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World Deaf Squash
Championships
October 2012 -
Lee-On-Solent |
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7-Oct-2012, Day 5:
Tim Vail reports...
Everyone had a
lie in this morning as no matches started until 1pm. Some
players definitely took advantage of this in the bar last
night!!!
The 1st match at 1pm was the Men’s final – Jamie
Matthews v Phil Thomas.
Phil was one of the above and it would have been very
difficult for him to get close to Jamie. The 2nd game
started well for Phil but after that he found the tin with
alarming regularity. Jamie proved too strong and retained
his title for the 2nd time.
The final of the wooden Rackets tournament was won by
Matt Hewitt from England who beat Eric Stevenson
from Scotland. Matt held the ball well with the heavy
vibrating wooden rackets that no one can believe we actually
played with, and manoeuvred Eric round the court to win 2-0.
The doubles final was a lot closer with Brian and
Simon taking the 1st game 14-12 and almost winning the
2nd. In the 3rd Simon’s shoulder hurt but this didn’t stop
both of them moving slowly to the front. This is where South
Africa won most their points and the title.
 England
v Scotland
The 4th string match had to be played first as Mike
Halpin had to fly back in the afternoon from Southampton
Airport. The 1st game was evenly contested but after that
Dan was too quick for Mike and pulled away quite quickly
to win the match 3-0.
As England has the numbers 1,2 & 3 in the world we were
never going to lose these matches and that was the case,
although Eric did take the 3rd game v Phil.
The match of the day was the 5th string match between
Bernard Starkey of Scotland and Shane Pletts
of England.
Bernard has been around for many years on the deaf scene
whereas Shane is relatively new. Bernard moves extremely
well for his age and reads the game which helps with his
movement. Shane was another one of the above and never
looked settled throughout the match.
There were a few interesting decisions from the marker over some lets and
strokes, most were pretty far from the mark but it added to
the entertainment. Bernard won the 1st, Shane snuck the 2nd
and 3rd but Bernard started brilliantly in the 4th and made
no errors which helped him enormously as he won it 11-4. The
5th started the same as the 4th and Bernard went 9-5 up only
for Shane to catch up to 9-9.
Then Bernard had match ball and then Shane had a match ball but eventually
Bernard won it to his delight(by cuddling Shane and slapping
him in the face with a big grin) and the crowd.
The final match between Jamie and Gerry was good humoured
and Jamie played nicely but won 3-0 to end the 6th World
Deaf Squash Championships at Lee-on-Solent!
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Main Men Draw
Complete Men Draw
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Day 5:
Tim Vail reports...
Netherlands v Scotland:
Today the Netherlands did one better than yesterday – they
took another point in a match. Joost took one game v Eric
Stevenson and Rob Bosveld gained one game v Bernard Starkey.
The Men’s play-offs took place:
Matt Hewitt beat Max Percival for 3-4 play off
3-0
Dan Easton found some good tactics to beat the clever
Eric Stevenson 3-1 for 5-6 play off.
Gerry Gemmell beat Shane Pletts 3-1 which is
the 1st time Shane has taken a game for 7-8 play off.
Mike Easton won the plate event beating Joost
3-0 convincingly for 9-10 play off.
Brian Rawlinson beat Tonnie Klerks comfortably
3-0 for 11-12 play off
Leslie Banks beat Mehmed from Netherlands 3-0
to take 13-14th place
And Mike Halpin beat Ibrahim Koysuren to
finish off places 15-16.
In the afternoon everyone tried Racketball. It was great fun
with some playing for the 1st time and Matt Hewitt played
Jamie Matthews in the final but was unlucky not to take a
game u succumb to 2-0.
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Day 4:
Tim Vail reports...
Men’s Semi Final Day, Doubles and the first Teams Trophy
match between England and the Netherlands.
13-16 Play-offs:
Leslie Banks lost the 1st game versus Mike Halpin
then managed to hit better length to get in front of his
opponent and take the next 3 games.
Mehmed Mujanovic beat fellow countryman Ibrahim
Koysuren in a very close contest. Mehmed cruised to the
1st game 11-2 and then he seemed to relax and struggled to
get it back. Two of the games went to a tie breaker which he
luckily won.
9-12 Play-offs:
Mike Easton beat fellow countryman Brian Rawlinson
for the 1st time 3-1 which looked inevitable. Brian has been
struggling since being hit in the eye at a training session.
His confidence has been knocked and is not moving nearly as
well as he can and unfortunately he never found any rhythm.
Joost from Netherlands who is built like Arnold
Schwarzenegger but taller took on his team mate and bullied
his opponent to a 3-0 loss, very Terminator like!!
5-8 Play-offs:
Gerry Gemmell took on Dan Easton from
England. On paper this looked a good contest that could go
either way. Gerry decided to take some strong pain killers
beforehand and that wiped him out. He couldn’t hit a length
and missed many balls on the wall!! A lesson to be learnt
that Ibuprofen is about enough!! Dan won easily 3-0.
Eric Stevenson played Shane Pletts. Shane has
never taken a game before and Eric started as normal
volleying really well and taking him in short. Shane after
some good advice Shane started to hit lower and turn his
opponent to take the 3rd.
The 4th was close but Eric had enough nous to take him
through 3-1
Semi Finals:
1st up Jamie Matthews played Max Percival.
Jamie started off his usual lethargic self and couldn’t be
lazier, Max took advantage but not enough to win the 1st
game. Jamie after a rocket up his bum from the coach played
much better after that until the 3rd when he served out.
That means a pint for him to down Saturday!! He managed to
keep his composure and win 3-0.
Matt and Phil, Phil has never lost to Matt but could
this be the time with Matt being supported by his mum and
Dad? The 1st game was an epic which Matt took with a back
hand straight kill 19-17!!!! Unfortunately Matt’s fitness
has never been his strongest point and the next 3 games went
away fairly quickly.
So now to a repeat of the final 2 years ago
1st Teams Trophy Match: Netherlands v England
Unfortunately this was a one sided affair but brilliant on
the other hand as this was the 1st time Netherlands have
competed. Shane Pletts at 5th string almost dropped
the 3rd game. Dan Easton did drop the 2nd game at 4th
string but the others won comfortably 3-0.
Netherlands v Scotland tomorrow!!
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Main Men Draw
Complete Men Draw
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World Deaf Squash
Championships 2012
03-05 Oct, Lee on Solent, England |
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Round One |
Quarters |
Semis |
Final |
[1] Jamie Mathews (Eng)
11/1, 11/2, 11/0
Michael Easton (Eng) |
[1] Jamie Mattews
11/1, 11/1, 11/2
Shane Pletts |
[1] Jamie Mathews
11/6 11/8 13/11
[3/4] Max Percival |
[1] Jamie Mathews
11/3 11/2 11/6
[2] Phillip Thomas |
Shane Pletts (Eng)
11/5, 8/11, 11/8, 2/11, 13/11
[Q1] Lesley Banks (Sco) |
[3/4] Max Percival (Rsa)
11/9, 12/14, 11/6, 11/3
Mike Halpin (Sco) |
[3/4] Max Percival
11/9, 11/8, 11/9
[Q3] Eric Stephenson |
[5/8] Brian Rawlinson (Eng)
11/5, 11/4, 11/6
[Q3] Eric Stephenson (Sco) |
Ibrahim Koysuren (Ned)
11/3, 11/7, 11/6
[5/8] Dan Eason (Eng) |
[5/8] Dan Eason
11/4, 11/3, 11/7
[3/4] Matthew Hewitt |
[3/4] Matthew Hewitt
17/19 11/3 11/4 11/5
[2] Phillip Thomas |
Joost Duivenvoorden (Ned)
11/5, 11/8, 11/7
[3/4] Matthew Hewitt (Eng) |
[Q2] Tonnie Klerks (Ned)
11/6, 11/7, 11/7
[5/8] Gerry Gemmell (Sco) |
[5/8] Gerry Gemmell
11/3, 11/2, 11/6
[2] Phillip Thomas
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Mehmed Mujanovic (Ned)
11/2, 11/3, 11/5
[2] Phillip Thomas (Eng) |
04-Oct,
Qualifyin::
Q1 – Lesley Banks (Sco) 3-0 Rob Bosveld (Ned)
11/8, 11/6, 11/7
Q2 – Tonnie Klerks (Ned) 3-2 Bernard
Starkey (Sco) 11/6, 8/11, 5/11,
12/10, 11/3
Q3 – Eric Stephenson (Sco) 3-1 West Resendez
(USA)
11/5, 11/3, 12/14, 13/11
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Day 2:
Tuesday 2nd October was mainly a mixed team event which gives
Christine a chance to compete against the best Men. She
managed the scalp of Matt Hewitt and Phil Thomas but
Jamie beat her comfortably 2-0.
The rest had great fun competing against in each other in a really
friendly atmosphere.
In the Men’s competition the 17-19 play off
positions were taking place and Bernard Starkey
from Scotland beat Rob Bosveld and West Resendez
comfortably. You can now see how frustrated he was not to
win his first match.
In the Ladies competition Christine beat
Kristell from the Netherlands for 1 point and Eileen
Murphy beat Donna Cross 3-0 which takes her to
two wins.
In the evening the majority went to watch PSL at Chichester
where they thoroughly enjoyed some top level squash
Day 3:
 Wednesday
3rd October again was mainly the mixed team event with
Christine beating the other Men. I cannot emphasise enough
how friendly everyone is. On court it can be a bit bargy and
lets contentious but as soon after the referee makes the
decision they both put their thumbs up and carry on and at
the end there is always a big hug.
In the Men’s competition West had to pull out
versus Rob Bosveld as he had hurt his calf muscle.
In the Ladies Eileen beat Kristell to record
her 3rd win and finish runner up and Lesley beat
Donna 3-0 to finish 3rd. |
Mon 4th Oct, Day One:
Busy first day in Lee-On-Solent
by Tim Vail
 Today
was the 1st day of the championships at
Lee-on-Solent Tennis, Squash and Fitness club.
There are 25 competitors from 5 different countries,
20 men and 5 women. The countries attending the tournament
are England, Scotland, Netherlands, South Africa and USA.
Starting with the Qualifiers...
The men’s draw is a 16 Monrad draw so there were three
qualifiers in the morning.
The closest match was Tonnie Klerks (Netherlands) v
Bernard Starkey (Scotland). Bernard went 2-1 up and
narrowly lost the 4th 14-12 after a couple of match balls.
In the fifth it was nip and tuck but Tonnie ran too many balls
down for Bernard’s liking and snuck the decider.
First Round
In the men’s first round Eric Stevenson was too crafty
for the seeded Brian Rawlinson as he won 3-0. All
other seeds progressed with ease apart from Max Percival
from South Africa who dropped a game to Mike Halpin
and Shane Pletts who went the distance with Leslie
Banks from Scotland.
This was an interesting game for the spectators as there
seemed to be many cuddles/ rugby tackles whilst trying to
move round each other. Neither wanted to give way and there
were many decisions, but as ever it was all very friendly
even in the fifth game where Shane went 10-7 up only to serve
out, followed by two tins from Shane to make it 10 all but
Shane managed god knows somehow scraped a 13-11 win.Then the Quarters
In the quarter finals, there were no surprises as the top
four
seeds progressed through to the semi finals. Eric put
a brave battle against Max but in the end Max was too
quick for him.
Jamie progressed through and looks the favourite with
Matt Hewitt and Phil Thomas making to the
other semi final.
And the Ladies!
 The
ladies competition is a round robin event with current
champion Christine Ferreira from South Africa
standing out as the clear favourite.
In her three matches today she only lost 17 points in total!
There was also a great win for England’s Lesley
Holdsworth who came back from 2-1 down to beat
Kristal Koolhaas in the fifth.
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Ladies Draw
Men's Plates
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