IT WAS a script no-one could have written – that was manager Felix Frixou's verdict as Benz Bavarian Duffield snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in the Premier Squash League play-off final.

Duffield led 2-0 with world champion Nick Matthew to come in the final against Surrey in Guildford.

Then, astonishingly, Matthew lost his 40-match unbeaten run in the PSL – succumbing 3-0 to England team-mate and world number eight Peter Barker in a titanic struggle.

Surrey went on to complete a 3-2 victory for their fifth national title in a row, leaving Duffield still waiting for their first title since 2007.

Despite Surrey's run of titles, the Derbyshire side were favourites for this one and the passionate Frixou was devastated by the result – although fulsome in his praise for Barker's performance.

"Peter Barker perhaps played the best game of squash in his life – it was almost textbook perfection," said Frixou.

"He deserved to win and, as much as I wasn't happy with the result, I went to tell him so and to congratulate him.

"At 2-0 up, with Nick to come, I'd have put all the cars in my dealership on us winning.

"People were tweeting that we were bringing the title back to Derbyshire – but it wasn't to be.

"We took two coachloads of supporters down and I feel bad for them.

"I'm really sorry that we couldn't bring it back for them and I know that there's only person feeling worse than me right now – that's Nick and he's totally gutted."

The evening had started off so well for Duffield at a packed Surrey Sports Park.

Stalwart Andy Whipp – so often a big occasion performer – put them one up with a 3-0 win over Davide Bianchetti, winning all three games 11-8 in 35 minutes.

Women's world champion Laura Massaro predictably made it 2-0, although not without a battle against British champion Alison Waters.

Massaro was twice behind before clinching a 3-2 win, taking the last game 11-8 after just over an hour's play.

Adrian Waller got Surrey on the board with a straight games win over Joel Hinds in 41 minutes but the big drama was by now unfolding in the battle between Matthew and Barker.

After Barker nipped ahead 12-10, both players had four games balls during the course of an occasionally tempestuous second game and it was Barker who kept his composure to take it 18-16.

From there, he ran out an 11-5 winner in the third.

Surrey stalwart Adrian Grant completed his side's comeback, beating Steve Coppinger in straight games.

Barker and Matthew had both been annoyed by some refereeing calls and Frixou admitted he was surprised that it appeared Matthew was more affected.

"It makes us realise he's human after all!" the manager joked.

"Nick let a couple of decisions get to him but there are no sour grapes – take nothing away from Peter.

"When Nick had him scrambling all over the place early in the game, hunting him down, he kept his cool."

By the following day, Frixou was already battling his disappointment by starting to plan Duffield's next assault on the elusive title.

And he was able to confirm that his two world champions, Matthew and Massaro, will be part of it again.

"I think it was Laura who said they didn't want runners-up medals," said Frixou.

"They've said 'we want winners' medals and we'll be there for you next year.'

"The supporters love these guys and they want to play for us.

"In the end, we have to be realistic and say we didn't really do anything wrong. It's easy to forget that we had a great season.

"We were favourites. We couldn't bring it back home but we came as close as you possibly could.

"Now we'll find a way to compete even harder next season and I already have a couple of ideas.

"I'm already looking at a couple of new signings – let's look forward now, not back."

THE nation's bill payers are facing tough times, as research shows that household bills remained at their highest level in 2013 with UK families having to find around £8,170 to pay their regular outgoings.

According to the research by Bacs Payment Schemes Ltd (Bacs), the people behind direct debit, when personal bills are added into the mix – like mobile phone charges, personal loans and membership fees – the average household has to find £12,587 annually, or more than £1,000 every month, just to cover regular bills.

With those figures in mind, Bacs is giving one UK household the opportunity to live bill-free for a year. Just by switching to paying regular bills by direct debit, one family could win a £12,000 Big Break.

The nationwide Big Break campaign is being supported by utility companies, local authorities and service providers and asks people to consider spreading the costs of their household and personal bills by paying by direct debit.

And by switching to paying a participating company by direct debit, bill payers will be entered into a draw for the £12,000 prize.

Mike Hutchinson, from Bacs, said: "Splitting costs across the year could relieve some of the strain on hard-pressed family purses."

For more details, visit www.thebigbreak.co.uk.

THERE is a palpable sense of confidence in the economy which was sadly absent during the downturn.

From the housing market to manufacturing, indications are good.

However, structural problems remain in the economy both domestically and internationally that threaten to undermine our long-term prospects.

I was disappointed, but not surprised, to read recently that despite the UK's return to growth, unemployment among people aged 16-24 remains as high as one in four in many of our towns and cities. According to think-tank the Work Foundation, even those cities with the lowest levels of unemployment among young people still have a rate of 13%.

Derby, has the 18th highest level of youth unemployment, at more than 21%.

The authors of the report called on national and local government to do more to work with educators and businesses to improve access to apprenticeships and work placements, and provide more careers guidance to young people.

As an employer of more than 6,000 people; many of them within this age bracket, Webhelp UK wholeheartedly supports the grand ambitions of the Work Foundation in its moves to improve the situation for the next generation of the workforce.

However, our experience tells us it's not enough just to provide more work placements. Increasingly, the jobs are there to be filled but the young people don't have the necessary skills to fill them.

We're not talking maths and English here. The problem is with soft, non-academic skills. Many lack an understanding of interview etiquette, how to write a CV and don't possess the basic knowledge of the world of work.

They have the ability to make a meaningful contribution to the workplace. They just don't have the means of articulating this.

Measures to address this through placement schemes will not bridge this gap. If someone can't get through the door, they won't be able to benefit from learning on the job.

Careers advisers, in my experience, do a sterling job but their efforts will come to nothing if employers don't engage with young people at the earliest possible stage.

Through our Customer Experience Academy, Webhelp UK has been able to address these issues among our own candidates.

Rather than turning away promising young people who perhaps do not interview well, for more than a year now we've been inviting them to complete a five-week work skills course. Then we give them a second chance at an interview.

The results speak for themselves. Since December 2012, more than 270 young candidates have successfully completed the programme to earn a customer service qualification, with a further 330 places available this year.

A lot of employers will complain about a skills gap, and call on the Government to address this but the only way we'll make progress on this is if more companies put their money where their mouths are to give young people a chance.

Sarah Wilson has a difficult job looking after her two disabled children but she wouldn't swap her life for anyone's. Here's why.

"MY boys aren't just living with spinal muscular atrophy, they're surviving it."

These dynamic words are how wonder-mum Sarah Wilson describes her eight-year-old twins, Sam and Alex Bolton.

"They'll never be able to walk and I can't change that," says the 46-year-old from Littleover. "But making their lives busy, fun and fulfilled is what is important to me."

Sam and Alex celebrate their ninth birthday this month. They're a pair of smiley kids who have a gang of good mates. They like school, love drama and soon they hope to start playing wheelchair football.

They have also got a genetic condition called spinal muscular atrophy type 2, which causes the spinal cord to deteriorate and breaks the link with the brain and muscles.

"I could tell you all the things they can't do," says single mum Sarah. "But I'd really prefer to focus on the positives.

"To be honest, they are the envy of their friends," she laughed. "They've met One Direction and David Walliams and we've got the pics to prove it."

Sarah's life revolves around her sons. While they are at school – Griffe Field Primary – she crams in some secretarial work. Then, when they get home, her time is theirs.

She says: "I hear the taxi pull up on the drive and the boys are chattering as they make their way in. They are always full of it after being at school. It's lovely to hear them. They're just typical boys. They get on, then they don't. They play together, then they don't."

Their diagnosis hit Sarah hard but that was a long time ago now. They were just 18 months old. Although she suspected that they had some kind of developmental delay, nothing had prepared her for what she was going to be told.

"They had SMA," she says. "It just meant baby milk to me. I had no idea that it was also the initials for a condition called spinal muscular atrophy. I was told that they would never be able to walk and I grieved for the active children I'd lost."

Facing a future with wheelchairs and doctors was almost too much to bear.

"It wasn't easy," says Sarah. "My whole life changed and, for a while, I didn't know where to turn."

Then she did the right thing. She picked herself up, brushed herself off and started giving her two children what they needed –- practical support and buckets of love.

She says: "We have so much fun and the boys have done some wonderful things.

"I'll never forget when they met One Direction. Sam and Alex were so cool about it. The band thought the boys were real characters and I just stood back and watched them. They absolutely loved it. And me? I thought it was wonderful.

"But the best had to be when we met David Walliams. He was such a lovely, lovely guy and the children thoroughly enjoyed having their photograph taken with him.

"He was nothing like he is on the TV. He was quite quiet and softly spoken. He chatted to the boys for a while and they just loved the attention.

"You'd expect them to get all star-struck but it's quite the opposite. I think that's because they usually think they're the stars of the show."

Sarah receives lots of support from family and friends. Sam and Alex's dad is still involved in their lives and she has what she calls "night fairies" who come in twice a week to look after the children so she can get some sleep.

She also relies heavily on Rainbows Children's Hospice, where the children receive round-the-clock care and attention. For 16 nights a year, the boys stay at the Loughborough centre. It gives Sarah a well-earned rest and sometimes she goes too.

"My mum and dad are wonderful. They come to me because the boys can't get into their house because their wheelchairs are bulky. In the summer, we go to them and sit in the garden."

Sam and Alex hate to let their physical disability get in the way of life. At school, they take part in the PE, and the pair are learning how to play the ukulele.

"Sometimes school needs to make slight adjustments, like letting them use a laptop when their hands get achy and tired of writing but their school day is the same as everyone else's.

"The school's inclusion policy is amazing and the boys get to enjoy a full curriculum."

Sarah admits she does have moments of panic but she says she keeps them buried deep. She admits she worries about their futures but what mum doesn't worry about her children?

My children, Joe and Ted, are good friends of Sam and Alex. They go to the same school and have spent many a fun night bopping away together at the fund-raising disco.

Talking to me, she says: "You might worry about Joe moving to secondary school (she's right) and whether he's going to get good SATS results (she's right again), but I worry about Sam and Alex's long term future and whether they'll see adulthood."

How do you respond to that? All the concerns I have for my boys pale into insignificance when you stop and picture Sarah's situation.

She does not know when this condition will rob her boys of their life – although the prognosis is good.

"I can't change the future," she says. "But I can give them the best start. I tell them to work hard at school so they can get good jobs. It's my job to steer them down the right path so they can achieve in life.

"Sam says he wants to be a marine biologist and Alex is thinking of becoming a house husband!

"These days, people with SMA type 2 are living well into adulthood. We know of people who have got married and had babies. These stories are wonderful and make me feel really happy."

Sam and Alex may be physically disabled but they can still talk and their brains work normally.

They developed SMA because Sarah and Sam and Alex's dad are both carriers of the defective gene.

The brothers love life and despite a few moans and groans about not being able to walk, they are happy.

"They certainly keep me busy," says Sarah. "In 2013, I had 72 appointments with doctors and specialists, and then there's all the meeting about equipment and wheelchairs and vehicles.

"There's never a clear week when we don't have to be somewhere but I wouldn't swap my life for anything.

"Of course, I wish they could walk but they can't. I also wish they had come with a volume button, but that didn't happen either. Being their mum is a privilege, not a job."

Every day, I see Sam and Alex motoring round the playground but they don't notice me. While they are busy catching up with their friends, I watch them for a while. I look at their new black shoes, pristine and polished and it breaks my heart. They have never splashed in puddles, got caked in mud or ended up with holes in their soles after the first term at school.

As a mum, I have these issues but Sarah doesn't. It makes me desperately sad. Then I see their smiling faces, crop of bright blond hair and heavy book bags on the back of their wheelchairs.

Now I know more about SMA type 2, I believe the world is their oyster.

SARAH Wilson's heart broke when she heard the TV news. The children who were found dead at their south-west London home last month had SMA – spinal muscular atrophy type 2. Their mother was charged with murder.

The three youngsters were living with the exact same condition that affects her twin boys, eight-year-olds Sam and Alex.

"It knocked me right off my feet," says Sarah. "My heart went out to the family."

Sarah says the SMA community were saddened by the story. The 46-year-old is in contact with other families with SMA, and says the news hit everyone hard.

"We all share stories," says Sarah. "For me, it's another strand of my support structure. I meet with other mums who have children with SMA and we talk.

"To be honest, it's good to have people to meet with. The mums who I see are wonderful. They have become my friends.

"Finding the right kind of help is vital when you've got two disabled children to look after.

"With the right kind of support, life can be so much easier."

STUDENTS working on a sports robot fighting game for the Xbox One are hoping to help reboot the city's reputation for developing computer games.

Seven University of Derby undergraduates have set up Deco Digital and made it on to a select list of developers for Microsoft's latest entertainment console.

Joe Brammer, soon to graduate with a degree in computer games modelling and animation, has high hopes for the project.

When the game gets its global release towards the end of this year, he expects that it will be downloaded at least 200,000 times.

It is likely to cost gamers between £5 and £12. After Microsoft takes a cut, the revenues will allow Deco Digital to both pay salaries to the seven people working on the project, fund a follow-up game and grow the business.

Deco Digital has a 10-year plan to develop a gaming empire with as many as 200 employees and put the city back on the global gaming map.

It got on to the Xbox One project via a scheme called ID@Xbox which gives independent games developers an opportunity to work on the platform.

Mr Brammer said: "There are some big names on the list and it gave us a boost to see we were there alongside Crytek and HB Studios.

"At the moment we are surviving with what's left of our student loans and sharing office space with Bevel Studios who are also graduates of Derby Uni. The game will be available before Christmas 2014 and we're sure that it will be successful as we're really pleased with it so far."

The team chose to study at the University of Derby because of the proximity to Eurocom, the Ashbourne Road firm that developed James Bond and Pirates of the Caribbean games.

It was placed in administration in December 2012 with former directors setting up Eight Pixels Square, a much smaller operation.

Mr Brammer said: "Eurocom went bust in our first year at university, which was disappointing because it would have been a place for us to work after university.

"We all like the city and want to rekindle Derby's talent for gaming knowledge."

The group of friends are also filming the various stages of the project in order to put together a documentary about their journey from students to tech entrepreneurs. On Monday, the company is launching a Kickstarter campaign to raise £2,500 to produce the documentary. This is a form of crowd funding whereby supporters can pledge donations to contribute to the project.

Mr Brammer said: "The film will document the next six months as the game is developed and, whether the game is successful or not, it will show people what we do and how we do it."

Thanks for the messages everyone great result massive game sunday now! Fans were unreal as they have been all season!! Safe trip home

— Johnny Russell (@johnnyrussell27) May 8, 2014

Well done to the lads for getting a fantastic result tonight! Tough test that's only half finished.

— Shaun Barker (@barks5) May 8, 2014

Half time 2-1 to the rams fantastic position to be in ! Well done lads !

— Robbie Savage (@RobbieSavage8) May 8, 2014

Streaming the game and projecting it on the curtains , c'mon derby ! pic.twitter.com/puvmTPcSRZ

— Niall Horan (@NiallOfficial) May 8, 2014

Looking good for the Rams. Must be so arduous though for our East Midlands neighbours to suffer the indignity of the playoffs.

— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) May 8, 2014