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Full coverage on SiteSquash |
French League Playoffs,
13/14 Jun, Aix En Provence
Men's Final:
Marseille 4-0 Mulhouse
Thierry Lincou 3-0 Davide Bianchetti 11/7,
11/4, 11/6
Mathieu Castagnet 3-0 Yuri del Toro 11/1, 11/3,
11/2
Olli Tuominen 3-1 Joan Lezaud
7/11, 11/5, 11/7, 11/5
Renan Lavigne 3-0 John Williams
11/6, 11/9, 12/10
Women's Final:
Squash Passion 2-1 Mulhouse
Célia Allamargot 3-0 Sara Guibey
11/7, 11/7, 11/8
Natalie Grinham 3-0 Vanessa Atkinson 11/8, 11/7,
11/6
Lauren Siddall 0-3 Jacklyn Hawkes
10/12, 3/11, 5/11
A first for Marseille
Led by Thierry Lincou, Marseille claimed the French League
title as they beat hosts Squash Passion Aix in the
semi-finals and Mulhouse in the final.
There was some consolation for Aix as they took the women's
title, leaving Mulhouse with two runners-up trophies.
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Romans Rule in Riccione
...
Tim Simpson & Davide Babini report
The Italian Team Championships were held in Riccione 5/7
June 2009, at Figs National Squash Centre, with some of the
top players in the world such as Gregory Gaultier, Ramy
Ashour, Thierry Lincou, Peter Barker, Wael El Hindi, Hisham
Ashour, Saurav Ghosal, Alan Clyne, Amr Swelim, Sarah Fitz-Gerald,
Lauren Siddall, Deon Saffery and the best of the Italian
squash players.
The Italian Team Championship is the most important calendar
event for Italian squash, not only because it brings
together top players, but it also gives an opportunity to
publicize squash and help it with its Olympic bid.
In the semi-finals, Urbe Squash Rome beat Riccione
Squash 150/141 after a dramatic last match between Wael
El Hindi and Hisham Ashour, and Crazy Team Turin
easily beat Centro Squash Florence 167/111 [Each
tie is three games to 15, total points to count].
The semi-finals saw one of the best matches ever played
between Ramy Ashour and Thierry Lincou (won by Ashour
42/39), demonstrating a new era of aggressive, fast and
spectacular squash.
 In
the final, Urbe Squash Rome (Manuela Manetta, Andrea Capella,
Thierry Lincou, Wael El Hindi) claimed its first title
beating in the final Crazy Team Turin (Sarah Fitz-Gerald,
Mirko Pareccini, Gregory Gaultier, Josè Facchini) by 147 to
131 points.
The first match saw Capella win a tight match against
Pareccini 40/36, the second match saw an awesome Sarah Fitz-Gerald
demolish the Italian Champion Manetta 45/17, and third match
saw an injured Gaultier suffer against Lincou 28/45.
With only a few points in hand the last match saw El Hindi
claim the title for Urbe Squash Rome against Facchini 45/22
in a match full of incidents which made it unpleasant to
watch at times.
Third place went to Riccione Squash (Sonia Pasteris, Amr
Swelim, Ramy Ashour, Hisham Ashour, Saurav Ghosal, L.
Siddall) and fourth to Centro Squash Florence (Francesca
Strano, Roberto Goti, Alan Clyne, Chris Small).
Final:
Urbe Squash Rome 147 Crazy Team Turin 131
3 – Andrea Capella 40-36 Mirko Pareccini
F – Manuela Manetta 17-45 Sarah Fitz-Gerald
1 – Thierry Lincou 45-28 Gregory Gaultier
2 – Wael El Hindi 45-22 Josè Facchini
Final Placings:
1° Urbe Squash Roma
2° Crazy Team A Torino
3° Riccione Squash
4° Centro Squash Firenze
5° Crazy Team B Torino
6° Scorpion Pique’ Rende
7° Squash Center Bari
8° Speed Ball Cesena
9° Schilling Squash Rimini
10° Scorpion HBS Rende
11° Vico Squash Milano
12° First Fitness Catania
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Full Results |
16-May-09:
Strahov take 13th in
Prague
Tomas Forter reports
The Czech league play offs were played today at Squashclub
Strahov in Prague.
The club was full of spectators, and TV crew were there as
well as there will be 45 minutes of coverage on Czech
national TV´s sports channel. This will give us great
opportunity to support the Olympic bid, the Squash for 2016
banner was on the final's court tin board and there will be
extensive feature on Olympic bid in commentary of the
coverage.
The top four men's and women's teams fought for the national
team titles.
The Men's semis went the expected way with traditional
rivals from Strahov and Brno reaching the
finals. The Women's semis were much closer with teams PRO
6 and Ludu squash club getting through to the
final.
In the women's final SHOT TEAM PRO 6 started as a big
favourites and they proved it in first two matches when
Zuzana Kubanova and Hana Vagnerova recorded straight game
victories. Team from Prague´s squash club PRO 6 could
celebrate the title for the first time in club's history
although Ludu squash club got his consolation point in the
dead rubber.
The Men's final was much more closer affair. Strahov got off
to a great start when Ondrej Ertl beat Patrik Neuwirth only
for 8 points. First string match was a replay of nationals
semis where Lukas Jelinek surprisingly beat Jan Koukal. This
time Jan got his revenge 3/0 but the match was very close
and of a very high standard. Martin Stepan got the second
point for Brno but lost a game to Jaroslav Cech which proved
crucial at the end.
In the final match Strahov needed a 3/0 win and Jakub Stupka
did exactly this against Jan Lempart. After two victories
for Brno in last two years the title returned to Strahov for
13th time in 16 years of Czech league history.
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Photo Gallery
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Men's semis
SC Strahov A - Slovan Brno SPORTPROFIT A 3/1
Lukáš Jelínek - Roman Švec 11/5 11/5 11/5
Jaroslav Čech - Ondřej Uherka 12/10 11/2
Ondřej Ertl - Michal Jadrníček 11/6 11/7 11/6
Jakub Stupka - Miroslav Celler 11/7 2/11 2/11
Slovan Brno GAMMA TEAM - A - ixi club A 3/1
Jan Koukal - Petr Martin 11/5 11/9 11/7
Martin Štěpán - Zbyněk Štandera 5/11 10/12
Patrik Neuwirth - František Komora 11/9 11/4 5/11 11/4
Jan Lempart - Patrik Schneider 11/7 11/8
Women's semis
All4sport - Ludu squash club girl A 1/2
Klára Janošková - Soňa Brabcová 11/6 11/8 6/11 11/6
Denisa Tichá - Martina Kakosová 9/11 12/10 9/11 4/11
Martina Bajerová - Annabelle Diamantino 4/11 11/7 11/8 6/11
3/11
SHOT TEAM PRO 6 - Slovan Brno ženy A 3/0
Hana Vágnerová - Veronika Koukalová 3/11 11/5 5/11 11/7 11/4
Eva Feřteková - Tereza Čtvrtníčková 11/8 7/11 11/9
Zuzana Kubáňová - Marika Doubravová 11/5 11/4 11/7
Mens final
SC Strahov A - Slovan Brno GAMMA TEAM - A 2/2 (7/6 na sety)
Lukáš Jelínek - Jan Koukal 9/11 7/11 8/11
Jaroslav Čech - Martin Štěpán 10/12 11/8 9/11 9/11
Ondřej Ertl - Patrik Neuwirth 11/3 11/2 11/3
Jakub Stupka - Jan Lempart 11/8 11/4 11/8
Women's final
SHOT TEAM PRO 6 - Ludu squash club girl A 2/1
Hana Vágnerová - Soňa Brabcová 11/4 11/3 11/6
Kateřina Vágnerová - Martina Kakosová 9/11 10/12
Zuzana Kubáňová - Annabelle Diamantino 11/5 11/4 11/6 |
The climax of the League season is upon us, with most of the
European leagues approaching their finals.
First results are from Denmark and Scotland, and we'd love to hear about
all the others ...
euroleague@squashsite.co.uk |
English PSL Final, 05-Mayl |
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Seventh Title for Wiener Neudorf
and a Third for SAS Wien!
Andy Holland on the Austrian finals
After three years of playing with just Austrians, the
Austrian Squash Bundesliga reverted back and introduced
foreign players to the league once again.
The teams all accepted a “Gentlemens Agreement” stating that
only one foreign PSA player per team, would be fielded per
Match. With this agreement all team managers set about
calling up as many former top players as possible in a
frantic rush to meet the deadline for team orders.
After a long season it came down to a four team playoff on
25th April in Squash and Fitness Centre Manhattan, in
Vienna.
The National Ladies Team competition was played alongside
and both events boasted a group a current and past stars as
well us up and coming players: Borja Golan, Chris Ryder,
David Evans, John Williams, Peter Marshall, Tim Vail, Emma
Beddoes, Kylie Lindsay, Birgit Coufal
The ladies team from SAS Wien dominated the
competition as they did last year with convincing wins over
the other teams. Emma Beddoes, Kylie Lindsay
and Birgit Coufal taking a fifth title for the team
from Vienna.
The mens Semis were won in similarly convincing style, with
Wiener Neudorf overcoming Bundesliga newcomers
Manhattan Wien and the SAS Wien men defeating
Salzburg. After a 2 all draw, Manhattan, with veteran
Axe man Marshall, won on count back against a weakened
Salzburg side to collect third place and the Bronze medal.
So it came down to Wiener Neudorf, aiming for a seventh
title and SAS Wien going for their first.
Neudorf, playing with Evans, Ryder and Williams always
looked favourites although SAS with Golan and Vail were not
going to go down too easily.
The 4th strings started and with a packed crowd and Austrian
national television present, Andreas “Happy” Freudensprung
took to the court for Neudorf against Andy Holland. Both
players knew that this could be the crunch match and that it
would be even tougher on a warm court, on a hot spring day,
with the nicks not easy to find!!
This proved to be the longest match of the final and Happy
won 11/8 in the fourth after 55 minutes play. 1-0 for
Neudorf and straight to the bar after that for both players
for a well earned beer!! I’m 36 for Christ’s sake!!!
Next on court were the number ones, David Evans and Borja
Golan. This was a pretty clear win for Borja and that
levelled up the score. Borja pressuring and retrieving well
in his upright style and leaving Emu with little chance. 1
Match all!
Although Chris Ryder should perhaps have been playing in
front of Evans, the team orders had been in since August
2008 and there was no way of changing that and so at second
string, SAS needed Tim Vail to find those nicks he’s famous
for and produce an upset.
That wasn’t to be however and against Ryders flowing
movement out of the back and speed in retrieving, the Vole
was constantly up against it. The third game was tight, but
by then Tim was puffing and Chris had just started to build
up a sweat!!! 2-1 for Neudorf.
Austrian National team player Christian Coufal had his work
cut out against another old boy, Aussie John Williams. As
expected, Johnny put on a good show of top spins and holds
for the crowd, leaving Christian to work immensely hard. He
could not quite get to grips with Williams’ game and went
down in 3.
And so it was 3-1 and a seventh title in 9 years for Wiener
Neudorf!
Manhattan was the ideal club to host this event and with the
television cameras there, it was an opportunity for us to
promote the sport as an Olympic candidate for 2016!
Final:
USC Wr. Neudorf – SAS Wien Energie 3:1
David Evans – Borja Golan 4/11, 6/11, 7/11
Chris Ryder – Tim Vail 11/5, 11/3, 11/7
John Williams – Christian Coufal 11/7, 11/4, 11/8
Andreas Freudensprung – Andy Holland 11/9, 11/6, 4/11, 11/8
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ABERDEEN RETAIN SCOTTISH
NATIONAL TITLE
Alistair Gorrie reports
It was just 12 months ago (exactly to the day) that a packed
crowd at Aberdeen Squash Racquets Club witnessed their team
capture the Scottish National League Title, ending the 12
year run of Glasgow side Newlands. Last year saw many greatw
of the game grace the Play-Off weekend, namely Alex Gough,
Simon Parke, Peter Marshall, Derek Ryan, Hadrian Stiff, as
well as up and coming professionals Daryl Selby and Kasey
Brown. This year, after assessing what other teams had to
offer, Aberdeen were able to hold back a little safe in the
knowledge that a victory would still be very likely.
The final paired together strong favourites Aberdeen 1
against new boys to the league, another Glasgow outfit
Milngavie & Bearsden. The Glasgow team had put in a very
strong showing throughout the season and were deserved
finalists. Their team featured 4 Scottish Internationalists,
none of which was over the age of 22. Aberdeen 1 were able
to field 3 Scottish Internationalists and one surviving
member of last years team, the great Simon Parke.
First on court was the Number 1 string match with Scottish
Number 2 Alan Clyne taking on training partner
Jamie Macaulay. A ridiculous pace enforced by Clyne
early on, which perhaps Macaulay shouldn't have tried to
match, saw him cruise through the first two games before
Macaulay was forced to concede. Having just recently
received a giant injection into AND down his groin for an
injury he is trying to delay the onset of due to the
upcoming European Team Championships, Macaulay did exactly
the right thing much to the relief of the Scottish Coaches
I'm sure.
Next on was the ladies, pitting Aberdeen's Frania
Gillen-Buchert (Scottish No.1) up against M&B's
Claire Kidd (Scottish Internationalist). After a fairly
inviting first game, which saw both players trade winner
after winner, it was Frania who flicked up through the gears
and begin to command proceedings. Claire duly fought like
she always does however was clearly struggling as a result
of a mammoth five game thriller she had played in the
morning (which incidentally ensured her team was in the
final at the expense of Aberdeen 2). Showing absolutely no
mercy Frania upped the pace and convincingly closed out the
match in three.
So with Aberdeen 2-0 in ties and 6-0 in games, the four man
format meant captain Alistair Gorrie required only
one game to retain the title for Aberdeen 1. His opponent
was fellow Aberdonian (although now residing in Edinburgh),
Graham Melvin. In what was to be the only close match
of the final, both players fought like warriors early on in
what was to be the crucial first game. A slow start from
Melvin was to prove costly. Unable to close a 3 point gap
throughout, Gorrie went on to take the game 11-8 and with it
the Scottish National League Title for his beloved Club.
Realising the match was now over both players relaxed into
exhibition style squash, much to the delight of a packed
Aberdeen crowd. After a further four games it was Melvin who
prevailed as the eventual winner after a tired looking
Gorrie simply ran out of gas.
With the match now over the number twos took to the court to
tidy things up. M&B's Lyall Paterson however was only
doing so in order that the Aberdeen crowd could see their
hero, Simon Parke in action. Lyall had rolled his
ankle only two days before the final and was in no state to
be playing. Credit to the young lad though who went on
anyway and did his best to let Parke display his skills.
After an entertaining first game Paterson was told enough
was enough and that he could seriously jeopardise his place
for the Malmo event in just six weeks time. It was obviously
a disappointing way to end things but it was also the only
way. Aberdeen's numbers 1 and 2 kindly then went on to play
a best of 3 exhibition on their own accord, because that's
just what squash players do isn't it.
So it was Aberdeen 1 who retained their title, and after
managing to do so on a smaller budget than last year, have
their sights (and £££'s) firmly set on a strong European bid
come September time in Gothenburg. Look out Paderborn!
Aberdeen 2 completed a hugely successful day for the Club by
defeating Edinburgh in the 3/4 play-off.
ABERDEEN 3-1 MILNGAVIE &
BEARSDEN
1. Alan Clyne 11/6 11/3 ret. Jamie Macaulay
4. Frania Gillen-Buchert 11/3 11/4 12/10 Claire Kidd
3. Alistair Gorrie 11/8 6/11 11/6 9/11 3/11 Graham Melvin
2. Simon Parke 11/4 ret. Lyall Paterson
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20-Apr:
Odense retain Danish title
Mikkel Pedersen reports
Odense won the Danish Team Championship for the
second time in a row and 11th of all time. In the final they
faced Team Århus – a team where the 3rd, 4th and 5th
string shared 7 of the last 11 individual Danish
championships between them.
Four-time Danish champion and former world number 49
Mikkel Korsbjerg started with a win at fourth string
against Odense’s Danny Knudsen in what was expected
to be one of the key matches. As were the match between
between the sisters Marie Louise and Dagmar at second
women string.
In a close encounter Odense’s Marie-Louise leveled the team
score to 1-1. Kristian Grooss Jeppesen at second
string took Århus in front with a 3-0 win against Kim
Povlsen.
Again Odense leveled as Danish champion Rasmus Nielsen
beat the former German champion Stefan Leifels 3-1 at
top string.
Mikkel Pedersen took Odense to a 3-2 lead with a win
over another former Danish champion Kasper Bodenhoff.
Now it was all up to world number 23 Line U. Hansen
who eased pass Ditte Nielsen and secured Odense yet
another Danish championship.
Team Kolding with national coach Francesco Busi, Danish
number 3 Kristian Frost and Camille Serme of France in the
team finished 3rd.
Odense 4-3 Arhus
2 ws. Marie-Louise Feddern - Dagmar Feddern 3-1
4 ms. Danny Knudsen- Mikkel Korsbjerg 1-3
1 ms. Rasmus Nielsen - Stefan Leifels 3-1
5 ms. Mikkel Petersen - Kasper Bodenhoff 3-1
2 ms. Kim Povlsen - Kristian Groos 0-3
1 ws. Line Hansen - Ditte Nielsen 3-0
3 ms. Michael Hansen - Mads Korsbjerg 0-2 |
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