Back at ESC
The biggest BSPA event of the year
gets under way in Edinburgh tonight, with six men's preliminary
and eight women's qualifying matches, over four courts. It's a
relatively gentle introduction to what will be a busy weekend,
as the 'big guns' and the amateurs join in on Friday and over
the weekend.
As ever we'll keep you updated along the way,
with reports quotes and photos bringing up the rear ....
Men's Preliminary Round:
Simon Boughton bt Konrad Tyma
11/5, 11/2, 11/7 (18m,)
Iain Tennant bt Andreas Schabort
11/8, 11/4, 11/7 (21m)
Stuart Crawford bt Jon Hunter
11/4, 11/3, 11/6 (19m)
Liam Gutcher bt Douglas Kempsall
11/3, 11/5, 11/7 (25m)
Jacques Kruger bt Ewen Urquhart 11/8, 5/11, 11/8,
11/7 (39m)
Greg Lobban bt Matt Hardy
11/4, 11/7, 11/3 (20m)
Women's Qualifying Round One:
Kirsty McPhee
(Eng) bt Cyrielle Peltier (Fra) 11/2, 11/7, 11/5 (20m)
Lauren Gray (Sco) bt Anna Jensen (Den)
11/2, 11/7, 11/3 (17m)
Tesni Evans (Wal) bt Rachel Wilmott (Eng)
11/4, 11/7, 11/7 (22m)
Julianne Courtice (Eng) bt
Julia Lecoq (Fra) 11/5, 11/2, 11/2 (16m)
Brogan Lane (Eng) bt Sarah Oswald (Eng)
11/7, 11/7, 11/4 (18m)
Senga
Macfie (Sco) bt Dominika Witkowska (Pol) 11/3,11/2,11/2
(14m)
Nada Elkalaawy (Egy) bt Katy Ramirez (Sco)
11/5,11/4,6/11,11/7 (23m)
Melissa Alves (Fra) bt
Yvonne Ferguson (Sco) 11/4, 11/3, 11/4 (15m)
Good start for the Scots
The first batch of matches all resulted in quick wins - 21m the
longest - with a hat-trick of victories for the Scottish
contingent of Tournament Director Simon Boughton, Iain
Tennent and Lauren Gray.
Kirsty McPhee - Yorkshire, despite the Scottish-sounding
name - despatched Cyrielle Peltier, the first of eight French
girls here this weekend.
 Next
up was former Scottish number one Stuart Crawford, who
wasted no time in making the main draw, joined by Northumbria's
Liam Gutcher who is making his BSPA debut.
"It's my first tournament in nine months," admitted Crawford,
who retired from competitive squash to take up a post with
Scottish Squash. "I went back on court a month ago to get back
into it a little. I'll probably play the BSPA in Aberdeen and
the Nationals too."
 Gutcher
meanwhile is just starting his senior competitive career.
"I played the BSPA in Boston before christmas so this is my
second event. I felt great tonight, really looking forward to
playing Andy Whipp tomorrow, let's see how long I can last
against him!"
In the women's matches welsh wizard Tesni Evans beat
Rachel Willmott in three games, and British U19 champion
Julianne Courtice (she's 19 now) wasted little time in
beating France's Julia Lecoq.
The men's matches concluded with two more wins for the Scots,
Greg Lobban repelling another Northumbria invader Matt Hardy
in straight games, while Jacques Kruger won the toughest
match of the session, taking 39 minutes to beat compatriot Ewen
Urquhart in four hard-fought games.
ESC's own Senga Macfie - top seed in the O35s for the
upcoming British Nationals - started her campaign with a
quickfire win over Poland's Dominika Witkowska, and she'll meet
one of England's top juniors Brogan Lane for a place in
the main draw.
The final two matches, both women's, were a bit of a contrast.
After completing her refereeing duties Yvonne Ferguson
took to the court for "my one tournament of the year" against
the third French girl, Melissa Alves.
 "I
play this tournament every year," explained Yvonne, "refereeing
three matches and then playing, I like to get my money's worth!
"It's nice when I can see in the knockup they know I'm not a
serious player. Melissa was lovely, she gave me a good run and
that's all I want really."
Yvonne ventured down South for the BJO earlier this month - "It
was a great experience, I refereed 41 matches in three and a
half days and loved every minute of it, and I'll referee a lot
of matches this weekend too, of course."
The final winner of the day was Egyptian junior Nada
Elkalaawy who came up against a tough local opponent in
Katy Ramirez. Both were hitting the ball with serious intent
but the Egyptian's greater accuracy won the day in four
competitive games.
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