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Men's Final:
Rouen Squash 3-2 Capitol St Cloud
Peter Nicol bt Jonathon Power 9/7, 9/1, 9/1
David Palmer lost Lee Beachill 9/6, 4/9, 7/9, 0/9
John White beat Mark Chaloner 9/6, 6/9, 8/10, 9/3, 9/1
Martin Heath beat Alex Gough 1/9, 9/1, 9/6,
5/9, 9/4
Gregory Gaultier lost Simon Parke 9/3, 10/9, 8/9, 6/9,
8/9
ROUEN STUN
ST CLOUD IN FRENCH FINAL
Arthur Poupel reports on the French play-off final
between reigning champions Capitol St Cloud,
who had won the event for the past 12 years, and
Rouen.
With Jonathon Power the No.1 for St Cloud and Peter
Nicol leading a strong Rouen challenge, the
fans in St Etienne expected plenty of fireworks.
They were not disappointed.
In this eight-hour final , rising French star Gregory Gaultier
played first and opened up a 2-0 lead against Simon Parke and
held one match ball in the third. But Parke
hit back to take the match to a fifth game,
where he saved another three match balls before winning an
amazing match 9-8 (1-0 to Paris).
Then came Martin Heath, who lost 2-0 last year to Alex Gough
because of an injury. This time he took his revenge, making
Alex run everywhere. Alex did so much
running that in the last two games he was
suffering from cramp.
Then the action moved from the club to the glass court, and what a
match to begin the action: Nicol v Power! Peter played his
best squash, taking the ball early, covering
the court brilliantly and defending so well
against power's shots. It was perfect squash but Power was really
stressed and was asking for lets all the
time, frequently leaving the glass court to
argue with the referee and bawl him out sometimes.
Nicol clinched victory by a massive margin 9-7, 9-1, 9-1 and so
Rouen, who had lost the last three times in the final against
Capitol, were leading 2-1. Then David
Palmer went on court to win the first game for
Rouen, but Lee Beachill played perfect, precise squash and
stretched Palmer with his great drop shots
to win 3-01 and level the match at 2-2.
Just as in the English National League final, it all went down to the
last match on court, with the decider between John White
(Rouen) and Mark Chaloner. John won the
first and then lost the two next games (deja-vu
... last year Capitol led 2-0).
Suddenly White stepped up a gear and played
amazing squash with terrific power and great nicks to win 9/3 9/1
against a disappointed Mark.
What a finish! Everyone rushed to the door
waiting for Johnny ,who was a real hero !!
Arthur Poupel
3/4 Play-off:
Squash 92 bt Squash Passion 3-2
Ryan bt Bigot 3-0, Ball bt Villier 3-1, Berrett bt Perrin 3-0,
Scianimanico lost Khan 0-3, Surget lost Verseille 0-3 |
