“You could be surprised by Nick” said Martin Bronstein, “I predict a 3/2 victory for Matthew”. “Not today” I replied with a smile.

Well, we were both wrong, but more me than him! Well, you know about my predictions skills, don’t you…

In 32 minutes, Matthew dismantled the Boss. Well, a bit like the squash lesson Peter gave to an out of focus Thierry Lincou in Rennes during the European Championship last week.

“When I last played Peter in New York, people told me that I would have had a chance if he hadn’t had such a brilliant start“  an ecstatically happy Matthew told me after his first ever victory over his idol. “So today, I made sure I had a good start, because you can’t chase Peter from behind, he is so quick.”

He went on: “The best thing that ever happened to me was when Peter left Scotland to come and play for England, because it gave me the opportunity to analyse his game, his training, and led to this significant victory today. And I would be happy to follow half of his path”.

Matthew just attacked every shot, every point, his precision was remarkable, the rallies were short, intense. Yes, Nicol retrieved beautifully, but he was always half a second too late. And Nick was on fire, no, Nick was on another level all together.

Peter said simply: “Recently, I just relaxed totally, and maybe, I lacked a bit in concentration. It’s hard to come back. And especially, to come back and play against a player that plays perfectly. Believe me, if he had given me any chance, any chance at all, I would have taken it.”

So, another scalp for the Sheffield born young Matthew.

(AND: Matthew wins Kingfisher Player of the Day, Ed)

NEXT…

POWER: THE PAIN RECURS
 John White bt Jonathon Power (Harrow)
     11/4, 11/6, 11/4  (26m)

11/4, 11/6, 11/4 to John White in 26 minutes? Yes, John White was playing beautifully well, was going for all his shots, killing the ball like nobody else can, but the explanation is very simple.

“I just can’t stretch in front and come back”, said the Super Series 2003 Champion. “I thought that stopping for 10 days would be enough, but the pain reoccurred the minute I started playing. My balance has gone, and I can’t run. Difficult to play squash when one can’t run!”.

What a string of bad luck for the majestic Power, one of the most inventive, brilliant, imaginative, flamboyant players on the circuit. I honestly hope it will get better, as world squash needs players like him.

By the way, Jonathan had the courtesy to answer my questions in French. Very much appreciated. Thanks to you Sir.

THE RUBBER BAND
SNAPPED ...
 Lee Beachill bt Amr Shabana (Fleet)
     11/9, 4/11, 11/10 (3-1), 11/8  (71m)

It didn’t start very well for Amr Shabana, the “Rubber Band”. This player is so flexible, stretches so far and then comes back so quickly, I nicknamed him, “the Rubber Band”.

No, the first game lacked urgency, his shots were very approximate, cross courts in the middle of the court, drop shots that I could have played (no, really) … not very impressive, and Lee Beachill very quickly heard  the marker announcing 10/6, game ball.

“Oh yeah, I forgot about that” said Lee. Funny, he did the same at the Canary Wharf Classic, when the marker said "8/8, deuce", he stopped and said to him with complete astonishment “What?!!!”. Bless.

Shabana put some pressure on Lee, who made a few mistakes, but Beachill took the 1st game 11/9 in 15 minutes.

In the second Shabana decided to raise the pace and the intensity of the rallies (thank God), and was now directing the exchanges. The quality of the match improved (as it’s often the case, for both players), Amr served us some flamboyant volley kills, Lee some great length and lobs, but this game was Shabana’s 11/4 in 9 minutes.

Then it all went wrong.

“Today I had the impression I was playing against 3 people; Lee, the marker and the referee,” said Shabana afterwards. “The 3rd was critical”.

Lee was up 6/1, and his opponent clawed back to 9/9.

Amr was in the match by now, plunging on Lee’s precise drop shots, standing up again, running on the other side of the court where his opponent was clever to send the ball… The rallies were longer, more intense, drop shots festival from both players, great length, varied pace, beautiful squash.

But Shabana made the mistake of involving the referee in his tactic.

He was not happy, not at all with the referee’s decisions. Got angry. “Watch the language” said the ref “Watch the marking” snapped Amr.

At 10/10, 4 lets in a row. 2 points later (1/1, I know, it’s difficult to get used to that 2 points clear thingy) another 4 lets. Shabana made the mistake that a lot of players do when they are unhappy about the refereeing: he challenged the ref, looking for strokes (cheap or not, that is another point).

And at that game, the only loser is always the player, as he loses his concentration, his game, his game plan, and very often the game.

What am I supposed to do?” he cried. “Play squash” was my suggestion.

Lee gets the third 11/10 [3/1].

“I’m mad at them, not at you Lee”, said a sad Shabana in the 4th. There was no animosity at all between the players, and praise God for that. But so many lets, SO MANY LETS! The 4th didn’t have ANY RHYTHM whatsoever.

Come on, 4/4, 8 lets followed by a stroke. At 6/6, 5 lets. Then Lee gets a lucky nick of the backwall (“the more I practice, the luckier I get” sort of point). 7/6. A great backhand drop shot. 8/6. 1 tin for each player. 9/7. A perfect length drive. 10/7. A fantastic return of serve kill, 8/10, and a last stretched for the Rubber Band… who snapped.

“Because of recent events in my life (Lee just had a son, Ben, 6 pounds 4 ounces and 18 hours of labour, no, you silly, not him, his girlfriend!) I didn’t have much preparation. I don’t think either of us played as well as we can. But I kept my concentration”. (see Ben, in DAD of the Day)

Yes, and congratulations for that Lee (for the concentration AND the baby…).

Lee wins the first match in history with an 11 points scoring, 11/9, 4/11, 11/10 (3/1), 11/8.

On new scoring system, Beachill told Alan Thatcher in the post match interview: “Because of the new scoring, you can’t afford to go for shots near the tin at the beginning of each set, so, you play more carefully to start with”.

I USED TO BE GOOD
AT PLAYING SQUASH…
 Thierry Lincou bt Joe Kneipp (Fleet)
     11/9, 11/8, 10/11 (0-2), 10/4 (71m)

Said Joe Kneipp (world number 11), the Super Series newcomer to himself during his match with Thierry Lincou (world number 3).

Joe said a lot of things tonight.

“I’m SO AVERAGE”, then on the verge of losing the 2nd, “You’re giving it away!” and later “Don’t take it so seriously” when the referee asked him to stop what he was doing immediately (he had put his racquet on the floor, stepped on it, and was walking all over it as a mark of disgust for the poor quality of his racquet’s skills). Quite lively the lad, but good lively, if you see what I mean…

Kneipp didn’t like the way he played at all. “I was playing so far from the top of my game, around 70% I would say”. I lacked confidence in myself, and that’s why I was talking so much. The games were so close, and yet I was not playing even near to my normal standard, it’s so frustrating.”

Well, that was actually Thierry’s game plan “I played at my rhythm, I tried to be patient, to frustrate him, I locked him in length. On the important points, I was very solid mentally, it was a bit of a mental battle which I’m glad to have won.”

Yes, the games were very close. In the 1st game, Thierry was handling the pace, changing speed and rhythm, and had the confidence to play volley drops from various positions, even from far back, but it was Joe that was finishing the long rallies with a dream drop shot that the Frenchman couldn’t get to.

Joe was up 7/1, but slowly, Thierry’s patient length game and retrievals started to hurt the Australian, and the Frenchman came back to 9/9, Thierry to serve. The Referee gave us one of his numerous “no let”, don’t ask me why, the heck if I know, to Thierry’s advantage and gave him a game point 10/9, and a frustrated Kneipp put a raged ball in the tin. Lincou 11/9 in 18 minutes.

In the second, Thierry was able once again to slow the pace with long drives and lobs that were preventing his opponent from playing his natural attacking game. 2 "no lets" startled Lincou (and he wasn’t the only one), as he is not the style of player to ask for cheap strokes, but just wanted a simple let, his opponent being in a straight line between his racquet, the ball and the front wall. Quite simple really, but no, this particular referee has a very strange idea of what a let is all about.

The score was still very close. 2/3, 3/3, 4/3, 4/4, 4/5, 5/5, 6/5, 6/6, 7/6, 7//7, 8/7, 8/8, 9/8 for Thierry. Every rally was razor sharp, Lincou once again frustrating Kneipp by retrieving shots that should have won the rally. And the Frenchman takes the 2nd 11/9.

Lincou would have won in 3 games (well, that’s my opinion anyway) if the ref hadn’t really angered the Australian at 8/7, on serve. Kneipp wasn’t really in the game anymore, was fighting more by habit than by will.

And once again, he got frustrated with himself and he said ………, and got a conduct stroke.

“What did he say”? “What”? “Did you hear anything?”… Nobody knew what the heck it was all about. All that we knew was that it must have been terrible to get a penalty stroke without a warning, whereas Joe hadn’t said anything bad so far…

Turd. He said turd ………

8/8, Thierry to serve. And Joe just woke up! He went for every shot, hit, placed, dropped, ran, played beautifully well, to take the 3rd 11/10 (2/0).

With the same energy/rage, he went up 2/1 in the 4th, but Lincou “laissa passer l’orage”, let the storm pass, re-established his authority and quickly finished it off (10minutes).

11/9, 11/8, 10/11 (0-2), 11/4 in 71 minutes.

Thierry will now meet Lee at 6 tomorrow whereas Joe meets Shabana. And that last one should be fun to referee…
 

I’M « PEN DOOMED » !

For those of you who follow my columns (bless you all), you must remember that at Canary Wharf, my pen died while watching Thierry playing, then three pens died on me in Rennes last week, so today, I had 2 pens on me.

While interviewing Shabana, the first one dies. So, proudly, I seize the second one and go on with the interview.

Then, for the first time of my life, I dare to disturb Peter Nicol (he terrifies me!) after his defeat against Matthew, and while writing the 1st sentence, my second pen dies.

And I could see in Peter’s eyes something that looked like “why isn’t she writing anything??? Does she know what she is doing???”

I’m PEN DOOMED!

WHAT EVER HAPPENED
TO THE REFEREES???
We had a player breaking his racquet by voluntarily volleying  the wall (yes, Power of course), going on playing the rally and then going to change his racquet with no sign of a “conduct warning racquet abuse”.

Then a player (Shabana) who gets away with saying “Sh…” loudly and clearly, whereas Kneipp, talking to himself, and unheard by the major part of the arena (not by ANYBODY around me, as I actually had to ask Joe what he said) gets a conduct stroke at a crucial point in his match against Lincou for saying “Turd”.

Then another referee who wouldn’t recognise a let if it was standing on his foot (against Thierry, yes, the same one that refereed him at the CWC, and refused lets that led even Peter Nicol to say on Sky “it’s quite incredible really, it should be a simple let), while another referee gave so many lets that I refuse to count them.

And those were 3 international referees.

The only National referee that was there didn’t make any trouble at all…

Come on, ladies and gentlemen, sort yourselves out please…
 

Top seed Thierry
enjoys Brit's Champagne
at the Press conference ...
Squash in the City Gallery