|
The time: August 2005. The Place: The Crucible, Sheffield
By Sue Matthew
Friday 19th August 2005 -
Quarters
[5]
Nick Matthew (Eng)
3-2 [1] Lee Beachill (Eng)
6-11, 7-11, 11-6, 11-9, 15-13 (93m)
 Shock
is a funny thing. It plays all sorts of tricks on the mind and
body. I can only remember suffering it once in my life and it
was so extreme that I was totally disorientated ( and
incapacitated, it turned out later) for some hours.
It was August 2005 in our home city of Sheffield. The Mamut
English Open held at the famous Crucible Theatre.
By then Nick was 25 years old and WR9. He had already achieved
so much in the game and, unlike my husband Hedley, I'm ashamed
to say that I thought his career had probably peaked.
 After
all, WR9 is nothing to be sniffed at. This is not to say I
didn't believe in him, but in retrospect I was proud of what he
had achieved so far in his career and was always aware that I
didn't want to put too much pressure and expectation on the
shoulders of my only 'child'. I wanted to protect him, I
suppose, from anything that might be perceived as 'failure'.
Hedley would tell you that he always believed fervently
that Nick would go on to achieve WR1 status, but the sheer scale
of Nick's subsequent achievements must have surprised even him
(although he'd deny it if asked).
So, back to the Crucible.
Nick was playing in the quarters against the no.1 seed, WR2
Lee Beachill, whom he had never beaten.
Lee was riding high and far ahead of the chasing players. He
went 2-0 up and Nick's fate seemed sealed. The screen flashed up
the fact that Lee had never lost from 2-0 up.
We settled to accept the inevitable, especially when Lee went
4-0 up in the 3rd. Then something happened. Nick started to
mount a response and won the next two games.
In the 5th he survived 4 match balls and finally went on to win
the match with a ridiculous score of something like 17-15 that
went on and on and on.
I'm not certain of the score because by this time I somehow lost
track of it. I was in a complete daze and when everyone jumped
to their feet applauding and cheering, I had to ask Hedley who
had won. Really. I honestly had no idea. "Nick won! Tremendous!"
rang in my ears. I promptly burst into tears but the fact that
he had won didn't fully register for some time
 A
little later I returned to the car park to drive home. The car
was newish at the time, a little black Citroen
Saxo in black, and negotiating the
barriers on the way out I managed to dent the whole offside,
taking the barrier with me.
It still didn't register and it was
only when I reached home that I realised what had happened - and
realised that in fact I shouldn't have been driving in that
state!
I became fond of the semi-crushed side of my car and never
repaired it; it was 9 years before I reluctantly let it go and I
still miss it.
This didn't turn out to be one of Nick's greatest achievements
but it's certainly one I'll never forget. And one that should
teach us all always to believe, to trust. Little steps.
Yes, I
remember that he became the first Briton to win the British Open
in 67 years the following year, and I remember all the World
Championship wins, the Commonwealth wins and the British
Nationals.....We've been there for all of them.
But I'll never forget the Crucible in the balmy summer of 2005
when I went a little barmy myself. |
|
