03 Dec 2002 - Week 5
Nottingham 4-1 Manchester
Hallamshire 1-4 Edgbaston
Wolverhampton 2-3 Duffield
Lee on Solent 1-4 Lexden
Guildford 1-4 Broxbourne
UK Packaging 2-3 ChichesterNational League Provides
Final Rehearsals For Men's World Open
With the opening day of the Men's World Open in Belgium little more than 48 hours away, the fifth round of the National Squash League gave many of the event's top stars the final chance to fine-tune their court skills. British National Champion Lee Beachill, the 8th seed in Antwerp, pulled off the night's biggest upset when he fought back from a game behind to beat the fifth-seeded Scot John White 8-10 12-10 10-8 10-8.
The Yorkshireman's gruelling hour-long victory for Manchester-Pontefract prevented home team FPD Savills Nottingham from achieving their second successive maximum points win in the league - but the 4-1 victory extends the former champions' lead at the top of the Group A. The Nottingham/Manchester rivalry is likely to carry on into the World Open as Frenchman Renan Lavigne, the Nottingham No2 who had a comfortable straight games win over Manchester's Nick Taylor, is seeded to face Beachill in the second round. Nottingham stalwart Simon Parke maintained his impressive unbeaten league run this season - but was 2-0 down before he came back to beat Manchester's Marcus Berrett 7-9 6-9 9-3 11-9 9-3 to avenge his league defeat earlier in the year.
Birmingham's Edgbaston Priory returned to winning ways with a 4-1 away victory at HLW Solicitors Hallamshire to hold onto second place in Group A. The win could have been 5-0 had the squad's fourth string Paul Lord not aggravated a hamstring injury as he warmed up alone on court before his opponent Adam Stevenson arrived! Unable to carry on, Lord was replaced by team manager Nick Hynes who, largely unprepared, lost 9-3 9-5 9-7 to Stevenson to give the Sheffield club an unexpected point. Priory's Sarah Fitz-Gerald, the five-times women's world champion from Australia, mildly dented her league record by dropping her first game of the season - but soundly made up for it thereafter when she beat Hallamshire's Jenny Tranfield 9-5 8-10 9-0 9-0!
The biggest smiles of the night were on the faces of the Benz-Bavarian Duffield team who scored their first victory of the season in a 3-2 away win at Wolverhampton. Scotland's world No14 Pamela Nimmo created the opening for the Derbyshire club when she overcame a 2-0 deficit to beat Wolverhampton's Stephanie Brind, ranked two places higher, 6-9 8-10 9-7 9-3 9-5. At the end of evening, with the score poised at 2-2, Welsh champion Alex Gough claimed his first win of the season for Duffield by beating former British champion Mark Cairns 9-5 9-4 5-9 9-6 to clinch the tie and lift the team off the foot of the Group A table. Gough is likely to face title-holder Peter Nicol for a place in the World Open quarter-finals.
The gap between the top and bottom three clubs in Group B widened with three away wins. Joint leaders TVS Broxbourne and Tek Sing Lexden both secured 4-1 triumphs to maintain their share of the lead - the former beating UniSport Guildford and the latter Lee-on-Solent. Local player Mick Biggs was the Guildford star, who went down 2-0 to Broxbourne newcomer Philip Nightingale - then, cheered on by loyal supporters, fought back to clinch the Surrey club's sole point with an unexpected 10-12 1-9 9-7 9-6 9-5 victory. Broxbourne's South African star Rodney Durbach compounded Guildford's woes with a 9-2 9-7 9-1 win over Stephen Meads, the home team's temporary top string in the season-long absence of squad No1 Paul Johnson, the former world No4 who is recovering from injury.
Newly-promoted world No9 Rebecca Macree put defending champions Lexden in the driving seat at Lee-on-Solent, beating the sport's glamour girl Vicky Botwright 9-4 9-6 3-9 9-7 to put the visitors ahead. However, the host club's coach Dean Watson enjoyed a moment of glory in a rare outing as a player when he came back from 1-5 down in the fifth game to beat Lexden newcomer and fourth string Peter Kligerman 9-4 8-10 9-4 4-9 9-7 to earn his team's only point.
Lambs Club in London provided the setting for the first 'home' match of the season away from their usual Connaught Club base for UK Packaging, led by world champion Peter Nicol. The team's opponents Chichester, who won 3-2, had already secured victory before Nicol took to the court, but the favourite to retain his world title next week comfortably came back from a game down to beat training partner Peter Genever 4-9 9-6 9-7 9-4 - with no evidence of the ankle injury which marred his last league outing four weeks earlier. The tie provided a double triumph for the Garner family - but the points were split between the two sides as UK Packaging's Tim Garner earned a satisfying 9-2 9-3 9-6 win over Malaysia's rising star Mohamed Azlan Iskandar and the younger Ben Garner claimed a 4-9 9-4 11-9 9-2 win over Steve Richardson for Chichester. The encounter also failed to provide the second fairy tale result this year for Glen Wilson, the Lambs coach making his National League debut. The New Zealander claimed an unexpected Commonwealth Games Gold medal in the Mixed Doubles in August, but his 2-0 lead against Tim Vail soon evaporated as the Chichester 24-year-old strode to a 7-9 3-9 9-6 9-2 9-4 win.Despite their 3-2 loss, UK Packaging move up to fourth place in the Group B standings.