St George’s Hill Knights and Chichester Centurions got their 2025/26 Optasia Squash Super League campaigns off to winning starts after the two teams recorded respective wins over Bristol Buccaneers and Crawley Magik on a blockbuster opening night of action.
The two teams claimed wins in contrasting style, with the Knights’ victory coming down to the deciding game of Patrick Rooney and Mohamed ElShorbagy’s duel, which Rooney eventually clinched, and the Centurions recording a clean-sweep win over Crawley Magik.
Read below for the individual reports and results from each of the two fixtures. If you missed out on the action, full replays will be available to view on the England Squash YouTube Channel.
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Bristol Buccaneers v St. George’s Hill Knights
St George’s Hill Knights claimed an away victory over the Bristol Buccaneers in dramatic style, with Patrick Rooney’s deciding game win over Mohamed ElShorbagy seeing the Knights head home with four points to their names.
Club Hero Charlie Lee got the away team off to the perfect start, with the local St George’s Hill favourite claiming an 11-8, 11-7 win over Buccaneers’ Jared Carter.
One of the Buccaneers’ new summer recruits, Sam Osborne-Wylde, transferred his recent fine form on the PSA Tour to the Squash Super League stage as he fired back for the Buccaneers in his U25s encounter with Will Salter, sealing a straight game 11-6, 11-9 victory.
The subsequent women’s match between World No.16 Jasmine Hutton and World No.22 Tesni Murphy proved to be a three-game thriller, with Hutton edging sudden-death tie-breaks in both the second and third games – along with a match ball saved for good measure – to take a dramatic win for the Knights.
Rooney and ElShorbagy’s winner-takes-all encounter certainly didn’t disappoint either in the last match of the evening, with the pair going deep into a third game which ticked over the 40-minute mark.
However, it was World No.50 Rooney who managed to eventually edge out the former World No.1 and World Champion by an 11-8, 8-11, 11-9 to seal a crucial victory for the Knights.
Results:
Charlie Lee [SGK] bt Jared Carter [BB] 2-0: 11-8, 11-7 (29m)
Sam Osborne-Wylde [BB] bt Will Salter [SGK] 2-0: 11-6, 11-9 (33m)
Jasmine Hutton [SGK] bt Tesni Murphy [BB] 2-1: 8-11, 11-10, 11-10 (41m)
Patrick Rooney [SGK] bt Mohamed ElShorbagy [BB] 2-1: 11-8, 8-11, 11-9 (41m)
Chichester Centurions v Crawley Magik
Last year’s runners-up Chichester Centurions got their second season underway in commanding style, defeating newcomers Crawley Magik 4-0 thanks to respective wins from Noah Meredith, Dylan Roberts, Sivasangari Subramaniam and Jonah Bryant.
The Centurions move straight to the top of the table with the maximum five points earned for a clean sweep win, albeit with two of their wins coming in unfortunate circumstances due to injuries to Perry and Curtis Malik.
In a well-contested 25-minute first match of the night, it was Meredith who got the better of Bailey Malik by an 11-7, 11-10 scoreline, coming in strong under pressure in the second game after Bailey had saved three match balls to force a sudden-death tie-break.
Recent British Junior Championships winner, Dylan Roberts, doubled his team’s advantage soon after his entertaining match with Perry Malik was unfortunately cut short due to an injury to the Magik player deep in the third game.
After fighting back from a game down and looking on course to wrap up the win in the third game, Roberts collided with Perry when chasing down a backhand, with Perry heading off for an injury break and subsequently unable to continue.
A similarly tough battle awaited in the one women’s match of the tie, as World No.7 Sivasangari Subramaniam fought back 1-0 down to overcome a dangerous showing from Torrie Malik in a high-octane encounter, sealing the win by an 8-11, 11-8, 11-9 scoreline.
The final match saw England National teammates Jonah Bryant and Curtis Malik square off, but after an entertaining first game, which Bryant clinched 11-9, Malik was forced to retire shortly afterwards following an awkward fall on his right shoulder.
Results:
Noah Meredith [CC] bt Bailey Malik [CM] 2-0: 11-7, 11-10 (25m)
Dylan Roberts [CC] bt Perry Malik [CM] 2-1: 7-11, 11-9, 9-4 (ret.)
Sivasangari Subramaniam [CC] bt Torrie Malik [CM] 2-1: 8-11, 11-8, 11-9 (33m)
Jonah Bryant [CC] bt Curtis Malik [CM] 2-0: 11-9, 2-1 (ret.)
