Isle of Man Squash Rackets Association’s 2022-23 league season is drawing to a close at the National Sports Centre, with only a few C League games remaining.

A League

Argosy finished their season on a high as David Norman, disappointed at having not played his 35th Island Championships recently, pushed through to beat Crazy Billions’ Ashley Sandyford-Sykes 3-1.

Argosy’s Malcolm Levy at two also secured a win in his final preparations for the European Championships and Steven Morley steadied the ship to bring home a result for Argosy 3-1.

League leaders Team Aon continued their winning form with a commanding 12-1 game victory against Stone Art with wins from Jason Crease, Robin Crease, Mason Mclarney and Liam Davies.

This gave Team Aon an 11-point lead going into the final match against second place and defending champions Cannell Print.

The Stone Art Squash team finished the season with a 3-1 win over the Global Monetary Solutions Junior team.

Stone Art players Toby Woolard and Steve Baker both won 3-0, although Woolard had to battle hard to beat Harvey Douglas.

Pat Fitzpatrick enjoyed a 3-0 victory over Hamish Thornton to provide the Juniors with their only points, while Lyndon Cheetham got Stone Art’s other three points.

A much-weakened Josh Jaguars met Crazy Billions for a thriller that went to the wire. At first seed, Crazy Billions’ Ashley Sandyford-Sykes beat Lance Wyllie 3-0 before his team-mate David Freer at the heady heights of second seed pulled off a great win 3-2.

Josh’s Jaguars’ Mike Fernandes showed his strength by hanging on to win 3-2 and Phil Butler narrowly pipped Crazy Billions’ Rich Cretney 3-2 to force a countback.

After a very close fixture, Crazy Billions finished with the overall victory.

The final set of matches was between the top two teams in the league, Team Aon and Cannell Print.

The latter’s Thomas Whiteway won 3-0, gaining the team’s only win of the night. Team Aon’s Robin Crease, Mason McLarney and Liam Davies beat their opponents, meaning Aon won overall 3-1.

This result meant that Team Aon won the 2022-23 A League title 19 points ahead of runners-up Cannell Print.

Final scores: Team Aon (229), Cannell Print (210), Josh’s Jaguars (181), Crazy Billions (159), Argosy (142), Stone Art Squash Team (141) and Global Monetary Solution Junior Academy (104).

C League

In the fixture between Island Exhaust Vets against Crazy Jacks, Vets’ Pete Sharples made short work of his match with Darren Smith, winning 3-0.

But Vets’ Mark Stratford was made to work hard for his 3-0 win against Tek Min Ewe. Les Callow scored a 3-0 victory over Crazy Jacks’ hard-hitting Craig Brereton. Vets’ Gerrit du Toit had to earn his 3-0 win over Tom Baker.

At number one, Mark Grace played a much-improved Matt Ripley, with the latter making his opponent fight for a 3-1 win. Island Exhaust Vets won 5-0 overall.

With Island Exhaust Vets being 24 points ahead of runners-up Buchanan and Pitts, Vets have secured victory in the C League despite there being one night of matches remaining.

Next, Strix Squash met the Falcons. The first game was between number two Clare Townsend and Falcons’ Sarah Simpson where, despite some close games, Towsend’s accurate drives gave her the 3-0 win.

At number four, Strix’s Sam Elliot played Kevin Cretney when close games and long rallies led this match to go to five games, but the latter took the advantage in the final game to win 3-2.

Match three was between Strix captain George Rumney and Jon Cox for number one. The first game was very close leading to a sudden death point giving Rumney the lead. He then built on this advantage to win 3-0.

In match four, Falcons’ third seed Adam Jones took the lead with some great cross courts and hard-hitting drives putting the score 2-0. Aaron Rumney won the third game but the comeback was short-lived as Jones took the fourth to win 3-1, tying the overall score 2-2.

In the final match at number five, Glen Stewart - who has just joined the league recently- played very well for Falcons.

There was a lot of back and forth from both players, with the score setting at 2-2. After running out of gas Ewan Cannan struggled in the fifth game, giving Stewartthe victory in the second five-game match of the night.

This gave the Falcons the 3-2 win overall.