|
29/10/2003
EDGBASTON & BROXBOURNE MAINTAIN NATIONAL LEAGUE LEADS
Edgbaston Priory and TVS Broxbourne maintained their leads in Group A and B, respectively, of the National Squash League - despite a widespread absence of most of the world’s top men who are heading for Edmonton to play in this week’s Canadian Open ...
Edgbaston Priory and TVS Broxbourne maintained their leads in Group A and B, respectively, of the National Squash League - despite a widespread absence of most of the world’s top men who are heading for Edmonton to play in this week’s Canadian Open.
Nottingham 2-3 Man/Pont
Northern 1-4 Edgbaston
Wolverhampton 1-4 Duffield
Bicester 0-5 Broxbourne
Chichester 5-0 Guildford
Full results from round two
Indeed, Priory stalwart Del Harris overwhelmed the only world top twenty player in League action when he swept to a 9-5 9-5 2-9 9-5 victory over Scotland’s world No14 Martin Heath, as the Birmingham club clinched a 4-1 away win at Manchester Northern. Heath, fresh from taking Scotland to a 7th place finish in last week’s World Team Championship in Austria, was comprehensively outplayed by the Essex 34-year-old and former England No1 who is now on the verge of exiting the world top 50.
“There are not many people who can cope with Del when he’s on fire, and he was well up for it tonight,” said Edgbaston Priory team manager Matt Suckling. “But even that wasn’t the result of the night – because our newcomer Isabelle Stoehr gets that credit after her blistering and unexpected win over Manchester’s Jenny Tranfield,” Suckling explained. French No1 Stoehr, ranked 16 in the world and playing for the first time as ‘understudy’ to Priory’s five-times World Champion Sarah Fitz-Gerald, brushed aside England’s world No10 Tranfield 9-2 7-9 9-4 9-5 to claim one of her best wins of the year.
Derbyshire club Benz Bavarian Duffield also secured their second successive victory of the season with a 4-1 away win, at Wolverhampton. The fixture’s standout clash featured Duffield’s five-times British National champion Cassie Jackman, ranked six in the world, and new Wolverhampton star Shelley Kitchen, the world No15 from New Zealand. Jackman was unable to convert match-balls at 8-6 and 9-8 in the third game as Kitchen fought back to take the match into a fourth game, which she then led 7-3. The former world No1 from Norwich, however, reclaimed the advantage and after 63 minutes secured victory in a 9-6 9-2 9-10 9-7 scoreline.
Scotland’s Marcus Cowie made a successful return to National League action after seven years in the USA when he beat Wolverhampton’s nervous junior debutante Jaymie Haycocks 9-3 9-3 9-4. Visitors Duffield made sure of second place in Group A when Australian No1 Dan Jenson overcame a first game deficit to beat Wolverhampton’s British Open Over-35 champion Mark Cairns – who had just returned from a two-week holiday in California – 6-9 9-3 9-2 9-3.
Eager to make up for a losing start in round one, former champions FPD Savills Nottingham hosted Manchester-Pontefract - with Dutchman Dylan Bennett, the European Junior champion, and Australia’s world No8 Natalie Grinham, also based in the Netherlands, making their debuts for the East Midlands club. Grinham faced fellow National League newcomer Vanessa Atkinson, the world No5 from The Hague, and fought back from 0/1 down to take a 2/1 lead. Atkinson pulled away, however, to win 9-3 7-9 3-9 9-3 9-3.
Brave Bennett also came back from behind, beating the visitors’ Andrew Whipp 6-9 8-10 9-1 9-5 9-7 to leave the tie delicately poised at 2/2. Wales’ former British Open champion David Evans led Nottingham’s final attack, but he was unable to reproduce the form which saw him help Wales to a fifth place finish in Vienna as he went down 8-10 5-9 6-9 to Manchester’s former full-time player Marcus Berrett. While the visitors claimed a 3/2 victory, Nottingham counted the cost of their first loss at home for more than two years.
There were comprehensive routs in Group B as Hertfordshire club Broxbourne beat league newcomers SWSA Bicester 5/0 away from home, and Chichester celebrated a successful opening outing of the season with a 5/0 home win over UniSport Guildford.
Broxbourne made their intentions clear in the opening match when in-form Alison Waters crushed SWSA founder Sue Wright 9-1 9-5 9-2. It was first meeting between the pair: Waters, a 19-year-old at the beginning of her career, with Scotland’s world No17 Pamela Nimmo a notable scalp in the USA a few days earlier; and Wright, a former world No3 and four-times British National champion, whose Sue Wright Squash Academy is using its debut in the league to give its young up-and-coming players an opportunity to experience top-level competition.
SWSA top string Scott Handley looked as if he was going to provide the Oxfordshire crowd a treat in the final match, but he was unable to convert his 2/0 lead against Rodney Durbach – fresh from some impressive World Championship battles for South Africa – as the Broxbourne No1 clinched a 4-9 5-9 9-2 9-4 9-3 and maximum points for the visitors.
Relatively unaffected by the demands of the Canadian Open, last season’s Group B champions Chichester were virtually at full-strength against their Surrey University visitors. The home team’s world No3 Linda Charman, from Eastbourne, was barely troubled by Guildford’s Sarah Kippax, allowing the 20-year-old from Cheshire just one point in her straight games dismissal. Chichester’s Malaysian No2 Mohammed Azlan Iskandar was already a game up when his opponent Tony Hands retired injured with a pulled hamstring. A gallant Guildford fight-back in the final match between the two top strings looked as if a consolation point was on the cards – but the home team captain Peter Genever kept his focus to beat Stacey Ross 9-6 9-5 5-9 6-9 9-6 to secure maximum points and second place in the group behind Broxbourne.
Full results from round two
Contributor: Howard Harding
Club: NO CLUB
Link:
|
Latest NSL News:
NATIONAL LEAGUE SITE HAS MOVED
THE LOCAL DERBY
INSIDE ROUND ONE
GUILDFORD SUFFER IN WEEK ONE
DEPLETED NOTTINGHAM TAKE ON THE CHAMPIONS
WOLVERHAMPTON WIN 4-1
RESULTS FROM WEEK ONE
CHI CRUISE LOCAL DARBY (AND JOAN!)
CHAMPIONS STORM TO SUCCESSFUL OPENER
INSIDE ROUND ONE
THE SEASON STARTS HERE
INSIDE THE 2004/05 SEASON
NATIONAL LEAGUE OFF TO ANTIPODEAN START
|
