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TODAY at the English Open
Daily results and reports from Sheffield
from Framboise Gommendy and Steve Cubbins

  SCOREBOARD
  
  DRAW  

Beachill  Breezes to
English Open Title
Steve Cubbins on the final

Yorkshire's Lee Beachill provided a home winner in the Mamut English Open in Sheffield, beating surprise finalist, and fellow Yorkshireman Simon Parke in four games.

The first game, which took 25 minutes to complete, started with a series of long, punishing rallies. Beachill was playing precise, safety-first squash, as if testing just how good Parke's summer training programme had really been.

Parke was carrying on in the same vein as in previous rounds, running everything down, and showing more aggression in the early exchanges. It paid off, as he was able to maintain an early 3-1 lead, and extend it to 8-5, 11-8, and aided by a couple of nicks, took the first game 15-9.

But if Parke's week-long tactics were paying dividends, it was Beachill who had the long-term plan. From 5-5 in the second Beachill started to ease away, taking the game 15/8 to level the match.

As Beachill's precision forced Parke to scramble more, opportunities arose for Beachill to put the ball away, which he did. The rallies were long and punishing, but Beachill was the favourite for most of them.

The final two games went 15/4, 15/4 and although Parke enjoyed an ovation for winning a tremendous rally on Beachill's first match ball the title was Beachill's on the next point.

"That was hard," said the new champion, "very hard. Simon's proved all week he's competing with the best, playing top eight squash, and tonight was no different.

"He didn't let me get settled in the first, and I was lucky to win a couple of crucial points to get ahead in the second."

Parke, though disappointed to lose, was well pleased with his week's work. "I expected to qualify, and maybe beat one top 20 player, but everything else has been a bonus," he said. "But after about the hour mark I found more and more balls starting to get away from me, and that's when Lee's strong. My other matches were all an hour, so that was a zone I'm not used to and it told."

Beachill was also pleased with his work. "For the first tournament of the season, I had a couple of ideal first two matches to get back into it, and then two hard matches. I've got better as the week's gone on, and that's what you have to do to win tournaments.

Beachill, who makes no attempt to hide his ambition of becoming world number one, added "I intend to just carry on doing the same."

An Early Rally	Parke's Last Hurrah	Beachill's Title
videos by Steve Cubbins, shown by kind permission of PSA  www.psa-squash.com

Saturday 14th, Semi-Finals:
 
[Q] Simon Parke (Eng) bt [1] Peter Nicol (Eng)
      10/15, 15/9, 15/6, 15/3 (69m)
 
[2] Lee Beachill (Eng) bt [6] James Willstrop (Eng)
      15/11, 12/15, 15/3, 15/10 (71m)

Framboise reports on the semi-finals
  
OFFICIAL: PETER NICOL
IS HUMAN AFTER ALL…
I know I know, for so many years, we have been used to Peter never making mistakes, never being tired, never being … human.

Well, it’s now official, Peter Nicol has good days, and bad days. Yesterday was a good one, today, wasn’t.

EMOTIONLESS…
Analytical, precise, mathematical…

Lee Beachill’s game is all but emotional. And that's what makes him lethally dangerous.  Full reports

Also see:

Malcolm Willstrop
Steve Cubbins

Friday 13th, Quarter-Finals:
   

[Q] Simon Parke (Eng) bt [4] Nick Matthew (Eng)
      15/11, 15/6, 15/10 (59m)
[1] Peter Nicol (Eng) bt [5] Anthony Ricketts (Aus)
      15/4, 13/15, 15/12, 15/10 (75m)
[6] James Willstrop (Eng) bt [3] John White (Sco)
      7/15, 14/15, 15/10, 15/12, 15/7 (90m)
[2] Lee Beachill (Eng) bt [7] Adrian Grant (Eng)
     15/5, 15/8, 15/9 (42m)

EMOTION,

EMOTIONS ...
Framboise reports on a day full of them

 
No, no report about the matches tonight. Not a traditional one anyway.

If you have read my “portrait” of Peter Nicol, you may remember that his “new life” could be summarised in 3 words: Brutal, Emotional, Honest.

And today was the perfect example of a brutal, honest, and emotional day.  Full report
 

ALL-YORKSHIRE
SEMIS IN SHEFFIELD
Steve Cubbins reports

The semi-finals of the Mamut English Open will be all-Yorkshire affairs, with Peter Nicol (registered to Yorkshire) taking on a rejuvenated Simon Parke, and Pontefract clubmates Lee Beachill and James Willstrop meeting in a rare competitive encounter. Here's how they got there ...  full report

Also:
Malcolm Willstrop analyses the action

The crowd, with White fans
 

Thursday 12th, Round one, bottom half:

[7] Adrian Grant (Eng) bt [Q] Peter Barker (Eng)
      12/15, 15/5, 15/5, 12/15, 15/8 (93m)
[2] Lee Beachill (Eng) bt Mansoor Zaman (Pak)
      15/7, 15/11, 15/11  (42m)
[3] John White (Sco) bt Ben Garner (Eng)
      15/10, 9/15, 15/9, 5/15, 15/11 (69m)
[6] James Willstrop (Eng) bt [Q] Scott Handley (Eng)
      15/6, 15/10, 15/13 (38m)

CONTRACT HONOURED
AND FULFILLED, BEN
Framboise reports on Day TWO at the Crucible

Not easy to get a wild card from your brother, is it? People could think, “yeah right, a bit easy, don’t you think”?

Well, the new father of twins John White wears in his legs the proof that Ben Garner “rightly deserved to be here”….

Full reports from day TWO
 

Wednesday 11th, Round one, top half:
 
[5] Anthony Ricketts (Aus) bt [Q] Joey Barrington (Eng)
      15/10, 15/7, 15/7 (48m)
[1] Peter Nicol (Eng) bt Olli Tuominen (Fin)
      15/11, 15/9, 15/9 (42m)
[4] Nick Matthew (Eng) bt Alex Gough (Wal)
      12/15, 15/13, 15/4, 10/15, 15/13 (94m)
[Q] Simon Parke (Eng) bt [8] Mark Chaloner (Eng)
      15/8, 15/13, 15/7 (57m)

THREE IN THREE,
AND ONE IN FIVE
Framboise reports on day one at the Crucible ...

Yes, we had 3 matches in 3 games, and one, Alex Gough vs Nick Matthew, in 5..

Full reports from day ONE

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