Hafrsfjord squash club (Try pronouncing that one!!) is the club I have been representing in Norway the last 6 years. This is a club based in Stavanger, Norway and have produced several national champions in all age groups over the years.
I joined this club when I moved to Stavanger in 2006 to train with the best players in Norway. It is located at Toppform Treningssenter at Sola (http://toppform-treningssenter.no/) where they house 8 squash courts. This team has won the Norwegian team championships 6 years in a row, and I believe I have been a part of 5 or 6 of these...hard to keep count :P
But with the Norwegian no1, 2, 5 and 9 on the team as well as the by far best female player in Norway in the team, nothing less is expected.
This year as well as last year, the National team championships were held at Ås squash centre, put together by Roddy "Machine" Mcleod. In this years version, due to lazyness, fright, bad luck or other reasons, only 3 teams signed up to play for the title. This was us (HSK), Oslo and Ås. This was highly unfortunate and especially disappointing for Roddy who always puts together a great tournament and atmosphere at his centre.
But apparently this year it was quality over quantity as these three teams were more than worthy for the top 3 spots. There were many great players participating, old as well as new heroes, champions and national team players. We even had a few comeback kings that were out of the squash scene for a few years which made it all very enjoyable.
Our team consisted of myself as number 1 string, Kristian Solhaug as 2nd string, Thomas E Gjerde as 3d string, and Majken Bie as our lovely female representative.
Oslo startet playing Ås, and it was an extremely close affair as Oslo barely clinched it with almost only 3-2 matches.
Straight after we played Ås. Majken lost her match 0-3 after a super close match, Thomas won his match fairly easy 3-0, and I played former junior hero Christian Bakke and won in a tough 3-0 match with great squash and high tempo 17-15 in the 3. game :) Our 2. string Kristian played Roddy McLoud and did not drop a game for us to play Oslo for the gold.
Oslo hired hitman "Svante" for the occasion on the 3. spot. He used to be a former Norwegian junior champion and national team player from he was 17!! Unfortunatelly for Oslo the HSK no3 was a bit too much for him as we won 3-0 on this spot. Majken lost her match 0-3 so it was up to the first 2 spots to decide it.Kristian and myself were playing at the same time. Kristian was the unlucky one this weekend having to catch a later flight due to work, only to get delayed, only to take the bus to Ås, only to find out it did not go, only to take a giant detour with the train via Oslo, only to FALL ASLEEP!!! and pass Ås. ONLY to be 3,5 hours late and did not eat for 10 hours.
This leading to an overly exciting match against Oslo's Knut Erik Løvig where he clinched it 11-9 in the 5th game *puuuh
On the other court I was 2-0 up against Patrick Hansen from Oslo SK. As he took the 3d game there was still hope for Oslo, but it seemed as it took a lot out of him taking that game, and he was a bit too fatigued in the 4th game to pose a severe threat. However it was a great high intensity match with good shots, tempo and quality. I am glad to pull through for the team and get us qualifyed for this years European teams in Prague in September, where we did HSK proud last year in Belfast.
All this happened on the Friday. On Saturday we took time for the newspapers (:P) and played a social tournament where the top 3 spots were the exact order of the HSK team. Just to prove a point.
Saturday evening was celebrated at casa de Løvig with great food, drinks, dance and beautiful people, and continued at TGI Fridays into the late hours :D
Gratulere alle samen :-)
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