Squash club lose their varsity crown | Amina Flynn

The UCC Squash Club travelled up to Dublin last weekend to participate in the annual squash Inter-varsities, this year hosted by DCU. A total of eight Universities competed in the tournament, with UCC being the most represented university at the event, boasting a full panel of men’s teams and two ladies’ teams. All of the teams performed strongly throughout the weekend, with the Men’s D successfully defending their inter-varsity champion’s title, winning their division.The weekend began with both the men’s A and B teams having to compete at DCU sports hall on Friday evening, against Queens University Belfast, the 2011 inter-varsity winners. The Men's A team were seeking to defend their title as inter-varsity champions. They put in a triumphant performance in their opening fixture, winning by five matches to nil. The games were of particular interest to some of the newer members of the squash panel, as it was a brilliant opportunity to see some gravity defying shots, and an overall high standard of squash.Saturday was a day of two venues, with the UCC teams playing at both DCU and ALSAA. The day began early, with the Men's D team successfully defending their title against DCU, winning all of their matches 3-0, and garnering some well-deserved glory for an overall strong performance. In the meantime the Ladies A, Men’s A and B continued their games in ALSAA.The standard within the Men’s A group was exceptionally high, with top Men's A seed Jaime Balbuena having to put his undefeated inter-varsity record on the line against the top ranked UUJ player. Up against a former Irish under-19 champion, Balbuena narrowly lost out in a hotly contested match. The fifth set decider was particularly exciting, as UCC’s Frank Ryan raced into a 2-0 lead, before a match point went a-begging as UUJ went on to win 3-2.The finals of the Men’s B were also markedly close and strongly contested. After having beaten strong QUB and UUJ teams to reach the final, the men were so near and yet so far away, as they were narrowly beaten by TCD in an adrenaline pumping final. Although bitterly disappointing results, both teams played exquisite squash and demonstrated immense skill and determination.The men’s C team also performed at a particularly high standard, in a relatively long day of games, with all the players having some very long and strongly contested matches throughout the day. The team did well against NUIG, beating them with a clean sweep, as well as beating DCU; they were consequently disappointed to lose to Trinity.With regard to the Ladies A team, despite being quite a relatively inexperienced team they performed well against a very strong RCSI team, who became the eventual inter-varsity champions. Throughout the games, there were numerous brilliant shots and rallies, demonstrating the skill and potential that exists within the team.Although a very new team, the Ladies B team didn’t let the nerves get to them and performed strongly throughout the weekend. During the first round of games against DCU, the team performed very strongly, winning almost all their games in straight sets. The Ladies B also put up a strong fight, confidently beating DCU before unfortunately losing to a strong UCD team.As Aidan Daly, the Men’s C captain put it, this year’s inter-varsities were filled with “great games, great fun and was an overall good experience,” a sentiment that I am sure is echoed by all of the competitors.