By Mike Dale

DUNNINGTON Squash Club's Chris Simpson may have announced his retirement from professional squash this week - but there was certainly no drop in standards this week.

He clinched victory for the defending Yorkshire Premier League champions on Wednesday night.

Harrogate-based Simpson, 32, revealed on the morning of the YPL round-nine clash with Hull & East Riding that he is leaving the PSA Tour to become a trainee financial planner in January. He will not be giving up his club duties though and showed no lack of professionalism in dispatching England number-three ranked junior Ben Smith to seal a 3-2 (14-8) team victory.

Before Simpson's decisive win, Dunnington were facing the prospect of a surprise defeat to second-bottom Hull after the visitors' Fiona Moverley (another recently-retired pro) and Glyn Saunders had both won 3-0. Dunnington's number five Matt Stephenson and second-string Julian Tomlinson both won 3-1 though to level the match at 2-2 before Simpson's clinching triumph.

Dunnington stay in fourth spot, and it is Abbeydale who remain on top after a very comprehensive 5-0 defeat of last year's runners-up Chapel Allerton 1.

Phil Scully got the leaders off to a fine start, edging a tight first game against Chapel's Alec Foster then taking the next two more comfortably. Frenchwoman Coline Aumard profited from James Wilkinson's slight injury in beating him in five games, before the Sheffield side's third-string Ollie Turner defeated Paul Allen, who is rapidly improving but remains inexperienced at this high level.