Isle of Man Squash Rackets Association’s squash blitz competition was held at the NSC recently, sponsored by Buchanan and Pitts.

This was a blitz-style event where the players had to score as many points as they could in 12-minute timed games. As this is a timed game, all matches started and stopped at the same time.

Four groups of players were seeded according to ranking into round robin groups. Each player in the group had to play all the others in that group which meant that they each played at least four 12-minute non-stop games in just over three hours.

As the winner of each group would be decided on points scored, this made for hectic squash with most players having two back-to-back 12-minute games which proved to be a great test of stamina.

In group A which only had five players (meaning they only had to play four matches), Ben Peach - returning to full fitness after a long injury lay-off - proved to be too strong for the rest of the group, winning ahead of second-placed Patrick Fitzpatrick.

Group B was a very closely-contested group of seven players, each competing in 72 minutes of squash.

Callum Larkin, still a junior, showed that he is now a strong and fit player, winning the group with Stuart Highy in second place.

Group C, with six participants in it, was made up of existing players as well as some new ones taking part in their first competition.

Dave Johnson showed just how much he has benefited from Saturday morning club coaching by winning the group ahead of new player Jamie Biddulph in second.

Group D was again a six-player affair made up of newcomers mostly from a Manx Sport and Recreation initiative called Active8.

Andrew Igoea came out on top with Mark Goodall coming second.

Isle of Man Squash Rackets Association wishes to thank Buchanan and Pitts for their sponsorship of the blitz competition which is proving to be a very popular event.