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07/10/2004
DEPLETED NOTTINGHAM TAKE ON THE CHAMPIONS
Ria Kennerley reports on Nottingham's trip to Manchester ...
City of Manchester beat Nottingham 4/1
Lee Beachill bt John White 9-3, 6-9, 4-9, 9-6, 9-7
James Willstrop bt David Evans 9-6, 9-7, 5-9, 9-5
Marcus Berrett lost to Alex Stait 7-9, 7-9, 9-5, 2-9
Nick Taylor bt Duncan Walsh 9-4, 9-3, 9-7
Jenny Duncalf bt Pamela Nimmo 7-9, 9-0, 9-10, 9-5, 9-1
Nottingham’s first National League match of the season took place last
night against the City of Manchester
at the National Squash Centre. With Nottingham’s team seriously
depleted, on paper, it looked like an easy 5-0 win for the City of
Manchester team.
First on the impressive all glass squash court were Jenny Duncalf and Pamela Nimmo with Nick Taylor and Duncan Walsh on the outside court.
Duncan tried hard against Nick but it was always going to be a tough
match against a player ranked 65 places above him. Duncan eventually
lost 9/4, 9/3, 9/7.
Duncalf and Nimmo’s match was, however, much closer. Duncalf is
currently ranked 11 in the World with Nimmo only 9 places behind her at
number 20 so it was all to play for. The first game started closely
with neither player pulling more than a point ahead until Duncalf took
advantage of Nimmo’s errors to go 6/3 up. Nimmo then fought back
tremendously to take the first game 9/7. Then everything changed with
Nimmo losing complete concentration to go down 9/0 in the second. One
game all. A shaky start to the third saw Nimmo go 7/1 down, again being
caused by too many unforced errors but some magnificent backhand volley
drop shots saw her level the score at 7/7. Nimmo then saved three game
balls before taking the game 10/9.
It was all looking good for Nimmo from this point on
but Jenny took the initiative in the fourth to give herself a 6/3 lead
before taking the game 9/5. By this point, Nimmo’s energy levels were
completely drained and she lost 9/1 in the final game of the match
after a total match play of 59 minutes.
After the match, Nimmo said,
“Coming back from illness, I wasn’t expecting much and was pleased to
go 2/1 up against Jenny. It was frustrating to lose though but in the
5th game, I just had nothing left.”
So, that left Nottingham 2/0 down and looking like going home without a
win. The third match on was Marcus
Berrett against Alex Stait.
Marcus is a far more experienced player than Alex and was expected to
win easily. But some brilliant drop shots and perfectly executed lobs
saw Alex take an unexpected 2/0 lead. In the third, it looked like Alex
had ran out of steam, his retrieving no where near as good as in the
previous two games and he lost the third 9/5. Alex then appeared to get
his second wind and played some amazingly deceptive drop shots to take
the final game with ease 9/2, Nottingham’s first win of the season.
“I’m really pleased with the way I played tonight. I’ve changed my game
a lot recently and tonight was the first night it really clicked,” said
Alex.
Next on the all glass court were David
Evans and James Willstrop.
David did well to compete with an in form Willstrop whose natural flair
for the game is easily apparent. In the first game, Evans stayed with
Willstrop point for point with some great deceptive play until
Willstrop pulled ahead to take the first game 9/6 in seven minutes. The
second game was much closer with David reading a lot of James’
unorthodox shots. A long and difficult rally brought Evans back to 7/7
but James took the next point to win gameball before taking the game
9/7 in 8 minutes. In the third, David took an early 5/0 lead and
unforced errors by James eventually allowed David to take the game 9/5
in five minutes. James then stepped up the pace in the final game and
eventually took the match 9/5 in the fourth beating David by 3 games to
one.
So Nottingham were already 3 matches to one down. But with every game
now counting in this season’s National League, there were still points
to play for. The final match on court was the one the crowd was waiting
for, newly crowned World number 1 Lee
Beachill against former World number 1 and current World number
7 John White. The first rally
of the match lasted a good 3 minutes and the crowd watched in awe at
the incredible retrieving skills of these two brilliant players. But it
was Beachill who took the early advantage, capitalising on White’s
mistakes to take the first game 9/3. The second started in a similar
way to the first with White making unforced errors putting him 4/1
down. Then, White’s concentration seemed to improve greatly as he
fought back to take the second 9/7. White then turned up the heat in
the third to take the game 9/4 in five minutes. But then the tables
turned with White hitting too many balls into the tin and Beachill took
the game 9/6. So, two games all. In the fourth, a bad decision by the
referee, who awarded a stroke point to Beachill, disrupted White’s
concentration and Lee went 5/2 up. John then fought back with a superb
backhand volley dropshot into the nick and went 6/5 up. Another bad
refereeing decision put Beachill back in the game and after a miss-hit
shot, White found himself matchball down. White’s return of serve then
hit the tin to give Beachill the game and the match.
Nottingham lost 4/1 on the night but the league is far from over. This
is only the first match of the season with 7 more matches to be played.
The next match is on 9th November against old rivals Duffield and the team will be much
stronger with the addition of two other players from the Worlds top 25,
Simon Parke and Gregory Gaultier.
Contributor: Ria Kennerley
Club: Nottingham
Link:
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