Round TEN, 04 Mar 03
Group A:
Manchester 3-2 Nottingham
Duffield 4-1 Wolverhampton
Edgbaston 4-1 HallamshireGroup B:
Lexden 3-2 Lee on Solent
Broxbourne 0-5 Guildford
Chichester 5-0 UK PackagingEdgbaston Priory Clinch Final Play-Off Place
Howard Harding's roundup
Birmingham's Edgbaston Priory stormed to a 4-1 home win over nearest rivals HLW Solicitors Hallamshire of Sheffield to claim the fourth and final place in the National Squash League semi-final play-offs after Tuesday's tenth round ties.Edgbaston, runners-up in Group A, will face Chichester away from home in the first semi-final leg on 18th March after the Sussex club claimed the Group B title by crushing London's UK Packaging 5-0. FPD Savills Nottingham, who clinched pole position in Group A after the previous round, will host Hertfordshire's TVS Broxbourne in the other semi-final - despite losses by both clubs in the final round, Nottingham by a 3-2 margin to Manchester-Pontefract and Broxbourne humbled 5-0 at home by UniSport Guildford.
With Hallamshire needing at least a 4-1 victory over Edgbaston to earn their first ever place in the play-offs, the first two matches were crucial. Priory's Sarah Fitz-Gerald, the five-times world champion from Australia, and club stalwart Paul Lord quickly extinguished the visitors' hopes however. Fitz-Gerald, unbeaten in any competition for well over eighteen months and now playing in her first match since relinquishing her world No1 ranking this week, swept to a 9-4 9-0 9-4 victory over the Yorkshire club's world No11 Jenny Tranfield, and Lord overpowered Peter Billson 9-1 8-10 9-3 9-6.
Yorkshire-based Londoner Adrian Grant made it 3-0 with a 9-6 8-10 9-0 9-7 win over Adam Stevenson, then club stalwart Del Harris conceded a point when he had to retire with pulled muscle in his buttocks after two games against Hallamshire's Hadrian Stiff. The finale came when the home crowd were treated to a stunning display by squad No1 Stewart Boswell, the world No4 from Australia, who twice came from behind to overwhelm compatriot Anthony Ricketts 2-9 9-5 5-9 9-1 9-2 to consolidate Edgbaston Priory's place in the play-offs for the third successive season.
It was a virtually full-strength Chichester squad that claimed maximum points in both matches and games against a severely-depleted UK Packaging team, led by squad No7 Stuart Cowie. On paper, Chichester's only weakness was their woman player Suzie Pierrepont - runner-up in last week's British Junior U-19 Nationals' final and a last-minute replacement for injured world No3 Linda Charman. The 18-year-old from Brighton, however, gained a walkover when her opponent Tegwen Malik, the Welsh champion, failed to turn up! Peter Genever, Mohamed Azlan Iskandar, Tim Vail and Ben Garner all collected 3/0 victories - Vail celebrating his ninth win of the season as the team's only member to compete in all ten ties - as Chichester made sure of a Group B table-topping finish and a first appearance in the play-offs since 1998.
Despite an unassailable lead at the top of the Group A table, Nottingham collected two valuable points at the National Squash Centre in Manchester - where the 3-2 win by Manchester-Pontefract enabled the Yorkshire/Lancashire cooperative to finish the season in third place, ahead of play-off contenders Hallamshire. Nottingham's points came at both ends of the evening - at the beginning courtesy of a 9-3 9-6 9-1 victory by Scotland's Wendy Maitland over the home team's Janie Thacker, and at the end when club stalwart Simon Parke consigned Manchester hero Nick Taylor to his seventh loss in eight appearances in a 9-5 14-12 9-5 scoreline. The tie also highlighted the middle-order strength provided for Manchester by world junior champion James Willstrop and Yorkshire county champion Marcus Berrett - each a loser only once throughout the season - and the weakness of the team's female element, which included a total of five players who failed to win either a match or a game all season.
While Broxbourne made plans for their play-off fixture with Nottingham following their most humiliating defeat of the season, Guildford's 5-0 victory in Hertfordshire elevated the Surrey University team to a creditable fourth place finish in Group B - after a season in which squad No1 Paul Johnson had been unavailable due to injury. Stephen Meads and Neil Frankland, the only team-mates to claim 100% appearances this season, celebrated their achievements with well-earned victories - Meads his third of the season in a 9-5 9-5 9-11 9-6 win over South African Rodney Durbach and Frankland his sixth in a straight games win over former national champion Paul Carter.
Derbyshire's Benz-Bavarian Duffield finished the season on a high with a 4-1 home win over Wolverhampton - with National champion Cassie Jackman cruising to a 9-4 9-6 9-1 win over England team-mate Stephanie Brind to dispel fears that her comeback from back surgery may have been too premature. After spending much of the season at the foot of the Group A table, Duffield rise above Wolverhampton to fifth place.
Also registering a satisfying final win were defending champions Tek Sing Lexden, the Colchester club who snatched a last-gasp 3-2 win over Lee-on-Solent when Welshman David Evans clinched a 9-7 4-9 9-5 5-9 10-8 win in the final top string decider against the visitors' Bradley Ball.Group A:
Manchester 3-2 Nottingham
Duffield 4-1 Wolverhampton
Edgbaston 4-1 HallamshireGroup B:
Lexden 3-2 Lee on Solent
Broxbourne 0-5 Guildford
Chichester 5-0 UK Packaging