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10/03/2004
INJURY AND ABSENCE TAKE THEIR TOLL
Wolverhampton go down fighting against the strongest Edgbaston side available
We do seem to pick 'em. First Manchester/Pontefract put out their strongest team of the season against us when we were understrength and then Edgbaston do the same! Still it makes for an interesting evening, can we manage yet another 3-2 or something else. On the last night of the main part of the season our gallent band went down fighting but not before putting up some real resistence. First on court 1 was the ladies match with our over 45 Champion, Liz Brown, taking on a recently retired World Champion and arguably the best women player around, Sarah Fitz-Gerald. To make matters worse Liz picked up a hamstring strain 6 weeks ago and has hardly trained or played many matches since. Not the best preparation for this tie. Lack of court time showed with Liz's trademark shot, a backhand volley into the nick clipping the tin time and time again. Whenever she wanted to, Sarah just picked up the pace, clobbered the ball even harder and ultimately ran out a comfortable 3-0 winner. Next up on the same court was the number 4 men. This originally was billed as a real battle between Peter Barker for Edgbaston and Joey Barrington for us. Unfortunately, Joey's heroic exploits in Canada a few days earlier had taken their toll and he announced himself knackered on the Monday causing his manager some desperate time on the phone to find a replacement. The first two possible replacements proved unavailable so I reluctantly phoned Chris Ryder. Reluctant solely because he is still getting over the effects of glandular fever contracted in January and had been on court for the first time in 3 months only the week before. Chris responded to the call and for that I will be eternally gratefull. Peter is improving rapidly and is hitting the ball with real power. Chris tried his best but admittedto being shattered after the first two points. Not surprising really considering. The expected result in just over 20 minutes gave Edgbaston another 3-0 win. On the show court all this time Liam Kenny and Del Harris were having a real battle. Looking at the draw most of our team had agreed that this was the best match for a result in our favour, but we didn't tell Liam in order to keep the pressure off. It proved to be a great game. Liam started well, drove Del to the corners and moved to an 8-5 lead. At that point he then lost his way, throwing in a number of short shots which Del picked up and put away. At 8 all the tide turned and Liam picked up the next two points. The game plan was to move Del to the back and keep him there with drives and lobs but the plan went out the window a bit and as a result Del got back in the match to level, though not before expending a great deal of energy. Mark Cairns had some stern words for Liam, emphasising the original stratergy, and this time that was what Liam did and "cruised" though the next two games 9-4 and 9-5. A 53 minute match and we had our point. Mark against the rapidly improving Adrian Grant was next up. This match had a degree of deja vu about it as our very first game in the League was against Duffield 3 years ago and the deciding match was Mark against Adrian. On that occasion Mark won and recorded Wolverhampton's first win in the League. Three years on Adrian has now become a top 20 world player and this showed. Mark held him for a while in the first game through a combination of experience, guile and the use of a very strong wrist to dig balls out of the corners. But all the time Adrian was moving very quickly round the court, volleying many balls and putting Mark under great strain. A 37 minute encounter gave Adrian a 3-0 win which his speed and anticipation guaranteed. Last match up was Alex Gough against David Palmer. David is more or less back to full fitness and is keen to move back up the rankings. Alex, recently a winner in Scotland on the Sunday and in a furter match the previous night certainly had match practice but equally might have been a bit tired. Alex started the better, playing some superb controlled drop shots mixed in with punishing drives. David didn't seem in the game and the opening encounter went Alex's way 9-4. Somewhere around the middle of the second David clearly worked out what to do and from then on he dominated the centre of the court forcing Alex to do all the running. Inevitably this took it's toll and after a tight second game the remaining two fell to the Australian. So a 4-1 loss on the night and a semi-final place to Edgbaston. It has been a frustrating season with injury to Anthony Ricketts for most of the second half, non availability of Joey Barrington for a lot of the season and a string of matches where we were one player down on our opposition,which always put the team under pressure. Nevertheless we saw some great squash and some memorable matches. The two that stand out were Shelley Kitchen's win over Vanessa Atkinson in 5 pulsating games and the match that Alex played against Simon Parke. Alex lost that one but our home supporters voted that the most exciting match this season. My thanks to all of our squad, to our sponsors and to our supporters. Now I'm going to bed. Good night everyone.
Contributor: Stephen Russell
Club: Wolverhampton
Link: http://wltsc.com
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