09-Oct, Finals:

Gina Kennedy 3-1 nada elkalwaay
        5/11, 11/7, 11/8, 11/8
Daniel poleschuck 3-0 matt hopkin
        11/7, 11/7, 12/10

Kennedy & Poleschuck take the Charing X Titles
Ben Ford reports

Last night was the finals of the men's and women's PSA at event's at Charing Cross sports club and a healthy crowd was looking forward to both matches.

First up was the ladies, with no.1 seed and european junior champion Gina Kennedy v nada elkalaawy. The match was played at an extremely high pace and followed the pattern most people expected with nada attacking at every opportunity and Gina covering the court with speed and counter attacking when possible.

1st game to nada with some winners and a few mistakes from Gina. 2nd game , roles reversed as Gina is picking up Nada's attacks and hitting some winners of her own especially to the front left. 3rd and 4th are close but Gina always has a slight lead and closes the match out 3-1.

The 2 play each other in a PSA event next week so they will both know what to expect!

Onto the much anticipated men's final with Israelis Daniel poleschuck v Charing Cross favourite, matt hopkin. The match is played at at ferocious pace with Daniel hitting the ball at pace and matt taking everything as early as possible. Daniel has been prone to mistake during the week but tonight he his finding his targets and moving well.

1st 2 games are close but Daniel keeps his nose in front all the way to take both games.

3rd game and Matt tries to slow the pace down and more conservative. It's pay dividends and takes a 4-1 lead but for some reason goes back to his natural fast pace game which plays into Daniel hands. The game gets to 8-8 and that's when the referee has to make more decisions. Matt is unhappy with Daniel not clearing and Daniel is questioning pick ups from matt.
There are words exchanged between the pair but nothing aggressive. Matt is trying to show effort to play the ball but Daniel is making it it tough. Last point of match finished with a no lets and 3-0 win to Daniel.

Poleschuck saved his best performance for the final after a couple of close calls in earlier rounds to win his 2nd PSA title of the year and of his career.

Special thanks to LOC for being main sponsors. Also to TMC Life, andrew Nelson and mark cox for their support with the event as well.

Looking forward to next years event already.

11/6, 6/11, 8/11, 11/7, 12/10

[5] Daniel Poleshchuk

11/7, 11/7, 12/10

[3] Matthew Hopkin

3/11, 11/6, 11/5, 11/6

[2] Geoffrey Demont

05-Oct, Qualifying Finals:

Jamie Henderson (Sco) 3-1 Miroslav Celler (Svk)         11/7, 11/9, 4/11, 11/2 (40m)
Patrick Rooney (Eng) 3-0 Tristan Eysele (Rsa)                    11/7, 11/5, 12/10 (25m)
Chris Hall (Eng) 3-0 Nick Mulvey (Eng)                             11/5, 11/3, 12/10 (33m)
Steve London (Eng) 3-1 Micah Franklin (Ber)             8/11, 14/12, 11/8, 11/6 (53m)

05-Oct, Qualifying Round One:  
 
Jamie Henderson (Sco) 3-2 Ismael Rauf (Pak)  11/6, 6/11, 11/8, 8/11, 11/8 (42m)
Miroslav Celler (Svk) 3-0 Julian Tomlinson (Eng)                 11/9, 11/8, 11/5 (32m)
Patrick Rooney (Eng) 3-0 Abid Khan (Pak)                          11/4, 11/1, 11/1 (20m)
Tristan Eysele (Rsa) 3-2 Bradley Masters (Eng) 6/11, 11/3, 11/5, 11/13, 11/8 (67m)
Nick Mulvey (Eng) 3-1 Claudio Pinto (Por)               11/8, 6/11, 12/10, 12/10 (52m)
Chris Hall (Eng) 3-0 Charlei Lee (Eng)                               11/7, 12/10, 11/7
Steve London (Eng) 3-0 Ondrej Uherka (Cze)                     11/9, 11/8, 11/2 (35m)
Micah Franklin (Ber) 3-0 David Haley (Wal)                     13/11, 11/8, 14/12 (46m)

04-Oct, Pre-Qualifying:

Winner of the pre-qualifying competition was David Haley.

2014 Event

Ben Ford reports

What an evening of squash we have just witnessed!

It all started off so straightforward, with the start of the women's PSA closed satellite event and comfortable wins for Gina Kennedy and Nada Elkalaawy over Rawaan Elkalaawy and Margaux Pirtach respectively. Kace Bartley then carried on that trend with a win over Stephanie Walton.

The last ladies match between Alison Thomson and Jenny Haley is where the fun started!

What a match this was. The rallies went on for ever with both players covering the court unbelievably . The match last around an hour and the healthy sized crowd absolutely loved every minute of it. Eventually Thomson came out on top in a tie break in the 4th!

This left the men's semi finals and they continued to entertain the crowd.

No.1 seed and reigning champion James Earles v Daniel Poleschuck from Israel.

1st game to Daniel 11/6 with a mixture of hard hitting from Daniel and some mistake from James.

2nd game and roles are reversed with James in control and Daniel losing interest towards the end, 11/6 James. 3rd game was fairly tight but James takes it 11/8 and seems on his way to another final at Charing Cross. 4th game and there starts to become more decisions needed with James feeling like he was being blocked on certain shots. Both players are getting frustrated but it's James who makes more mistakes and Daniel takes the game 11/7.

5th game and James is in control, 6-3, 7-4, 10-8 match ball. Daniel hits a great kill which looks a winner but James gets it but Daniel thinks it's down and so does the ref! Most people saw it up. Still match ball to James. This time Daniel plays a good rally to level at 10-10 and let's out a massive yalla right in James' face. James is not happy with it and slams the return of serve in the tin. Match ball Daniel which he takes at 1st time of asking!

The second semi final saw no.2 seed from France Geoffrey Demont up against Charing Cross new boy from Australia Matt Hopkin. 1st game Geoffrey is totally dominant and races through 11-3. 2nd is fairly tight but Geoffrey is unhappy with a couple of calls and matt pulls away 11-6. 3rd and Matt is relentless with the pace and Geoffrey is feeling it. 11/5. 2-1 and it's all over as Hopkin takes 10-2 lead. Demont wins a few points but Hopkin closes out 11-5 and moves into final with a happy Charing Cross crowd cheering him on!
  

07-Oct, Quarters:
Seeds through to semis in Charing Cross
Ben Ford reports

Tonight was the quarter finals and it looked like there could be some tight matches but that did not end up being the case with all 4 matches going to seeding 3-0 in each match!

First up France's Geoffrey Demont, dispatched with qualifier Chris Hall who looked a little sluggish after 3 matches the previous 2 days. Professional job from demont.

Next saw Charing Cross player Matt Hopkin who has recently moved to London from Australia. Matt showed no sign of his 5 setter yesterday, playing his usual high pace game. Patrick Rooney hit the tin far to often, mainly from the back in the first game, then on the volley in the middle 2nd game and after a couple of big rallies seemed to hit the wall in the 3rd and that was that!

Third match on was giant killer and wildcard Kyle finch v Israel's Daniel Poleschuck. The rallies were well contested but Daniel was generally in charge. Kyle never really found a way to change the tide.

Last match of the night was top seed and reigning champion, James Earles v Lyell Fuller. A very tight game where both were playing good squash but with a few traffic problems but james sneaks it 11/9. After that James started to relax and was taking it in from the back really well and Lyell was getting more and more frustrated.

Tomorrow sees the start of the women's event with european junior champion, Gina Kennedy top seed, reigning champion Alison Thomson, Nada Elkalaawy and Kace Bartley looking to upset the seedlings.