (current world-ranking: 5) and upcoming youngster Jonah Bryant (current world-ranking: 36) at 1 and 2, Warrington were very much favourites heading into the fixture.
However, it was the lower order where Bowdon excelled and they took the early initiative, with Dan Ince beating Oli Hudson at 4th string and Sam Ince-Carvanhal beating Josh Owen at 5.
Nothing is ever certain in squash, but on the assumption that strings one and two would go the way of Warrington, it was down to Cheshire number 1 Charles Keeble to try and seal the title for Bowdon at third string. Playing against the extremely experienced Lewis Doughty (who had won 18/20 in Division 1 this season), Charles played “outrageously” to win 3-0 - it was certainly one of his best ever performances and from the very first point he was locked in.
The Makin/Bryant matches were essentially dead rubbers - however Sanjay Jeeva of Bowdon did exceptionally well to get a game off Makin and Pete Bilson displayed some of his trademark skills against Bryant, knowing the result didn’t really matter.
All matches were live-streamed and can be found at the foot of the page.
Joel Makin 3 - 1 Sanjay Jeeva
11/7 11/4 8/11 11/3
Jonah Bryant 3- 0 Pete Billson
11/5 11/7 11/9
Lewis Doughty 0-3 Charles Keeble
6/11 7/11 10/12
Ollie Hudson 1-3 Daniel Ince
3/11 9/11 11/9 5/11
Josh Owen 0-3 Sam Ince-Carvalhal
7/11 4/11 5/11
