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England Beat
Australia To Retain World Title In India
In a dramatic climax
to the ICL World Men's Team Squash Championship - the 21st
staging of the biennial event since 1967 - defending champions England
fought back from a match down to beat long-time rivals Australia 2/1
in the final at the ICL Squash Academy in Chennai, India.
The triumph marked the
first final between Australia and England since 1991 - and the first ever
England win over Australia in a world final! The victory also takes
England's title tally to four since 1995, and stopped their rivals from
extending their record to nine trophy triumphs.
The opening encounter
was a battle between the teams' number ones, with Australia's former world
champion David Palmer, ranked four in the world, facing Nick
Matthew, the world No5 from Sheffield in Yorkshire. Their previous
head-to-head tally showed Palmer 11-5 ahead, and the 31-year-old from New
South Wales duly took the opening two games.
But the Englishman
struck back to draw level - winning the fourth game for just two points.
However, the experienced Aussie rediscovered his form and eventually ran out
an 11-9, 11-9, 7-11, 2-11, 11-4 winner in 82 minutes.
Almost exactly five
years ago, James Willstrop won the world junior individual
championship on the same courts in Chennai. And, in his first time back in
the former Madras since that success, the 24-year-old Englishman beat
Stewart Boswell to level the tie. But it was a tense and tight tussle,
in which the world No6 from Yorkshire needed 65 minutes to overcome his
lower-ranked opponent before prevailing 11-8, 11-7, 11-10 (2-0).
And the decider was no
less dramatic - and only marginally shorter. But Englishman Peter Barker,
in his maiden appearance in a world team championship, delivered an assured
performance as he defeated Cameron Pilley - also a world championship
newcomer - 11-6, 11-3, 11-8 in 60 minutes to clinch the title for England.
"We were represented
by an exceptional group of players," said England Squash Chief Executive
Nick Rider after the team's success. "Winning a world championship is
difficult enough - and retaining it so convincingly is testament to the
courage and determination of these world-class guys. We are immensely proud
of them."
In the play-off for
third place, third seeds France beat favourites Egypt 2/0, and
Malaysia recorded their best ever finish by beating Canada 2/0
in the fifth place play-off. Hosts India marked their best finish
since 1979, despite losing to Netherlands in the seventh place
play-off.
Event newcomers Sri
Lanka, Venezuela and Chinese Taipei finished in 26th,
27th and 29th places, respectively.
***
Commitments to their 'day jobs' on the PSA Tour mean that England
heroes Nick Matthew, James Willstrop and Peter Barker
will delay their celebrations until next week. The trio return to the UK to
compete in the five-star Mamut English Open in Sheffield, Yorkshire,
beginning on Saturday. Willstrop is top seed and is expected to face local
boy Matthew in the final - unless fourth seed Barker stops him in a
predicted semi-final!
Final
(all ties in playing order
1-2-3):
[2] ENGLAND bt [4]
AUSTRALIA 2-1
Nick Matthew lost to
David Palmer 9-11, 9-11, 11-7, 11-2, 4-11 (82m)
James Willstrop bt
Stewart Boswell 11-8, 11-7, 11-10 (2-0) (65m)
Peter Barker bt
Cameron Pilley 11-6, 11-3, 11-8 (60m)
3rd place
play-off:
[3] FRANCE bt [1]
EGYPT 2-0
Gregory Gaultier bt
Amr Shabana 11-2, 11-7, 9-11, 11-3 (30m)
Thierry Lincou bt Wael
El Hindi 11-4, 6-11, 11-5, 11-3 (53m)
5th place
play-off:
[5] MALAYSIA bt [6]
CANADA 2-0
Mohd Azlan Iskandar bt
Shahier Razik 11-10 (2-0), 11-10 (3-1), 11-5 (49m)
Ong Beng Hee bt
Matthew Giuffre 11-7, 11-6, 11-7 (33m)
7th place
play-off:
[8] NETHERLANDS bt
[10] INDIA 2-0
Laurens Jan Anjema bt
Saurav Ghosal 11-10 (3-1), 11-4, 11-4 (27m)
Dylan Bennett bt
Ritwik Bhattacharya 11-6, 11-4, 11-7 (30m)
9th place
play-off:
[7] PAKISTAN bt [9]
WALES 2-0
Aamir Atlas Khan bt
Alex Gough 11-5, 11-9, 11-10 (2-0) (30m)
Mansoor Zaman bt Rob
Sutherland 11-9, 11-5, 11-9 (26m)
11th place
play-off:
[12] SOUTH AFRICA
bt [11] IRELAND 2-1
Jesse Engelbrecht lost
to Liam Kenny 3-11, 6-11, 9-11 (32m)
Stephen Coppinger bt
Derek Ryan 11-10 (2-0), 11-2, 11-3 (27m)
Adrian Hansen bt
Arthur Gaskin 11-6, 11-6, 11-7 (32m)
13th place
play-off:
[13] NEW ZEALAND bt
[14] USA 2-0
Kashif Shuja bt Julian
Illingworth 11-7, 11-9, 7-11, 11-10 (3-1) (45m)
Campbell Grayson bt
Christopher Gordon 11-3, 11-6, 11-1 (29m)
15th place
play-off:
[15] HONG KONG bt
[16] GERMANY 2-1
Dick Lau lost to Simon
Rosner 2-11, 9-11, 8-11 (30m)
Wai Hang Wong bt Tim
Weber 11-4, 5-11, 11-9, 11-6 (45m)
Max Lee bt Moritz
Dahmen 7-11, 11-8, 11-5, 11-8 (54m)
17th place
play-off:
[17/24] SWEDEN bt
[17/24] SCOTLAND 2-0
Christian Drakenberg
bt Alan Clyne 11-4, 11-2, 11-10 (2-0) (37m)
Badr Abdel Aziz bt
Stuart Crawford 11-6, 11-8, 11-6 (28m)
19th place
play-off:
[17/24] SPAIN bt
[17/24] JAPAN 2-0
David Vidal bt Jun
Matsumoto 11-5, 11-0, 11-7 (30m)
Alejandro Garbi Caro
bt Takanori Shimizu 11-5, 11-10 (3-1), 11-6 (39m)
21st place
play-off:
[17/24] FINLAND bt
[17/24] KUWAIT 2-1
Matias Tuomi bt Bader
Al Hussaini 7-11, 6-11, 11-4, 11-4, 11-9 (56m)
Henrik Mustonen lost
to Abdullah Almezayen 5-11, 3-11, 6-11 (24m)
Mika Monto bt Nasser B
Al-Ramzi 6-11, 6-11, 11-9, 11-9, 11-5 (50m)
23rd place
play-off:
[17/24] KENYA bt
[17/24] AUSTRIA 2-1
Hardeep Reel bt Aqeel
Rehman 11-9, 11-10 (4-2), 11-10 (5-3) (43m)
Hartaj Bains lost to
Jakob Dirnberger 8-11, 9-11, 9-11 (31m)
Otto Kwach bt Stefan
Brauneis 11-10 (2-0), 11-9, 11-8 (32m)
25th place
play-off:
[25/29] SRI LANKA
bt [25/29] BERMUDA 2-0
Saman Thilakaratna bt
Chase Toogood 11-5, 11-9, 11-5 (28m)
Navin Samarasinghe bt
Melrindo Caines 11-3, 11-2, 11-4 (21m)
27th place
play-off:
[25/29] RUSSIA bt
[25/29] VENEZUELA 2-1
Alexei Severinov bt
Francisco Valecillo 11-8, 11-8, 11-7 (27m)
Sergey Kostrykin lost
to Juan Pablo Sanchez 10-11 (2-4), 10-11 (0-2), 6-11 (28m)
Valery Litvinko bt
Luis Hernandes 11-5, 11-5, 11-8 (29m)
29th place
play-off:
[25/29] CHINESE
TAIPEI bye
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