KING OF BLING FAILS TO
SAVE SURREY BLUSHES
Peter Crabtree reports from Chichester

On a fantastic night of squash at the Oaklands Park Club, Chichester ultimately cruised to a 4-1 dumping of newcomers Surrey Rackets & Health Club last night, thereby denying the visitors a play-off place that had been tantalisingly in reach, or so it seemed.

The evening was graced, and I use the word deliberately, by the presence of Peter Nicol in his first match on home soil since his Commonwealth Games triumphs, and maybe equally satisfyingly his double drubbing of arch opponent David Palmer. The man has a presence on court that seems to defy physical capability as he glides around and even at his advanced age makes the game look depressingly easy - so much so that a self-avowed complete incompetent at racket sports watching their first squash match has announced their intention of "giving it a go"! No, not me, I retired last year due to terminal incompetence, but I am sure Lisa will be giving it a good old go - go girl!

The evening begun in the slightly funereal atmosphere that resulted from the absence of regular host Maximus Black, mind you the players were enjoying the prospect of getting on court somewhat earlier than usual! So yours truly picked up the shackles again, and it was just like the good old days.

First up were Linda Elriani and Jane Gardner, in what is likely to be Linda's penultimate appearance at the Club. She and Laurent are taking up coaching positions in the States in the Autumn and we wish them well, although how we are going to compensate for the fall-off in sales of Jack Daniels on match nights is a problem.

After the European Championships, Linda will have chalked up around 100 International appearances, and a career that encompasses over 150 WISPA events - her take on that career is "I told you I was getting bloody old to have done all that!" Mind you, she had celebrated a couple of days earlier by beating Steve Wall in a Sussex League match, making Wally eligible for the annual end of season Mike Link award (don't ask!).

Jane is a South African International, and the first few rallies warned Linda not to take her too lightly. Fit (yes, as well) and a good striker of the ball, she made Linda work, but the pace and accuracy were too much, and it was a 27-0 to Linda, but could easily not have been so.

    Linda Elriani 3/0 Jane Gardner    9/0, 9/0, 9/0

Meanwhile, Tom Richards and Chris Simpson were doing battle on the adjacent court, not for the first time this season. Strangely, both found out they were playing the match by text message whilst on a skiing holiday - with each other!

Chris recently represented Guernsey in the Commonwealth games as the only squash player. He had a great time until he turned up for the doubles! The game followed the normal pattern of dislodging plaster from the front wall, and Chris was generally cruising as he raced into a 2-0 lead. However, Tom fought back, and after a marathon 5 setter, finished off 10-8, 9-7, 9-7 to take the match and give Chi a 2-0 lead on the night.

   Tom Richards 3/2 Chris Simpson 4/9, 6/9, 10/8, 9/7, 9/7

During this, Tims Vail and Garner were doing battle, and the new attacking Garnish was looking to repeat his Esporta Cup win of a couple of weeks ago. However, the route to vanquishing Voles does not exist in a game of attack and shotmaking. He is better at that - the legs are less so, but with 6 careers on the go it seemed that Farmer Tim was not sure whether he was using a racket or a pitchfork.

Vole was also hot on the back of his recent North of Scotland Open win (against 3 sheep and Meadsy on Stornoway). There was some good stuff, and several trade-mark Vole rollers, but Timmy G was never really in it, and there we were celebrating a 3-0 lead on the night, the probable end of Surrey's play-off hopes (well we weren't celebrating that bit exactly), and a real chance of topping the table and getting the weak opposition from the North (ha ha ha!).

      Tim Vail 3/0 Tim Garner              9/6, 9/3, 9/7

So Jelly had the chance of putting some real pressure on Pete Nic to avoid the whitewash in his battle with Phil Barker. Phil has made his fortune from the squash circuit and is now "something in the City" as they say. He was late as he hadn't realised that Chichester was outside Zone 6 on the London Underground, and had to catch a proper train, but that was OK. Jelly is as Jelly does, and last night he definitely fancied doing.

Seemingly free from the various niggles that have been plaguing him (although Senior did turn up) he moved well, struck the ball well, and hit one absolutely Volesque cross court roller. It is a delight to see him playing like this, and I think you'll see him around at this level for some while yet. He is starting a collection of vest pocket sized diaries, so if you have any contributions, please send them to him care of the Chichester Club and we will forward them to him. We also had the pleasure of 2 absolutely belting decisions from Cooky - balancing each other out thankfully. Keep it up mate!

     Peter Genever 3/0 Phillip Barker 9/4, 9/6, 9/6 

Anyway, it was 3-0 and a 4-0 lead on the night - could the Superhero that is Peter Nicol rise to the challenge of Ben Garner's forehand, and save the day for Surrey? It was difficult to know quite how to sum up Pete's achievements in the introduction - it tool Rob Edwards 20 minutes in Bermuda and he only got to Pete getting to No.1 in the World for the first time, so there was no way I could improve on that, except by shutting up - so I did. The King of Bling (as he is now to be known after the pictures of those medals) took to the court to a standing ovation from over 150 spectators which lasted over 2 minutes - and I do mean a standing ovation. It was one of those occasions when the hairs on the back of your neck stand up the atmosphere was so electric.

Ben played his heart out, bless him. Pete looked to be a bit off the pace, but as his mind was having breakfast in Melbourne it probably wasn't surprising. But he glides around the court with those scampering little steps, strikes the ball so well, and always seems to send his opponent if not the wrong way then certainly off balance being unsure of where the ball is gong. The 2nd game went to Ben to level things after an amazing exchange of nicks, and 3 consecutive rallies being decided by a roller, the last of which was a Benny G slap backhand crosscourt which smoked as it rolled.

But despite Ben playing some fantastic squash which had the great man at full stretch on a number of occasions, it always looked as though the result was inevitable, and finally Pete finished it off to salvage some pride for Croydon.

         Ben Garner 1-3 Peter Nicol         6/9, 10/8, 5/9, 6/9

Afterwards Pete took questions from the gallery for 10 minutes - a gesture which showed the type of person he is, and was hugely appreciated by the Chichester crowd.

It was a great night, no another great night of squash at Chichester, the only question now, hopefully, is do we get the weak Manchester Team or the weak Duffield Team in the play-offs? No doubt Mr Hargrave will have a prediction!
 

   South Group:

Birmingham University 7  2  5   14  21   55   76      65