Spectators crammed in at every angle to witness property’s squash heavyweights sweat it out at the final playoffs in the Newton Perkins Squash Tournament.
The competition, which comprises two events and is an industry institution, saw British Land defeat CBRE in the Plate Tournament, while GVA toppled serial and defending champion Cushman & Wakefield in the main tournament at London’s RAC Club in Pall Mall.
The BL team won two out of three matches to take the Plate, with Tony Braine outwitting CBRE’s Tom Webb 3-1, and Ben Grose out-scoring James Horrocks. But CBRE’s Theo Holmes prevented a whitewash, defeating BL’s new entrant, Will Hobman.
The Main Trophy events on the adjacent court saw Cushman’s Ollie Slack notch a humdinger over GVA’s James Maskey 3-1; followed by an upset as a previously unbeaten Marcus Hayes capitulated to GVA national league player James Pickles.
With the set score levelled, the four-month, 29-team competition boiled down to a showdown between GVA’s Adam Wildig, another national league player, and Cushman’s Matt Sampson. Wildig dug deep to triumph 3-1, putting GVA back to the top step of the podium as 2v1 winners for the first time since 2002, with a David Brent lookalike- of The Office fame – watching the action unfold.
The Newton Perkins Squash Tournament has been running for 38 years. See www.newtonperkins.com
rebecca.kent@estatesgazette.com
