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NICK MATTHEW HAS GOT A MOTHER!
Yes, I’m sure you knew that, but what I mean, is that I eventually met her.
Up to now, I had only met Hedley, Nick’s father.
I find the lady extremely nice, well, I would, wouldn’t I, she likes my
articles, so… Joke apart, we had a lovely chat after the semi-finals, during
the party that Eventis organised in the Crucible Foyer.
By the way, the food was absolutely gorgeous!
During the party, Peter made a little speech to thank all the people who had
made this second edition of the Mamut English Open hosted by the Sheffield
Council a wonderful event. I started to write from memory all the people he
thanked, but I called this column “en bref”, so, it wouldn’t fit the format,
trust me.
Sue, Nick Matthew's mother, was very appreciative of James Willstrop’s
career and raise. “He is such a beautiful player, very down to earth, even
when he was a young boy, he was always very sensitive, very caring. I don’t
think that success will ever make him change…”
With such great parents, no wonder Nick Matthew is going up, up, up. Yes he
is, you people. God, he had one bad tournament, and like he told me at the
Super Series finals earlier this month, “you can’t win all the time”….
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MCKENZIE’S DOOMED…
You may know (or at least have heard of the man, or read his articles or
magazine) Ian Mckenzie, the New Zealander editor of Squash Player Magazine.
Ian is what we women call “a typical bloke”. Emotions? Isn't even sure how
you spell it. Don’t talk about those things, don’t show them…
Well, I suddenly realised that, every time the man seems me at an event, I’m
in tears!
In Canary Wharf, he arrived just for the final day, and I was exhausted, and
my private life was hurting, and Points of View had been devastating once
again… And Ian wanted very logically to have a business meeting, and I was
crying.
In Rennes, he arrived again for the final day, and I had just taken pictures
of Thierry Lincou, his wife and Jade, his baby girl. They had now gone. And
by mistake, I erased the pictures. I was hysterical in the press room. At
the same time, Ian was trying to solve a problem with one of the
photographers, and once again, very logically was trying to talk to me. In
tears again, the French woman.
And need I mention last night?
The man must be thinking “Is it me or is she just like that all the time???”
NEIL O’NEIL, NUMBER 1 FAN…
Last night, I started chatting with a lovely man in front of the Hilton
Hotel. Well, he looked like a rugby player, so, you know me…
It happens that he is one of the most regular squash fans in the UK, a
webmaster by profession, and trains during the week at Lambs with Tim
Garner.
He reads carefully Squash Player, bless him, and was even able to mention a
mistake made on the site that Steve missed out…
Passionate about squash, he is about to launch a site for squash lovers,
tongue in cheek. We’ll let you know all about it as soon as it’s ready to
roll!
Keep it up, Neil, it’s for people like you that those guys work so hard….
THE PASSIONATE LADY
You may have read that the Mamut English Open is hosted by the Sheffield
City Council, and like in all the squash events, the front seats are always
kept for the big people - no, not fat, you people, the important people, the
people that give a lot of money that allows us to have such a great show.
But most of the time, those people don’t come.
But then again, sometimes they do.
Like last night, I had the pleasure to have in the seat just in front of me
Councillor Diane Leek, ex Lord Mayor of Sheffield.
She is not a squash player, but she attended the event last year, and
enjoyed it very much. So she came back this year.
What a lovely lady. What a passionate lady. She was obviously enjoying the
evening, the matches, the rallies. And the emotions.
Thank you Mrs Leek, for your presence, your support, and your passion.
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MISTER SQUASH
The man who is in the bar of the Hilton, at 7am, working his socks off
(literally) is Steve Cubbins.
Steve Cubbins is a name that a lot of you know, without knowing what he
looks like, or even sounds like.
He is the creator and the webmaster of SquashPlayer.co.uk and .fr.
The best friend that you can have, he is probably the only person in the
world that can cope with working with me.
He copes with my bursts of impatience, my short temper, my doubts, my fears,
my tears, my insecurity… Who else would?
Always there, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, always ready to work, always
ready to follow all the mad ideas I may have, always there to put on air the
dreams I have in my head. Quick to react, quick to adapt, quick to help,
quick to solve, he is the best thing that ever happened to the world of
internet as far as squash is concerned.
I wouldn’t be much without him, so go on, Steve, take a bow…
Wednesday:
GLAD TO BE BACK
Anthony Ricketts is really glad not to be
injured anymore for obvious reasons, but also a more personal one. As he was
injured, he had to stay in Australia, away from his girlfriend, the
24-year-old WISPA player Shelley Kitchen, from New-Zealand, at the top of
her world ranking at the moment at 14.
“The 6 months where I have been injured have been really hard, because I
have been back home receiving treatment, but now that I’m back playing, we
spend much more time together, and now we live together in England, in
Reading.”
Another good reason to be happy for the young man to be back on the tour…
Welcome back Anthony… CHALONER HITS IT ON THE HEAD…
When Mark came on court today, Simon Parke was already hitting the ball.
Mark then saw another ball on the court, picked it up, and threw it out. And
the ball landed on one of the young volunteers!
“I’m ok” said the boy, a bit shocked by the experience, a bit uneasy of the
unwanted attention he got.
Well, at least, and I was surprised/relieved, it didn’t land on MY head.
That makes a change…
I’M RESPONSIBLE FOR DAVID’S DIET!
In Rennes, I did a small portrait on David Pearson, called, “it’s a cultural
thing”, for which I logically took a picture.
Well, Mr Pearson had a bit of, how can I put it nicely, flesh on the bones.
I personally find that extremely attractive, but he didn’t!
So, he decided to lose weight, and he did! There’s nothing left of him now.
And I’m sorry, but I preferred him before, not that it matters in the least
actually…
So there you are! You want to lose weight? Just ask me to take a picture of
you…
THE MEMORY HAS GONE…
I have noticed (and I’m not the only one), that Mr Malcolm Willstrop, coach,
father of, and compere, has lost a lot of weight recently (no, nothing to do
with me this time).
But could it be the reason for his memory lapse of today?
As usual, he introduced all the players beautifully, without any notes,
until Joey Barrington… whose name he couldn’t remember …
So it went something like…
“And please welcome, on my right, ….. euh, I can’t remember his name!”
“…..Joey Barrington”!
The crowd did smile, I must say…
No, the brain hasn’t gone with the pounds, dear. I think that he probably
wanted so much not to call him Jonah, that he just forgot the name all
together…
And I’m sure you do realise Malcolm will probably never speak to me again
now after that brief…
WITH FRIENDS LIKE THAT…
Joey Barrington came with two friends of his, as support. Well, one of them,
James Powley, who coaches squash in Qatar, told us that Joey's nickname is
Borington, in front of Joey of course, who was killing himself laughing….
Charming really, isn’t it?
Don’t you just love having your friends around in your hour of need…
THE FRENCH GIRL WHO CAME
TO SEE THE MATCHES
We had a surprise appearance today!
Isabelle Stoehr, 25, French number one, came with some friends to see a bit
of squash.
I must say it was nice to be able to speak my own language for a few
minutes.
Isabelle comes to England quite often, and plays with Sarah Fitz-Gerald.
Talk about a top class sparring partner…
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En BREF
snippets
from Sheffield
Boy on the left heads ball !
And please welcome ... errrr
Joey "Borington"
Isabelle Stoehr
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BABIES EVERYWHERE
Is it an epidemic at the moment? After the marriage season, we have now the
babies season… Now I think about it, it would be logical, wouldn't it? After
the birth of John White's twins Sam and Max, Stacey Ross’ announcement that
his new bride is expecting, it’s now Scott Handley and his lovely wife Raluca's turn! Mrs Handley is 16 weeks pregnant.
“Look, that’s why I'm so
fat…!” Raluca, you couldn’t be fat if you tried… Good luck to the beautiful
couple, and to Scott for his match against James Willstrop. He may need it…
JOEY BARRINGTON
Yes, I know, just because my first article for Squash Player was on him,
everybody on the circuit thinks I have a soft spot for the young player.
I’m not even going to comment on that one anymore….
Anyway, saw him this morning, at breakfast again (you should definitely
stick to breakfast dear, it’s good for your health… And your column!). He
was on his way to the gym to get a massage after his 7 minutes short of 2
hours match of last night.
“No, I feel alright, not too tired actually, not
bad at all”. Joey is back training with his dad in Somerset. Well, when you
can get one of the best coaches, and for free, you would be stupid to ignore
it, wouldn’t you?
Some get all the luck!
KNEE SORTED FOR MARK CHALONER
Mark Chaloner and I, we have a common point. No, I don’t think you will find
that one.
We are being treated for knee problems by the same therapist, Caroline Glain,
a “fasciatherapist” from France.
I won’t even try and explain to you what fasciatherapy is, I am preparing an
article on it, but suffice to say that it helped Mark tremendously.
“Caroline succeeded very quickly to reduce the swelling, something that
nobody else was able to do for weeks. You can’t explain the way she works,
but the benefits were immense.”
So, keep posted, as very soon, you’ll be able to learn everything about “the
miracle frog”, as she is nicknamed by the players she has helped….
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Scott and Raluca
Joey: I'm not tired!
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