This weekend was one of the toughest Stage 1 inter County fixtures Leicestershire have played in a long time. In what turned out to be a deciding match Leicestershire narrowly missed out on beating Hertfordshire with a 3-2 loss. Unfortunately Mari Taylor sustained an injury and had to concede her match. Sara Matharu despite 18 month off squash hung on to beat her opponent 13-11 in the 5th.
 
Hertfordshire went on to play Nottinghamshire in their second match again winning 3-2, securing a first place finish in the group. Leicestershire played Worcestershire and managed to gain Jess Morgan at 5th string. Despite not expecting to play, top junior Jess won her first senior inter county match with a very convincing 3-0 win. Sara had a tougher encounter at number 2 losing 3-0 to a very experienced Dawn Ashford. The rest of the team won their matches for a 4-1 Leicestershire win.
 
Unfortunately Worcestershire sustained 2 injuries  during the Leicestershire match and had to concede their third and final match to Hertfordshire. Leaving Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to play for second place on Sunday morning. Jess Morgan again showed a tenacious performance playing at number 5. At 2-1 down she held in to win the 4th game 13-11, unfortunately the 5th game slipped away from her but this was definitely the game of the weekend. Leanne Herbert also dug deep to come back from 2-0 down to take the 3rd game but narrowly missed the 4th game losing 11-8. Tracey Sykes also narrowly missed out losing 11-7 in the 5th. Rachel Calver won 13-11 in the 5th despite being 2-0 up and served for the match in the 3rd and 4th games!! Sara Matharu had another tough game but she dominated large parts of the match narrowly losing the 3rd game 15-13 which would have put her 2-1 ahead, unfortunately she couldn’t come back in the 4th and lost 3-1. Notts took the match 4-1 putting them in second place for the weekend.
 
A BIG thank you to Jess Morgan and Leanne Herbert who played their first (of many) senior inter counties, especially to Jess who was in the right place at the right time and stepped in at last minute to gain 5 valuable team points. Thank you to the historically old team members for their consistent valiant efforts.
Many thanks to Leicester squash club and Andrea for hosting the event.
 
Leicestershire will play to avoid relegation in March/Stage 2.