Trinity College Dublin Squash Racket Club (DUSRC) hosted the annual intervarsities over the weekend of the 11th and 12th and came away with a successful performance in both the men’s and women’s side of the game.
Both the Men’s A and Women’s A from Trinity won the top division competitions while University College Cork (UCC) dominated the Men’s B, C, D and Women’s B and C divisions. Trinity’s Men’s A have now built a formidable repetition, having won the top division at intervarsities for four years in a row.
Matches took place on Friday evening and all day Saturday in Trinity Halls and the Sportsco gym. Universities and colleges from around the country took part namely, Royal College of Surgeons Ireland, Dublin City University, Queen’s University Belfast, National University Ireland Galway, University College Dublin, Institute of Technology Tralee (ITT) and UCC.
A greater turnout of colleges from last year reflected the growth of the sport around the county, while the smooth organisation of the tournament will only further cement the intervarsities tournament as a staple of the Irish squash calendar. The growth of the tournament could be seen in the number of teams entered into the A division, with five taking part this year up from two last year.
The format of the competition year merits an explanation: Each team consists of five players, who are ranked from 1-5. Each player will play one match against each of the other teams. They face the other teams correspondingly ranked player. For example, UCC’s number 3 plays against ITT’s number 3. Then the scores of each of the five games are totalled and the team with the the highest score wins the encounter.
After the matches on Saturday night a social dinner was held at the Alexander Hotel where all the awards from the competition were then handed out. DUSRC captain Tamaki Marumo speaking to The University Times via email was proud of the performance of the squash club over the year: “This year was an excellent year for student squash in Ireland with an excellent turnout for intervarsities. We were very glad to keep our winning streak in Men’s A and see Women’s A win this year! Squash clearly is not fading as a sport and is as vibrant as ever in Ireland”
