The MANTIS Fantasy Squash Power Play Exhibition

The first Fantasy Squash Exhibition night proved to be a great success with 20 year old Chris Fuller being crowned champion after a very entertaining evening.

The night began with all spectators predicting the finishing positions of the 6 professionals Emma Beddoes, Declan James, Chris Fuller, Ollie Holland, Kirtsy McPhee and Mark Fuller, who replaced injured Eddie Charlton at the last minute. The pros played in a round robin format with each match just one game PAR scoring to 11.

Here is how the power plays worked worked...

There were 2 different Power Plays:

Attacking: Every cross court nick winner counts for 2 points (the marker will decide if the winner was a nick, but the ball does not need to roll!)

Defensive: Your opponent has to hit deep, every ball must bounce past the short line or be above the service line.

Boys have 2, 1 of each (for the whole night)
Girls have 6, 3 of each (for the whole night)

You can only initialise a Power Play at the start of a rally. The player will tell the marker which Power Play he/she wants to use

Power Plays last for 2 minutes (if 2 minutes are up and a rally is still going on the Power Play finishes at the end of the rally)

At the end of a Power Play before the next rally starts the marker will let the players know that the Power Play has finished

Power Plays can be used at anytime but only if there is not already one being used by your opponent, otherwise if you use your attacking power play and your opponent makes you use their defensive then they will cancel each other out.

Match Reports

The first match of the night was Declan James vs Chris Fuller with James taking his first attacking “power play” before a ball had been struck. With every cross court nick counting for 2 points James went for the winner at every opportunity but with a hot court and against a fresh Fuller they were hard to find and his early bold statement seemed to backfire with Fuller taking a 4 point lead. James fought back though with the help of the local crowd (and ref) climbing to a 9-8 lead, it was Fuller’s turn to use a “power play”, opting to make James defend (hit beyond the short line or above the service line) he executed it well taking the game 11/9.

This game proved to be the decisive contest of the evening with both players going on to win all there other matches even with only 1 “power play” left each.

James went on to win the battle of the junior’s 11/9 in a brutal game against Ollie Holland who up till that point was still undefeated, comfortably beating Mark Fuller 11/4. The game could have gone either way with both Holland and James using there remaining “power plays” to try and stay on top, but in the end James edged through and kept himself in the running for the title hoping that Mark would see off Chris in the final match of the night.

With 6 “power plays” each at the start the finishing position of the girls was always going to be hard to predict. This proved evident when Kirsty McPhee lost out narrowly to Mark Fuller 11/10. Despite using multiple “power plays” on the boys both girls made sure they saved some for each other with McPhee maintaining her good form despatching Emma Beddoes 11/8.

With the final positions still undecided the Fuller brother contested the final match of the night. Despite an inspired use of an attacking power play by Mark in the end Chris was just to strong closing the match out 11/5 and taking home the first Fantasy Squash Exhibition Title.

A great evening came to a close with Nottingham junior Jack Lewindaski taking home the first prize of £50.00 in cash for the closest prediction to the final standings, with Josh Taylor finishing second, taking home a top of the range MANTIS racket!

Final Results Table: