ENGLAND BEAT SCOTS
Recently Anglicised Peter Nicol led England to a 3-1 victory over his former compatriots Scotland in Thursday's opening qualifying round of the European Squash Championships in Nottingham.
Nicol, the world No1 playing in an England team for the first time since transferring his allegiance from Scotland more than two years ago, but the world number four-ranked Scottish No1 John White 9-6 9-0 9-3 to clinch the tie for his new country, the top seeds and defending champions.
"I haven't played an important match for two months, so I've been building up for this," said Nicol afterwards. "Against John, you've got to play well - it didn't make any difference to me that it was against Scotland, it was just a match I wanted to win!"
Nicol's team-mates Simon Parke, the Nottingham-based world No13, and James Willstrop, the 19-year-old world junior champion from Yorkshire who was also making his England debut, also secured straight games wins - over Peter O'Hara and Stuart Crawford, respectively. England captain Mark Chaloner let slip a 2-1 lead to go down 9-6 5-9 7-9 9-3 9-3 to Scottish champion Martin Heath.
Later in the day, England cruised to a 4-0 win over Switzerland - with twice British champion Lee Beachill, the England No2, making his comeback after ankle surgery with a confident 9-1 9-2 9-3 win over Marco Eggenberger.
Scotland faced the Netherlands in their second match in Pool A, and went down to the fourth seeds when Heath, clearly feeling the effects of his earlier five games with Chaloner, lost in straight games to former Dutch national champion Lucas Buit.
Scotland suffered a double Dutch defeat on day one when the women's team, runners-up in 2002 and seeded two, slumped to a 3-0 upset by the sixth-seeded Netherlands squad.
