Trophies awarded for 2023 Handicap Tournament
The 2023 Handicap Tournament was wrapped up in December with the awarding of trophies for the four category winners.
The overall tournament winner, and the only unbeaten player, was Adam Hurst, who received the Henley Squash Club Championship Cup as well as a ‘to-keep’ trophy created by David Wright ceramics.
The winner of the Plate competition was Peter Rivers, who was the player with the lowest SquashLevel score from the group of players who had only lost one match. Peter received the Henley Squash Club Plate, as well as a ‘to-keep’ trophy.
Richard Esau was the winner of the so-called 2nd Plate – for players who only lost two matches during the tournament. Richard was the one from this group who had the lowest SquashLevel and he received another ‘to-keep’ trophy from David Wright ceramics.
The last category was the 3rd Plate for players who had only lost three matches. Alistair Robbie was the one from this group who had the lowest SquashLevel and he also received a ‘to-keep’ trophy.
The tournament used a version of the ‘Swiss-system’ that allows all players to play in every round. Unbeaten players proceeded to the next round in a normal knock-out process, resulting in one overall (and unbeaten) winner. All other players were grouped according to how many matches they had lost so far. The rounds were played in ‘F.A. Cup’ style – that is the draw for each round was only made after the previous round was completed, with one round per month and no seeding. In addition, handicaps were applied to all players (calculated by the SquashLevels system) to ensure close matches between players of different abilities, and to allow participation of all club members.
The emphasis was on fun, with the draw throwing up some matches between players of very different abilities – with the stronger player having to play with precision, since only a few mistakes would hand victory to the weaker player because of the handicaps!
Full details of the tournament draw plus all match results can be seen here.
The ceramic trophies were kindly created and donated by former Club Chairman, David Wright. You can find out more about David’s ceramic wares here.
