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Martin Pearse reports
A surprise to a lot of
people that the scheduling of venues had been freshened up
this season. So instead of basking in the sun in East
Suffolk, we did exactly the same in West/South Yorkshire!
Pontefract is billed as
Britain’s friendliest family club and with updated and
factory fresh courts, lovely and hot, what more could the
elderly participant require?
In addition, and for the first
time ever in Masters Squash, we had Sky Sports outside
broadcast in attendance, Richard Graves, Reporter for the
North East Region and England Cricket TV Cameraman, Jacob,
travelling to India this week to film the one day series!
As some of you are aware, Sky
have been filming the National Over 60 Cricket Team (www.60cc.co.uk)
in our Test Series v Australia. Yours truly is Chairman and
as a natural progression, following a pathway that sport for
‘past Masters’ is entirely beneficial to individual health
and the NHS, filming a World Champion who has had a heart
attack on court and made a full recovery, was a good place
to start!!
Of course, Lance Kinder needs
no introduction and although there was no make up girl in
attendance, his kit and appearance put some of the
youngsters to shame! Sky interviewed him and his opponent
World Champion O75 Malcolm Gilham and then filmed the match
– which of course went on much longer than anticipated –
Lance retrieving a lost cause to equal 2-2, but eventually
going down (to the younger man) 3-2.
Also filmed were the Ladies O45
finalists European Champion Bea de Dreu Spitze and Yorkshire
No 1 Nicky Horn. So a good cross section and a promise from
Richard that there will be a repeat. They met Sir Malcolm
(Willstrop) and learnt (not from Malcolm) that if the LTA
had MW in charge, English Tennis would have had a few decent
players winning World Titles rather than a big fat zero. And
of course Pontefract was buzzing, as per usual.
To the Squash itself-
125 entries saw the Women’s
O55 event in a Round Robin won by Carolyn Roylance who
beat Susan Meadows 9/2 9/1 9/7 and June Hill 9/2 9/7
9/3.
In the O50, Sue Pynegar
beat Tammy Bennett 3-0 and in the O35/40 event a big
surprise. Andrea Santamaria was the first to find out that
Beverley Mackay’s change of name and extra training made her
much tighter than last season. A 9/7 9/4 7/9 3/9 9/5
victory over the local girl preceded a defeat over Isabelle
Tweedle 6/9 9/4 9/1 9/4 and another over Lucy Murphy
9/3 9/2 9/2. So Beverley up wrapped up the title
convincingly with Andrea coming second, beating Tweedle 9/3
9/1 9/2.
The O45 had a very
strong draw in two sections. Section 1 saw Rina Einy beat
Linda Winder 3-1 but then fall to Nicky Horn 3-1. So the
last Round Robin saw Winder lead 2-0 over Horn until the
Ampleforth Girls Head of Sport found her length and short
game to return a 9/6 9/2 9/2 victory in the fifth.
Next door in Group B, the
crunch match was between Fran Wallis and Bea de Dreu Spitze
who are familiar with each other’s games. Bea, however, in
matches, has enough all court craft to put Fran on the back
foot, but as soon as (and it should be on her Christmas
list) Fran starts playing straight drops, then the dynamic
will undoubtedly be equalled up. Fran’s legendary retrieving
and power needs help!
To the Final, and
although only able to watch the last two games, an
intriguing match. Some amazing athleticism and retrieving
and in the end, Nicky got enough lead in the fifth to just
stay ahead, sneaking it 9/0 9/4 8/10 9/7.
In the 5th and 6th
playoff, Linda Winder’s victory over Michaela Fallows was
even closer – 1/9 3/9 9/2 9/6 10/9 – a great comeback!
Mens
In the Men’s O75, soon
to be seen on Sky Sports, Malcolm Gilham recorded victory
2/9 9/4 9/0 4/9 9/2 over TV star Lance.
In the Men’s O70, Adrian
Wright had it all his own way, beating Andrew Beeston 10/9
9/1 9/5 and Lance 3-0.
A bigger, stronger draw in the
O65’s saw Mike Clemson shade the tricky Graham Fisher
5/9 9/6 9/7 4/9 1/9 and then overturn World Champion
Chris Ansell (for his first ever victory over the latter)
9/5 9/4 8/10 5/9 9/7, to enter the Final. In the other
half, No 2 seed Martin Pearse took 75 minutes to overturn
BFD, a slimmer Dave Hardern, whose superb touch took him
into a 9/7 9/8 lead. However, a fightback saw Pearse despite
interruptions (accidental eye into elbow contact) record a
9/1 9/4 9/1 comeback. And the final was identical, only
this was just 57 minutes! Clemson 9/4 9/7 for his first
ever games off his opponent, but after advice from his
corner, the Chairman remembered his instruction and came
back 9/5 10/8 9/5 to win the title.
In the O60’s Andrew
Edmonson nearly overcame seed Larry Grover, but didn’t! 9/3
3/9 2/9 9/1 9/2. However, newcomer Mark Benyon did,
beating Bob Robinson 7/9 9/4 9/3 9/1, whilst in the
bottom half, the perennially injured Howard Cherlin, played
the perennially injured Phil Godfrey with the former having
been informed by his Medico, he needs a new knee. He was 2/1
up before Godfrey’s hamstring twanged again. As did Cherlins
in the Semi with the never injured Allen Brown who was
leading – 10/9 9/5 5/0 – when Cherlin was forced to
concede. Some people are lucky with injuries, others most
definitely aren’t. With a new body on the NHS, Cherlin would
be unbeatable.
In the top half, Barry
Featherstone had enough hard matches to condition himself
properly, Nigel Giffin 9/10 9/1 9/5 9/5 and Mick
Broomhall 9/2 4/9 9/1 9/4 and Mark Benyon 10/8 9/1 9/2
before meeting Brown. Brown started strongly 9/4, but
Featherstone, who spends more time on court than anyone else
(apart from Stuart Hardy) controlled the next three 9/2
9/3 9/6 to record his umpteenth Regional.
The O55 has gone from
being somewhat under powerered to being the strongest group,
all in a few months. Cowley, Alexander, Adihetty and
newcomer Steve Johnson are shoe ins for an International
place, leaving the rest in a complete dogfight. So Colin
Shields, who has been training all Summer, gave himself a
head start, beating Stuart Hardy 9/3 9/4 5/9 10/8 and
Ronnie Bell 9/2 3/9 9/7 9/0 – I watched some of this
match and for the 20 minutes I was there, Bell was in total
control! But Shields has enormous physical reserve and came
back from a lesson to hand one out himself. Steve Johnson’s
match with Mark Cowley was well worth the admission money,
Johnson leading 10/8 10/8 Cowley, of course, came back and
equalled at 3/9 6/9. But Johnson the produced some
incredible back hand hard volley nicks that even a World
Champion couldn’t match on the day and emerged from a
fascinating encounter 9/5 in the fifth, a superb spectacle.
The Men’s O50 is also a
very strong group, despite missing Richard Millman, Mark
Woodliffe and Simon Rolington. The new ‘draw’ system didn’t
work in favour of No 2 seed James Ockwell (random 5/8 as
requested by ES) as he met former England star of circa 30
years ago, Steve Bateman. With a Malcolm Willstrop installed
technique programmed into your system, it only needs
fitness and mobility to be the complete package. So our Mr
Bateman is still some way off but will no doubt get fitter
and stronger as it was he who beat Ockwell 9/6 9/5 9/5 and
Jeremy Goulding 9/6 9/6 9/7. And Goulding had beaten the
flying Doctor (but slightly winged at present) Chris Harland
9/5 9/4 1/9 9/5. The Junior Fox, fresh from coaching his
drinking squad, (Ragou, Swift, Cadwell el al ) saw off Ged
Martin 9/1 10/8 9/2 before losing 9/5 2/9 9/5 9/4 to
Jon Evans the flying Welshman from Northumbria! In the Final
Evans was too quick 9/2 9/3 9/2 over Bateman.
Men’s O45
– not so strong due to Peter Gunter being injured and Eamonn
Price back into the limelight business wise with RBS. Murray
Scott (1) found random 5/8 Steve Evans lurking in the draw
in the Quarter Final but after a 9/10 setback, cruised
through 2 2 2 and then overcame a tired (nightshift for
12 hours whilst we all slept) Peter Lonsdale 9/2 9/0 9/7.
In the bottom half, Peter Crossman beat Andrew Elfield 3-1
and then lost to Marc Aldridge 3-1. Aldredge was happy
enough to get to his first final, overcoming Cliff
Martindale 9/2 9/0 9/6, Crossman and Duane Harrison 9/5
9/0 9/4, however, Scotts power (extreme) blasted his
opponent 9/3 9/0 9/0 but 300+ points is a good start for
an England cap.
Men’s O40
saw newcomer Courtney Downing knock out 3/4 seed Andrew
Murray 11/9 11/8 13/11, but than fall to Andrew Cross
11/3 11/9 12/10. In the bottom half, Simon Street just
edged Nick Jones in a match over an hour 5/11 13/11 11/7
9/11 12/10, before crashing out to our Southern Comfort
sponsored Northern mile-eater (in his heated cab) Glen Ragou
8/11 8/11 11/13. Despite less on board than usual from 6pm
to midnight, Ragou found Cross too strong in the Final –
7/11 11/6 11/6 11/6.
Men’s O35
saw Nick Wall on his home turf and 40+ Jamie Goodrich in the
bottom half. Wall beat Barny Elworthy 9/11 11/7 11/6
11/5 after the latter had edged Mat Lowrey 13/11 12/14
9/11 11/8 8/11 in a fractious (from BE) encounter. Barny
taxes the patience of a saint sometimes and had cause to be
donated BFD as Ref halfway through. BFD doesn’t take
prisoners when refereeing so it all ended quietly.
Thankfully. In contrast, Jamie Goodrich’s 80 minute match
with Malcolm Willstrop’s second protégé, Chris Donelan was a
superb spectacle with not one single let. The Referee, ahem,
BFD, was enthralled at marking it. The younger age group are
so fast, athletic and mobile, virtually every ball is
retrievable, Goodrich won eventually 12/10 11/8 8/11
7/11 6/11. In the Final, Goodrich found Wall just too
tight, 11/2 11/8 11/9 in 46 minutes.
Finally,
many thanks as usual to Pontefract, Mick and Cindy Todd,
Margaret Rotherforth for being in charge and Helen for the
food.
Plus, as you all saw, Master of
Ceremonies Brian Brock was in charge and you won’t get
better, plus helping me out – it means AW can concentrate on
crucifying his opponents on the squash court, not crucifying
me for stressing him out!
Also thanks to Malcolm and
Dave, EF Refs for the Sunday.
See you all at Exeter.
P.S.
Lance/Squash is on Sky Sports News – intermittently – all
Monday.
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