The Fordham squash team began a unique experience on Sunday, as the Rams started a seven-day stay in the United Kingdom, where Fordham will play six exhibition matches against a variety of club teams in the U.K.
Throughout their trip, the Rams will be giving their own updates on the trip. On day one, Fordham took on the Lee-on-the-Solent squash club at their
home facility, falling by a score of 9-0.
Sophomore
John Lennon sent in this brief recap since the team's arrival on Saturday. Photos from senior
Matthew Crowe.
"We arrived in England around
7:30pm London time. For our first night, we went to Lee-on-the-Solent, a small town on the south coast of England. Kincade and Jimmy were hosted by Dick and Pam Webber. Alex and I met our hosts Paul and Allison Trott at their home and had dinner. We discussed squash in the UK and US and compared how the sport is viewed in the two countries.
The next morning, we went to Lee-on-the-Solent Racquet club to reunite with the team. The Lee club had six squash courts (two of which were glass backed) and six all weather tennis courts, which fascinated Matt Crowe. The club also boasted a large fitness facility, a nice restaurant and a bar.
Some of us went for a drive with coach Bryan (Patterson), who showed us the area around Lee since we had some time before our match. The area around the town was originally built up by Henry the Eighth to defend against the French; various old forts faced south across the English Channel that were used to protect from naval invasion. Four forts lined the top of Portsdown Hill which were also built during the reign of Henry the Eighth. The first naval base in the world is also located here, it has a narrow entrance with a huge natural harbor behind it.
When we returned from our drive we played a match against the Lee-on-the-Solent team. Their number one player was formerly a top 50 player in the world and is currently ranked around 150.
Peter Yuen played Tim Vail, a former top junior and current top coach in the world. I played against Aaron, a club member who happened to be good friends with my host Paul. We had a good match with game scores 11-2, 11-8 and 11-8, all won by Aaron.
Fordham lost the match, 9-0, while all matches were 3-0 except for Matt Crowe and
Robert Levis who each won a game, but lost 3-1. After the match ended, we ate a late lunch with our opponents at the club. We discussed football and american football with our opponents, and to our surprise they really seemed to enjoy american football. We left the club to explore Lee and discovered a place for dinner with a TV showing the Jets vs Bills game. We stayed for the whole game and then went back to our hosts. Alex and I returned to the Trott's home to prepare for our next day and match in Chichester."
.
