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PSA PLAYER BIOGRAPHY Name: LEE BEACHILL Country: ENGLAND Date of Birth: 28/11/77 Height: 6' 1" (183 cm) Place of Birth: Huddersfield Place of Residence: Pontefract Current World Ranking (Jan 05): 2 Highest World Ranking (Oct 04): 1 National Ranking: 1 PSA Titles: 5 PSA Final Appearances: 9 |
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A single career-threatening injury would be a major blow to any top sportsman. Three in succession, however, would surely enforce early retirement in all but the most determined. Lee Beachill, a hero of England’s world junior championship-winning team of 1996, suffered three such accidents within twelve months from September 1997. After contracting salmonella in Portugal and losing two-and-a-half stone (16 kg) in weight while seriously ill in hospital, Lee then suffered a serious road accident, writing off his car and breaking his back in two places! Despite a hospital diagnosis that would spend at least the next four months on his back – and would never play squash again – he was back on court after some eight weeks and made his tournament comeback at the 1998 British Open! Then ranked 127 in the world, he was required to compete in the pre-qualifying preliminary competition. Incredibly, six victories later the 20-year-old qualified for a debut appearance in the prestigious event’s first round – where he was drawn to play the favourite and world No1 Peter Nicol, who went on to win the title after ending Beachill’s brave run in straight games. In October 98, Lee won his first PSA Tour title, the Adelaide Club Open in Toronto, Canada. Three days later, however, a freak accident led to further hospitalisation – when a go cart crushed his foot after mysteriously leaving the indoor circuit track which he and friends were visiting! The lean Yorkshireman has since become England’s fastest-rising squash star – in February 2001 becoming the lowest seed ever to capture the British National title, then in June reaching the semi-finals of the British Open. In February 2002, Lee became the first man in history to successfully defend the British National title. In the 2002 Commonwealth Games in England, Lee partnered Peter Nicol in the Men’s Doubles and collected England’s only Gold medal of the Games, beating Australians Stewart Boswell and Anthony Ricketts in the final. After being forced to retire from the quarter-finals of the Tournament of Champions in New York in February 2003 – which was his third successive withdrawal from a PSA Tour event after persistent problems with his right ankle – Beachill rushed back to England where he underwent surgery which kept him out of action for two months. He made his comeback for England in the European Team Championships in May, and returned to the PSA Tour later in the month at the Super Series Finals in London – where he was making his debut in the annual event for the top eight players who achieve the best results in the previous year’s Super Series events. After disappointing draws in three successive PSA events which saw him face – and lose to – world No1 Peter Nicol, Beachill produced his best in the Qatar Classic in December. Seeded nine, he beat Stefan Casteleyn and Mohammed Abbas to reach the quarter-finals where he again faced Nicol. This time he triumphed over the top seed in straight games, and went on to beat England team-mate Nick Matthew to make his debut in a Super Series final. A stunning 15-12 15-5 11-15 12-15 15-9 victory over Scotland’s John White, the No2 seed, gave Beachill his biggest PSA title to date. Three months later, Lee was again on the winner’s podium – after beating Australia’s David Palmer in the final of the PSA Tour’s five-star Bermuda Open in May 2004. His glorious year continued with victories in the English Open in August and the US Open in September – in the latter triumphing over David Palmer in the semis and Peter Nicol in the final. The long-awaited reward came the following month when Lee reached No1 in the Dunlop PSA world rankings – becoming the first true Englishman to achieve this accolade. Lee finished the year by reaching the final – the 12th of his career – of the World Open in Qatar, where he lost in five games to Thierry Lincou. In the New Year, Beachill was a semi-finalist in the Windy City Open and reached the quarter-finals of the Tournament of Champions – but his most notable achievement of the year to date was his triumph in the British National Championships in Manchester where, in his fifth successive appearance in the final, he brushed aside close friend and Pontefract club-mate James Willstrop to win the title for the third time. Born in Huddersfield in Yorkshire, Lee took up squash when he was eight, guided by noted coach Malcolm Willstrop, his mentor still today. By his late teens, Beachill had won British junior titles at U12, U14, U16 and U19 – becoming only the second person (after world top five player Simon Parke) to win all four national junior championships. |
LEE BEACHILL TOURNAMENT SUCCESSES: Feb-05 Quarter-finalist *Tournament of
Champions USA # non-PSA
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