IPSWICH Sports Club's squash section just missed out on a clean sweep of the Suffolk leagues this season.The men's teams won all of the first three divisions, with the first team winning Division One by one point.

IPSWICH Sports Club's squash section just missed out on a clean sweep of the Suffolk leagues this season.

The men's teams won all of the first three divisions, with the first team winning Division One by one point.

Left needing at least a 4-1 win to take the title against Lexden 2, Martin Levens, the club pro, was the only player defeated, but he hung on to win the third set against Chris Smith and gain the extra point necessary to win the title.

The player of the season for the firsts was Alistair Livingstone. He led the way this year, and he produced several top-class results through the season and was only beaten twice during the campaign.

The second team won Division Two by a much clearer margin. They remained undefeated throughout the season and Andrew Pearce proved to be an excellent captain, he managed to keep all players motivated throughout.

The third team prevailed in Division Three. This was a much closer fight and Lexden pushed them to the wire.

Their last game against Lexden was crucial and a 5-0 thumping was promptly produced. John Goodrich stands out for praise he had a tremendous season at number one, and at 54 he was almost certainly the oldest player in the league.

The fourth team finished third in the same division, and the one team not quite able to win their league were the fifths - they only managed to finish second in Division Four. The fifths took it right to the last game as well, however, and Anton Taylor's teams are still hoping to play up a division next year

The ladies were victorious again, although this year was somewhat tighter than last year. The ladies needed one set from their last match against Ardleigh and Hilary Cook, unbeaten through the season, duly obliged.

The ladies, led by Jane Cook, were too strong through the season and lost one match only during the whole season.

The ladies' second and third teams finished a creditable third and fourth respectively, and the ladies' fourth team introduced a few of the juniors in their Second Division team.

In spite of this they still managed a couple of creditable wins during the season.

The newly-founded East Anglian Area Squash Academy, were competing against the other regions across the land at Birmingham at the weekend, with eight Ipswich players in the squad.

Ashley Watling as well as developing dramatically as a tennis player, has also developed into a fine squash player.

He was involved along with Alex Beynon, Lalit Bose, Chris Watling, Byrony Paczy-Smith, Beccy Poole, Sumitha Bose and Kitty Mcwhirter.