2003 Club
Championship
Information
Rules
Timetable
Commentaries
Men's Tourn.
Ladies' Tourn.
Men's Plate
Ladies' Plate
Sunday 11th May - Finals Night
What a superb finals night. It was wonderful to see so many spectators enjoying the exciting matches this evening. I think this format of squeezing the entire event into four consecutive days is an unqualified success.
Ladies' Plate
The evening started with the finals of the Ladies' Plate between Ros Porter and Karen Ferris. Karen kept Ros under pressure all the time and never seemed in any danger, but Ros displayed some impressive retrieving and showed she had a very accurate dependable serve. Karen won the match with a score of 9/2 9/2 9/1.
Men's Plate
As expected, this game between Wayne Hooper and Ben Salcedo was an exciting five-setter. It was also interesting to see the different styles - Wayne the attacker versus Ben the retriever. Wayne came out like a rocket as usual and built up a useful 4/1 lead in the first game. Then surprisingly, he eased off and Ben grabbed the opportunity to dig in and claw his way through to 9/5. It all changed in the second game as Wayne psyched himself up and produced some millimetre-perfect boasts and kills and took the game very convincingly 9/3. There was another switch part way through the third game, where Wayne was clearly in some pain (it turned out later to be a twisted knee). This stopped him pushing off and Ben took full advantage with some safe drops and boasts to go 2-1 up.
Everyone (including Ben) expected Wayne to fade away in the fourth, but he slowed things down a little and went for his shots - including one acrobatic volley kill while six inches off the ground! Ben, who had been expecting a more sedate performance from Wayne, couldn't fight back and Wayne levelled the match at 2-all.
Wayne was still fired up in the fifth and rocketed into a 5/0 lead. There seemed little Ben could do but watch the game disappear out of his reach. But Wayne, having reached 7/1 was unable to get the last few points and Ben clawed his way back point by point to a 9/7 win. The score was 9/5 3/9 9/4 3/9 9/7. For the statisticians amongst you, you will be interested to see that Wayne got 34 points to Ben's 33!
Ladies
It was great to see a competitive match here between Frances Heneghan and Lorna Robinson. Frances seemed nervous initially and allowed Lorna to reach an unassailable 8/3. However, as we all know, there is no unassailable score in squash, and Frances responded with some magnificent retrieving, putting more and more pressure on Lorna to kill the ball. This pressure caused Lorna to tin quite a few shots and Frances surged to 10/8 in two hands. Frances kept up the pressure in the second game and helped by many tinned shots from Lorna reached an unassailable 8/4. What was that we were saying about unassailable scores in squash a moment ago? Needless to say, Lorna raised her game, pressurised Frances into a couple of mistakes and took the second game 10/8. This was exciting squash.
Frances was clearly tiring in the third game, but up to 6/5 was still very much in the game. At this stage, Lorna raised her game and hit more accurate attacking shots. Frances didn't miss them by much, but a near miss doesn't get you any points, and in this case allowed Lorna to take the game 9/6 and give her the comfortable position of a 2-1 lead in games.
Frances had to break back in the fourth, and she did her best, but tiredness was setting in and she could only reach many of Lorna's attacking shots at the second bounce. This was the longest game with 33 rallies, but Lorna was doing most of the scoring and eventually won the game 9/2. The score in the match was 8/10 10/8 9/6 9/2.
Mens
Once again, the men's final was between Glenn Danks (1st seed) and Brett Green (2nd seed). The general consensus beforehand was that this would be a rerun of last year's match with a certain victory for Glenn, but it wasn't like that at all.
As usual, the pace of the match was fast and punishing. It was interesting to contrast this match with the one played by Wayne and Ben earlier. In this match, almost every shot was safe, but put the opponent under pressure. In the earlier match many shots were ambitious, and if they were successful, won the rally, but if imperfectly played caused all kinds of trouble for the player.
Glenn started off in his usual invincible manner and cruised through to a 5/1 lead with some relentless squash. His boasts were as accurate as ever (no more than a couple of centimetres above the tin and dying in the front corners) and he seems to have a couple of new shots - a drop from the back that he hardly ever tins, and a safe drop off the opponents boast or drop that has virtually no pace.
Brett on the other hand has unlearned some shots - he cut out a lot of the risky cross-court drops that proved his undoing last year. The only problem with this however, was that without this rally-ending shot, the rallies wouldn't end, so he had to stay with Glenn through some exceptionally long rallies. This approach seemed to be working though and with a mixture of wrong-footing shots, tight drops and the odd error from Glenn, Brett pulled back Glenn's lead and went 6/5 in front. Glenn got slightly distracted at a marking decision at about 7-all and suddenly Brett had taken the first game 9/7.
Everyone (including Brett) realised that this meant there was a chance of him beating Glenn this year, but there was still a lot of work to be done. At 5/2 in the next game it really looked as if it could be Brett's year, but he attempted a few riskier shots to gain the last few points and they didn't quite come off - Glenn hauled him in and took the second game 9/5.
In the third game, Glenn was obviously in control and punished Brett with his constant variety of straight length, powerful passing cross court shots, accurate boasts and safe tight drops. Brett did some superb retrieving, but was fighting a rearguard action all the way through. Glenn took that 9/3.
We all waited to see what would happen in the fourth. Would Brett cave in after all the punishment Glenn had inflicted on him? Would he dig in and go for a shot at the title? He established an early 4/1 lead with some superb attack play and this gave him hope. Instead of resorting to risky shots like he had in the second game trying to get the last few points, he kept playing safe but attacking squash. If a shot didn't quite come off, he would retrieve, and settle back into percentage squash waiting for another opportunity. This was exhausting stuff, because Glenn was still making Brett do most of the work, but it paid off. Glenn made a few uncharacteristic unforced errors and suddenly Brett had taken the game 9/4 and levelled the match 2-all.
At the beginning of the fifth, it was obvious that Brett was suffering. He was still playing superbly, but on several occasions, he was half a metre off the required pace and Glenn (who must have been suffering, but didn't seem to show any effects) took full advantage of this to get an easy six point lead. Then, Brett dug in again, and won four rallies in a row. But it was too late - Glenn kept to the same punishing pace and slowly went through to a 9/4 win and the match.
This was the most exciting men's final we have had in years. The score was 7/9 9/5 9/3 4/9 9/4.
Conclusion
As I say every year, these matches keep getting better and better. I really think this year's finals were amongst the best I have seen. Without doubt, the atmosphere during the entire competition amongst players and spectators was exceptional. We have definitely hit on a winning formula with this new compact arrangement. I look forward to next year's event.
Paul's (Minor) Rant
It seems to be customary for me to have a rant round about this time of year, but on this occasion, there is little for me to rant about! However, there are a couple of things I feel I should say.
It would be great if we got a few more people to enter this event - in particular, I think ALL the team players should commit themselves to it. Almost all did this year, but I would like still more! As a matter of fact, we would find it difficult to squeeze the event into a weekend if the entry for the men's event was larger than 32, but we'll face that hurdle when/if we come to it.
Another minor issue is that, as usual, a small group of people did the lion's share of the work. Ideally, all players would turn up early on in the session, do a bit of marking, play their game and then have a drink while watching another match or two. I take grave exception to the players who turn up at the last minute to play their matches and then bugger off as soon as their games are over without staying on to mark or spectate. The usual excuse offered is that they are busy. We're ALL busy people, some of us have demanding jobs, children, wives, dogs, hamsters etc. Look at the time stamps on my emails and web pages to see how I manage to balance my commitments to the squash club with my other responsibilities. Remember, this is a member's club. See last year's rant if you don't understand what this means!
And finally, ending on a more pleasant note, thanks to all the people who did participate. It is appreciated and it resulted in a really good competition.
Saturday p.m. 10th May - Ben Bomford meets his Waterloo!
There was a great turnout this evening to watch the semi finals of the Club Championship.
Ladies' Plate
Wendy HB once more gave a gutsy performance against Karen Ferris in the Ladies' Plate - Karen however was always in control and cruised through to a place in the finals. Unfortunately, Alison Chinn had to pull out of the competition, so Ros got through on a bye.
Ladies
Lisa Barlow (a relative newcomer to squash) faced the club's ladies 1st seed, Lorna Robinson, and to her credit, got points in all three games. Frances Heneghan (3rd seed) and Sarah Bent (2nd seed) had a tough match on court 3. Both players were tiring, but Frances had more stamina and kept Sarah under constant pressure forcing the odd mistake. Frances won it 9/7 6/9 10/9 9/4.
Men's Plate
Wayne Hooper played like a man possessed in the first game and Mike Francis struggled to hang on. However, Mike's boasts were particularly effective, and occasionally Wayne's margin for error disappeared, so Mike nicked the first game 10/9. In the later games, Wayne's concentration was spoiled several times by being called up on foot faults, but he kept up the pressure, and after building up a 7/2 lead in the fifth, there was no stopping him. The score was 9/10 9/3 7/9 9/3 9/4.
Paul Heneghan had an excellent first game against Ben Salcedo. He built up a 4 point lead with a straightforward length game allowing Ben to make the mistakes. In the second and third games however, Ben was making all the progress with some good attacking play, and Paul was tiring. In the fourth game at 2-1 down Paul changed tactics and slowed down the pace of the game with some lob serves. Ben rushed things and tinned several shots giving Paul an 8/1 lead. However, Paul had slowed things down too much - when Ben staged a comeback starting at 2/8, Paul couldn't fight back and Ben went through to 10/8 in a single hand. The score was 5/9 9/3 9/5 10/8.
Mens
I didn't see Ben Bomford (unseeded) play his game against Glen Danks (the 1st seed), but the score speaks for itself - 9/1 9/6 9/0. It sounds like it took him a game to adjust to the pace. In the second, he started getting points, and in the third, his legs gave up?
I did witness the other semi final between Martin Kiff (3rd seed) and Brett Green (2nd seed), and it was a superb match. Kiffy has the honour of being the only player to take a game off Glen in the Club Championship in the last three years, and this evening he showed us the technique he uses - this involves hurling himself from the front of the court to the back to the front to the back ... He also plays some good shots along the way! Brett however took it all in his stride and made Kiffy do most of the work. In particular, Brett's second game was exhibition stuff and he took that to love. In the third game, Kiffy's retrieving reached new heights, Brett lowered his margins for error and tinned lots of shots and all of a sudden, Kiffy was 7/2 up. That's as far as he got though - Brett switched on his concentration again and went back to percentage squash again which took him through to 9/7. This was a very enjoyable match to watch. One of the most impressive things was Kiffy's restraint when he had a tough (but fair!) stroke awarded against him at a critical point in the third. The score was 9/3 9/1 9/7.
Saturday a.m. 10th May - Is there no stopping Ben?
Not content with knocking out the 5th seed (Martyn Whiting), Ben Bomford took out the 4th seed (Ian Stuart) this morning with a demonstration of good attacking squash. All the games that I saw started with Ben surging into a good lead with some really aggressive squash, then having a bit of a rest allowing Ian to catch up and then turning on the pressure again at the end of the game. The score was 9/8 7/9 9/6 9/3.
Tom Bomford had a much more difficult job than his brother. He battled against Glen, the club number one, and for the first game and a half, there was very little in it. Ben's superb retrieving made Glen attempt some ultra-low drops which tinned and Tom hit some really low winners as well. However, at four all in the second, Tom faced two problems - he broke his racket strings and he needed new legs. He didn't get any more points after that, but he gets full credit for staying with Glen for a game and a half.
Gray Wilson doesn't like mornings! He never really got going against Kiffy.
Errol achieved his ambition of making Brett work for his victory and took a game along the way.
In the plate, Mike Francis beat Ian Smith, Ben Salcedo beat Tony Whitehouse and Paul Heneghan (that's me!) beat Granthan. All matches went to three. John Lowe couldn't play Wayne as he did his back in against Pete McFarlane on Thursday.
The new format (of squeezing the competition into a weekend) is working really well. There has been really good support with plenty of exciting matches to watch.
Friday, 9th May - Two seeds knocked out
There were some interesting developments today. Ben Bomford knocked out 5th seed Martyn Whiting, and Errol knocked out 7th seed Martin Beck. Tom Bomford and Russ had an excellent match, and if Russ hadn't tired in the fifth, they'd probably still be playing! Gray played superbly against Richard and produced a dazzling array of kills.
In the ladies' competition, Wendy did well to get a couple of points off Lorna, Sarah had a walkover against Alison, Frances powered her way through against Ros and Lisa did well to beat Karen Ferris.
We don't normally bother with plates if the entry is less than 16, and in previous years with entries of two or four in the ladies' competition, it would have been ridiculous, but dues to considerable demand there will be an (unofficial) ladies' plate competition this year, so all ladies are guaranteed a place in a semifinal! Follow the links to see the times of play.
Thurs, 8th May - A Great Start to the Tournament
The tournament got off to a great start today with ALL matches played! I don't ever remember that happening before. There was also a lot of support - even a balcony full at 2100 to watch me and Jimmy.
I only saw one match - the one in which I was on the receiving end of an annihilation from Jimmy - I have to say, he played well and deserved to win.
There were a couple of exciting matches - Steve Porter beat Ben Salcedo 10/9 in the fifth and Pete McFarlane beat John Lowe in five.
Thanks to all the markers.
Wed, 7th May - Good turnout for tournament this year!
We've got 27 men and 8 ladies this year - pretty good! Hopefully it will all fit into the four days. There will be virtually no flexibility, so if you can't make a match, you'll probably have to scratch. PLEASE let me and your opponent know if you can't make a match.
There are a couple of withdrawals already - Steve Dyke, Pete Scully and Anne Tomkins.
I don't think I'll have any time for match reports this year. However, if anyone else has time to email me a comment or two ...
The first game of the tournament starts on Thursday 8th May at 18:00.