Round ONE, Tue 3rd October:
No Joy for New Boys in Round One ...
Quick summary from Steve Cubbins

It was a disappointing night for the ‘new boys’ as the Premier Squash League’s 2006/07 season got under way tonight, with Esporta Oxford and Luxfords St George’s Hill suffering defeats on their PSL debuts.

Esporta Oxford travelled to the Birmingham with a weakened team, and against a full-strength University outfit found the going hard. Laura Lengthorn and Steve Coppinger quickly put Birmingham two-up, and Joel Hinds and Jonathan Harford – part of the Great Britain world university champion team – sealed the match leaving it to Joey Barrington to complete the whitewash.

The other match in Northern Group A saw Pontefract, now on their own after three years of a partnership with Manchester, succumb to a 4-1 home defeat at the hands of Nottingham. The East Midlands outfit took a 2-1 lead, and the tie was decided as Nottingham stalwart Simon Parke won the longest match of the night to defeat Indian champion Saurav Ghosal. Nottingham new boy Ong Beng Hee added to the points tally as he beat James Willstrop in the final match.

In Southern Group B, debutants Luxfords St George’s Hill welcomed Surrey Health & Rackets Croydon, who, with two of the world’s top ten in their lineup started as clear favourites. The St George’s fans had their own five-time world champion Sarah Fitz-Gerald to cheer, but although ‘Fitz’ got the new team off to a good start the strength in depth of the Surrey team told as they ran out 4-1 winners.

Two old rivals met at Chichester, and in a repeat of last year’s early-season encounter Unisport Guildford came away 3-2 winners. After the first two matches were shared it was Guildford’s youth and experience combination of Jesse Englebrecht and Stephen Meads who sealed the win. Chichester’s new number one Alex Gough took the final tie against Stacey Ross to reduce the deficit, a win which may yet prove to be influential come the seemingly inevitable countback at the end of March …
 

Pontefract 1 Nottingham 4
Malcolm Willstrop reports

Playing their first match without the joint support of Manchester, Pontefract took on Nottingham in what proved to be an entertaining match.

Shelley Kitchen, just back from leading New Zealand to 5th in the World Team Championships, and short of sleep, was still far too good for Dominique Lloyd-Walter, who battled hard, as she does.

At the same time Stuart Crawford, the Scottish International, was losing 3/1 in a well-fought match with Welsh International Jethro Binns. Crawford appeared the faster player at the end, but Binns usually had a shot too many.

Andrew Cross could not match the Plate winner in the Commonwealth Games Hadeep Reel, a Kenyan studying at Oxford University, in what was an entirely watchable match.

At 2/1 down Pontefract’s Indian National Champion, Saurav Ghosal, needed to overcome evergreen Simon Parke, whose enthusiasm for the sport is to be applauded. It was the match of the night and when the mercurially quick Ghosal levelled at two-all, he seemed the more likely winner since he had put Parke on the end of some awesome rallies.

But he was unable to maintain the high tempo, Parke suddenly felt more comfortable and took the fifth.

The match may have been decided, but James Willstrop, on the comeback after his illness and a racket-hand operation, and Ong Beng Hee treated the crowd to a match full of quality and pace.

Ong produced some marvellous shots, Willstrop showed a few signs of rustiness, but both will be happy with their performances as the Malaysian won 3/1.

Assembled as the match ended was the Pontefract Ladies team heading for Malmo, Sweden, for the European Club Championships under manager Terry Dudley and with the usual vociferous Pontefract support team. Leading the supporters was club manager and world traveller Mick Todd, and Pontefract’s top lady supporter, receptionist Cheryl Lonsdale.
 

Solid start for Guildford
Ian Robinson reports

UniSport Guildford made a solid start to the new Premier Squash League season with a hard working win over south coast rivals, Tinos Homes Chichester. The sometimes treacherous journey to the south coast was bathed in sunshine both on and off the court for the UniSport journeymen.

Alison Waters had just arrived back from Canada from the Women's World Team Championships where she was an integral part of the England team that was victorious. Her flight arrived back on Monday and she played most of her match with the Danish number 1, Line Hansen, as if still recovering from both the flight and the inevitable celebrations after 'the event'. The UniSport star still knew enough to be able control some of the match, well enough of the match to close out a steady win in 3 games, but there will be other occasions when she is closer to her best perhaps. Nobody from Guildford minded because although it was not pretty, it was the right result and this gave UniSport just the start they needed.

While this was taking place on an outside court, local Chichester hero Peter Genever was given a warm reception on his favourite court as he met up with Jesse Engelbrecht. The UniSport man is a much improved and perhaps underrated Premier League performer and was consistent for us last season at number 3 in the team order. Aided by some uncharacteristic errors from the Genever racket and also some tight accurate winners Engelbrecht took an early lead although showing some early season indecision in making hard work of closing out the first game. The pattern was not too dissimilar in the second game although there was evidence that Genever, so often the comeback expert, was beginning to find his way. Engelbrecht now had to resist the inevitable comeback from Genever and sure enough it was forthcoming taking a tight third game 12 - 10, but Engelbrecht showed all the fighting skills that led to his successes last season and although clearly anxious he managed to clinch the fourth game by 9 - 6, to save the lottery of the fifth. This gave UniSport Guildford a comfortable and perhaps somewhat unexpected 2 - 0 advantage and was characterised by a very good performance by Engelbrecht who was full value for his win.

Tim Vail is something of a Premier League expert and playing very low in his team's order despite being team manager for a year, he was to hand out a baptism of fire to the young debutant Alex Ingham. The youngster is clearly one to watch for the future but at 16 years of age and only a handful of senior outings to his name this was going to pose intriguing problems for him. Vail came out of the traps at top speed hitting Ingham a fearful battering and forged quickly into a comfortable lead 6 - 1. Without much delay and obviously in a hurry, Vail banked the first game. The second was to follow a similar pattern although there was some evidence that Ingham was settling into the task and was rallying without being able to win points - in fact more often than not a loose ball would result in the rally being lost. The last game saw a brief loss of concentration by Vail and Ingham was able to put some well earned points on the board. Although this was a comfortable loss, there were some positives to come out of it. Ingham will need much more experience at this level but as one of the brightest under 19s in the country and with a World Junior Championships behind him in New Zealand this summer, the future looks bright. The match was now more evenly balanced at 2 - 1.

Stephen Meads was starting his ninth season in the team and now being the only player to be ever-present in the team since the campaign began. He came up against, the soon to be departing for America, Ben Garner, who was anxious to give his Chichester fans something good by which to remember him. Pounding the ball in the way that only Garner can, he mounted a ferocious attack on Meads and it rather took the initiative away from UniSport. Meads, however recently returned from training the Hong Kong national team, was not to be undone and gradually clawed his way back into the first game and forced it into a tie breaker. The tense moments of the tie breaker finally relented and UniSport found themselves a game to the good. This was a crucially important phase of the game, as it gave confidence to Meads and he hit some clean winners and preyed on some errors from Garner to poach the second game as well. The Chichester faithful know their man and with their full support his level of intensity raised and he hit some stunning cross court nicks to steal a game back from Meads. In the fourth, however good order was restored and Meads managed to build himself a lead which he was able to convert into the match winning tie. UniSport Guildford found themselves 3 - 1 to the good with Stacey Ross still unchanged.

The final match of the night was Ross against Chichester 'new boy' Alex Gough. This was a fine exhibition of squash especially as lowly world- ranked Ross brought his best shots to the court. Combined with errors from Gough, Ross seemed to rip the game out of the Chichester man's control and bank it quickly and comfortably, showing a deadly array of winners. In fact it looked almost too easy but was probably explained by Gough's slow start. In the second, Gough world ranked number 20 demonstrated a much more concentrated approach choosing to ride out the storm of attacking shots from Ross with solid defence down the side-walls allied to some lethal counter attacking. How quickly a match can turn around and although Ross was still inflicting some damage, it was not nearly as clear cut and eventually frustration set in and with it came errors. That was to be the story of the last three games but there were some delightful rallies with shots deftly controlled into all corners of the court and the retrieving to match. The crowd were royally entertained and this despite the fact that this was, in essence, a dead tie. Full credit to both players for the quality on display and especially to the ever-green Alex Gough who showed that even at 35 and with his highly creditable world ranking preserved, he is a squash player who has much playing still to do.

In the topsy turvy world of life on the road to matches between Tines Homes Chichester and UniSport Guildford the unexpected has become the norm, but here was a very hard working result much against the formbook. It is an excellent start to the season which will be pivotal in the career development of young players. A fond playing farewell has been bid to Neil Frankland who has served UniSport with honour and distinction but now is the time to take a look at the new generation in the shape of Alex Ingham and others. So to start the process with a win against such formidable opponents is indeed exciting.

The next match is at home to Bristol - another welcome new addition to Premier League action. The match is Tuesday 7th November starting at 7.00pm, so book early to be assured of taking a glimpse at the new generation of squash players alongside the old favourites.


UniSport Guildford

PSL Debut at St George's Hill

St Georges goes down fighting
Danny Lee reports

Luxfords St Georges Hill went down fighting in their first ever Premier Squash League match against a star studded Team Surrey lineup which included Ex World Champion Peter Nicol and Last year's British Open Champion Anthony Ricketts.

First on court was St George's own star Sarah Fitzgerald, five times the World Ladies Champion. Sarah made short work of English Open Champion Lauren Briggs, winning 9-2, 9-3, 9-0 in 32 minutes.

Local youngster Joe Lee, 16 and just coming into the pro game, came close to an upset against Chris Simpson, 19 and his predecessor as British Junior No1. Simpson, who has climbed to World no 77, was shocked when Lee took the second game 9-3 and then stood at 6 all in the fourth before succumbing in 48 minutes, 9-6, 3-9, 9-4, 9-6.

Tom Richards, another young player who hails from the host club, was the victim of some questionable refereeing decisions in his match with Italian No 1 Davide Bianchetti. The match was close and whilst Richards kept it alive there was still hope for the St George's team. Bianchetti, who normally matches anyone for histrionics, looked on in bewilderment as Richards vented his frustration. Richards managed to regroup after each outburst but eventually he was worn down, Bianchetti taking the match 9-1, 7-9, 9-3, 10-8.

Peter Nicol proved that even after retirement ex World Champions can still perform to a level close to that of their heyday. Nicol who retired last month at the World Open, beneath the pyramids in Egypt, demolished Daryl Selby 9-4, 9-6, 9-2 in just 30 minutes.

Anthony Ricketts at number one for Team Surrey was made to work really hard by Alister Walker, the British Under 23 Champion. Each game was tightly contested with Ricketts triumphing 10-8, 9-7, 9-7 in an entertaining encounter where Walker matched his illustrious opponent in every department except the key points at the end of each game.

Luxfords St George's Hill will have learned plenty from this tough baptism in the Premier Squash League. The young squad will know that second place in the Southern Division is possible. Their performance will make several of their more experienced rivals see them as a real threat.


Luxford St George's Hill