Hall’s return to professional ranks pays dividends with hard-earned Pontefract win

Up against number two seed David Wardle in the first round, a nervous Hall took a close first two games 13-11 and 12-10 before hitting form to take the third 11-5 and secure a 3-0 victory.

The quarter-final pitted the 27-year-old against Manchester’s Chris Lengthorn.

Having found some confidence from his earlier victory, he powered through with a fine display of fast, attacking squash to win 11-6, 11-4, 11-7 and set up a last-four meeting with third seed Danny Hockburn, who came into the tournament on the back of some impressive wins.

Playing controlled squash and counter-attacking when Hockburn opened up the court, Hall was always a few points ahead in each game despite some fast and brutal rallies.

An 11-4, 11-4, 11-8 scoreline put him through to the final against top seed Ashley Davies and Hall got off to a flying start, opening up a 10-5 lead in the opener.

However, Davies fought back well to come out on the right side of some long rallies to take the game 13-11.

The second game followed a similar pattern, with Hall this time resisting Davies’ fightback to win 12-10.

A strong display of attacking squash and retrieving won Hall the third game 11-5 before he closed out the match with an 11-9 success in a hard-fought fourth.

Hall is now looking to play a number of events on the World Tour in 2015 with 
the ultimate aim of working his way into the world’s top 100.

He is currently appealing for a sponsor to help achieve this dream and can be contacted at [email protected]