The Isle of Man, competing in their first Euro Teams event, were the smallest country in the championships. They didn't fare too well, but on the final day they at last scored a win, beating the biggest country in the event, Russia.


 

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IOM Crush Super Power Russia
The IOM men's squash team crushed Russia on the last day (Sunday) of the 2003 European Squash Team Championships 4-0.
It was fantastic to see the Isle of Man, smallest nation in the tournament beat the largest nation.

Day 1
IOM vs Belgium

First on court saw the IOM number 4 Kevin Watterson vs the Flemish, Win Van Asten. Though Kevin had many serves and hard rallies the score line never reflected the hard work both players had to put into this match. Kevin eventually lost 3-0.

Number three string, Rich Corlett was up against a very fit and agile opponent. For the first part of the first game the service swapped back and forth but the experience and not forgetting large amount of talent saw him take all three games, 9/3, 9/0, 9/2.

Mr Norman the Island number one, was up against Peter Pastijn. Dave battled hard but the mature of the fast and furious pace was too much and Dave went down 9/3, 9/1, 9/0.

Day 2
Say the Manx bays take on Denmark. With their forth player World ranked number 209 they were always up against. Richard Corlett and Kevin Watteron were rested for the afternoon session so reserves Steve Morley and Monty Lowe stepped in. As unfortunately expected each player lost in straight games 3-0.

Day 2 (afternoon)
The afternoon session saw the IOM team take on the Israel team. All Manx players suffered from the frantic pace on playing on the show courts for the first time. Dave Norman probably came the closest to taking a match but like the other three players lost 3-0.

Day 3
With the spirits of the Manx team a little low a single win from one of their players is all they needed to perk them back up again and thats exactly what they got. Dave Norman played some great squash to win 3-2. Richard Corlett and Monty Lowe were both very close to winning a game in their match but just missed out on the glory.

Day 4
With all the groups sorted it was the Isle of man team to take to Russia for 20th and 21st place. It was great to see refs and officials wishing the Manx team all the luck and no particular mention of the main final between England and France. Day 3 must have lifted team spirits as all four players, Dave Norman, Richard Corlett, Kevin Watterson and Kevin Watterson won all their games with 3-0 score lines.

The Isle of Man Captain, Lyndon Cheetham and Team Manager Les Callow commented to say the Manx team had done themselves proud in their first European Team Championships.