The Northern 2nd Team almost put a big, hungry cat amongst the pigeons last night, as they came within points of beating Cheetham Hill, in what would have been a massive blow to 'The Hill'. Northern 2 are battling to get out of the relegation zone but produced an inspired performance to push the Cheetham clan all the way. Cheetham were without their regular No.1 Finn Withington; he was away showing off his silky skills to the Canadians, upsetting the No.1,2 and 4 seeds along the way to claiming his biggest title to date.

Northern's Josh Owen, son of the now famous coach Rob, got the home side off to a winning start, beating Northern Ireland's Stephen Hearst in the tightest of 3-0's. On the adjacent court Luis North overpowered ladies Welsh No.3, Lowri Roberts, to give The Northern a 2-0 lead. How would the title hopefuls react?

Cheetham's No.5 squeaked through a couple of tie break games to beat Northern head coach Jules Silvera 3-1, while Scottish No.3 Alistair Prott, playing only has second match of the season for The Cheetham Chargers, put in a flawless display to beat the ever-dangerous Egyptian, Ali Khawas.

We were left with the No.2's to decide the match - a line-up which on paper looked like it could go either way. Kuwaiti Bader Almaghrebi vs Jordan Hardwick. Bader can be fast and lethal, with an 'all-in' approach to squash, and Jordan is a lovely player with fine wins already against New Zealand's Temwa Chileshe and Mason Smales. To spice things up, in November Bader won their duel 3-2 - so this really was a massive match, and for Jordan in particular whose team were relying on him to collect the win and the invaluable 5 bonus points for his team. Jordan set out to annul Bader's speed by controlling the pace of the rallies, However, Bader usually finds a way back, which is exactly what he did. At 1-game-all and 10-all, the travelling Cheetham fans must have been getting very sweaty buttocks, but to their relief, Jordan came good and found some crucial volleys to win the third and fourth games, both on a tie break. Cheetham survived and gained 15 league points, out of the possible 20.

Warrington had a more comfortable night as they beat the ever-likable Wigan Warriors 5-0, collecting the full 20 points on offer.  Portuguese hunkster Rui Soares and Ben 'The Grimsby Grenade' Smith proved too good at No's 1 and 2. Wigan legend Ryan Atherton, notorious for his backhand flicks that we've all been fooled by at one time or another, couldn't find any joy against the impressive Lewis Doughty. Lewis, a new signing for Warrington this season, is a formidable opponent at No.3 and proves his worth every single week as a banker for the champions.

The main talking point before this match was, would Wigan's Nat Fairhurst maintain his season-long unbeaten run? The lanky Liverpudlian has been awesome since September, winning all 16 of his matches, a phenomenal feat. He was up against Warrington's Charlie Cowie. A few years ago, Charlie was a solid No.2 player for his home club in Chorley, but the work/squash balance can be tough! The two tall fellas exchanged thundering blows and traded games to find themselves at 2-games-all, after Charlie took the fourth game 11-9. A bit of a 'hack-fest' but nobody could take their eyes off the match. In the end Charlie had a bit too much attacking prowess and inflicted Nat's first defeat of the season.

Newcomers to the league this season, City Of Manchester, are rooted at the bottom of the table, but produced their best night of this campaign by beating mid-table Bowdon. City's captain and coach, Ray Nevin got his first win of the season two weeks ago and obviously likes the feeling of winning... On paper it seemed he'd be destined to lose against the young and fit Charles Keeble, but Ray's expressive, eccentric style (to say the least) was something Charles had never encountered before, and the underdog took a 2-1 lead. Charles rallied to restore the equilibrium and denied Ray a second victory. Ray's 'against the odds' performance undoubtedly inspired his teammates though, who all recorded fine wins, to give COM a massive 19 points, to edge themselves closer to Wrexham near the bottom of the table.

Wrexham lost out to a strong Liverpool side, 4-1. Liverpool are a great team but have struggled since Christmas, mainly due to the absence of their No.1 Lwamba, meaning the other regulars have been forced to move up a position. But... The smiley Kiwi was back last night, and it made all the difference. He played in-form Welsh No.3, Owain Taylor. Owain is a true asset for the Welsh Dragons as he plays most matches - team consistency is so often the key in our league. Lwamba and Owain played out one of the matches of the season. Each game was only separated by a couple of points, with Lwamba prevailing 11-9 in the fifth. Liverpool always attract a big, passionate home crowd, and they were really treated with this display of World-class squash, which was recognised by rapturous applause at the end. Young brothers Lewis and Cory Harding have played every match for Liverpool this season, and have really shown how valuable they are, and they both won, with Lewis coming through a five game encounter against another in-form Welshman, Josh Davies.

The final match of Round 17 was Grove Park vs Alderley Edge. Since the new year, Grove have been cementing their third-place position, and last night they notched up another win in another entertaining night of squash. The Grove crowd are certainly one of the best in the league, and they deserve nothing less.

Both Ky Hibberd and James Pickles love a five-setter! Surely, no other players in the 67-year history of our league have played more 5 game matches than these two?! So, the fact that they were playing each other, it made total sense to put them on first, and try to play the other 4 matches on the other court!  Pickles, one of the hardest hitting and fittest squash players on the planet, against Ky, one of the softest hitting players in our league - I'm just shocked Sky Sports weren't here for this one. There was a lot of bending over to catch their breath in this match, by both players, from the very first game! Anyway, I'll cut to the chase - you know it, it was 3-2! Pickles had too much in the tank as Ky was struggling to stand up at the end.

Alderley's other winner was shot playing maestro Muhammad Khan, who had too much firepower for Ky's twin, Morgan. Old timer, master's squash legend, and league chairman, Yawar Abbas had a truly impressive win against Mike Potter, to get Grove Park on the score board. His win for the home team was followed by victories from New Zealand's Temwa and South African Dewald Van Nierkerk. Temwa was a bit too fit for Tom Bamford, as Tom went for more and more desperation three-wall-boasts as the match went on. The Dewald vs Matt Godson match - I've never seen so many cross-court drops, and trickle boast in my life. It all played into the hands of the big South African

Possible pick of next week is Cheetham Hill hosting The Northern's First team. Can home-hero Finnlay get revenge on the first half 3-2 defeat to Moustafa El Sirty? Make sure you tune in next Wednesday, and every week until the 2023/24 season draws to a close.

Here's links to previous 2023/24 NWCSL reports:

https://nwcsl.org/latest-news/division-1-review-6th-february-24

https://nwcsl.org/latest-news/division-1-review-30th-january

https://nwcsl.org/latest-news/division-1-review-23rd-january

https://nwcsl.org/latest-news/division-1-review-16th-jan-23

https://nwcsl.org/latest-news/division-1-review-12th-december

https://nwcsl.org/latest-news/division-1-review-5th-december

https://nwcsl.org/latest-news/division-1-review-28th-november

https://nwcsl.org/latest-news/division-1-review-21st-november

https://nwcsl.org/latest-news/division-1-review-7th-november-23

https://nwcsl.org/latest-news/week-5-division-1-review

https://nwcsl.org/latest-news/division-1-review-17th-oct

https://nwcsl.org/latest-news/division-1-10th-oct-review

https://nwcsl.org/latest-news/division-1-week-2-review

Andy Whipp