No surprises in the first semi-final as top seeds Mulhouse beat surprise semi-finalists Espoo 3-0, the Finnish girls having a great time but not threatening to do more than take a few points in each game against their illustrious opponents.

In the second women's semi 3-0 wins for Vicky Bell and Taylor Flavell put Newlands into the final at the expense of Pontefract.

It will be an all-German final again tomorrow, after top seeds Worms and Paderborn won through to the Euro Clubs finale.

Both matches were poised at one-all after the top string matches, but Worms took the third and fourth strings 3-0 to deny Mulhouse, while Paderborn's 3-0 win at number three was enough to see them through as the fourth string match was cut short.

Men's Semis:

Worms 3-1 Mulhouse
   Nick Matthew 3-0 Mathieu Castagnet   11-7, 12-10, 11-9 (52m)
   Greg Marche 0-3 Thierry Lincou           8-11, 6-11, 6-11 (47m)
   Tim Weber 3-0 Joan Lezaud                 11-6, 11-9, 11-3 (47m)
   Carsten Schoor 3-0 Simon Parke           11-9, 11-6, 1-4 (39m)

Paderborn 2-2 Colets (9-7)
   Chris Simpson 3-1 Adrian Grant     8-11, 11-8, 11-8, 11-8 (69m)
   Olli Tuominen 2-3 Jon Kemp 14-16, 11-6, 9-11, 11-6, 3-11 (52m)
   Raphael Kandra 3-0 Richie Fallows          11-9,11-6, 11-7 (47m)
   Tim Garner 1-3 Scott Handley         11-4, 10-12, 3-11 rtd (28m)
                                                                                match over 

Women's Semis:
Mulhouse 3-0 Espoo
Newlands 3-0 Pontefract

Men's SEmis
Worms 3-1 Mulhouse
Paderborn 2-2 Colets

M5-8:
Harfsfjord 1-3 Kahuna
Fitzwilliam 3-1 Helsinki
Middlegate 0-4 Vaduz
Newlands 2-2 N'gham

W5-8:
N'ham 2-1 Fitzwilliam
Malaka 2-1 Meersquash

M9-12:
Harfrsfjord 0-4 F'william
Helsinki 3-1 Kahuna

Full match scores

Blog Articles:
ALL ABOUT WHO IS WHO IN NOTTINGHAM

Laura Massaro 3-0 Emilia Korhonen 11/3, 11/2, 11/2 (15m)

There were a few more people than usual watching women squash. I guess it was the Finish Shoes that were making the buzzzzzzzz. Well, girls, when you have it, flaunt it. I did when I had it, and trust me, it passes fleeping quickly!

First point of the game, Emilia managed a nice backhand low drive winner, that got a huge cheers from the Espoo supporters (first time I see a gorgeous lady in leopard skin tight dress, black tight, high hills at midday watching squash, and “it’s perfectly alright” stress Tournament Organiser..). I thought, “Laura is not going to like that cheers that much”.

And she didn’t….

In 15m, the match was sor’ed, Emilia who did her utmost best could only manage to grab 7 points out of the World Champion.

Yes, when I hear that loud cheer at 1/0, I thought, well, that’s ok if I had been 7/0 up, and then she scores the point. But at 0/0? That’s a sound I don’t want to hear too often I thought…. [told you didn’t I, Fram]

Back in time to the CWG then? Where to start! Well, in an ideal world, I would have liked the building to be focusing on the Singles.

But it was important for England Squash that we focus on singles and doubles both. From their point of view, quite rightly, it was the medals count that mattered, single et double alike.

So every week, we would have a double squad.

But I guess we are lucky in England, that our players are that strong we can expect medals in both categories, whereas if you take Scotland, they were more focused on the Doubles, whereas Malaysia and Nicol were putting more emphasis on the Singles.

So I guess that it went as expected medal wise. I got close, but that was not quite enough.

Now after, for both Malaysia/HK, it was a bit too soon, I didn’t have time to recover with the event and the media attention with the Games being back at home.

Although, in insight, although I thought my result were poor, as flat as I felt, I realised afterwards that it was not as poor as I thought it was, looking at the great results Nour had over the following next two weeks!

Now, I’m looking forward to a month at home (well, I already had a week, then three weeks at the end of this one!). And then off to America….

I was not too stressed to start the match, and I tried to enjoy the squash, concentrating on my length and accuracy. Now we’ll be watching the other semi afterwards, as the final will be more intense for sure.

As for the start of the season, June was pretty exhausting, so many tournaments in a row, so I was truly happy with a nice rest, then hard summer training, 5, 6 weeks.

First tournament was Hong Kong, the good thing was I managed to qualify, bad thing was that I drew Camille (1 chance out of 8!), with Delia drawing Nicol! I lost 3/1, but overall, rather positive, I thought I didn’t play too badly.

Now we don’t have the official selection for the World Teams in Canada, but I am hoping that I’ll be on it, and the preparation for it would be my main focus for the rest of the season. I

n the coming weeks, there is a 25k in Alexandria, and for the October ones, the closing dates are not up yet, so I’m not sure what events I’ll choose…

Laura Pomportes 3-0 Nea Falck 11/3, 11/4, 11/2 (14m)

An even shorter match for the second leg of this semi, 14m, but more points lost – 9…

Lauren Briggs 3-0 Riikka Inkeri Piekäinen 11/3, 11/3, 11/5

I could only manage to glance at the last game, but that was a much closer match than the previous ones, and I truly enjoyed the competiveness of Riikka, the Finish captain, 33, and mother of two! Lauren was never going to lose the match, but she was able to get a good run in particular on the backhand, and a very pleasant match indeed.

I’m based in Helsinki, where I run my own watch making company. But Espoo is THE squash centre of Finish squash. Out of the 12 teams that run in the National Team competition, 6 are from Espoo.

This year is our best ever result! We normally trade between 8 to 12, so reaching the semis is a huge achievement for us. Especially as this is our B team – we don’t have our 3 top players – the other two are only juniors, 16 and 17, and I’m 33!

You know, the fact I am a mother of two means that I have very little time for myself. So when I manage to get 1 hour for myself, trust me, I give everything and 200% to my training. That explains that I have a lot of energy when I get on the court!

I started playing squash at 11 with my Godfather, Girkki Jaakkola. Actually, he made ALL of us start squash. And without him, there wouldn’t be squash in Espoo, actually no squash in Finland. We owe him everything, and the semi is our way to thank him for what he’s done for us.

Vicky Bell 3-0 Katie Smith 11/5, 11/8, 11/5

A good effort from Katie Smith who nearly got a game after coming back in the second from 8/1, but hit the wall at 3/3 in the 3rd.

Vicky, former WSA player, still possesses her lovely volleying skills, feathery and all….

Katie managed to save a match ball at 4/10, but it wasn’t to be today.

"I was actually 8/1 in the 2nd, but I became a bit desperate to close it down, and went too short. Still, I’m happy I managed to recover and take the game.

I live in Carlisle, at the border. Glasgow, the club I’m playing for, is about 1h30m from my house, and I go and play there on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

I am 24 now, I used to be full time for about 4 years, but then I had a torn ligament in my wrist, and they told me that there was nothing that could be done about it. So, that was the end for me, and I had to go and find a job in the real world – I’m a benefit assessor, when people require help from the Government, they come to us and we see how we can help.

I still so enjoy my squash, but I can’t play more than twice a week, it’s too painful otherwise….”

Taylor Flavell 3-0 Andrea Santamaria 11/7, 11/7, 11/4

I started playing squash a bit late, I was 18 (I am now 47), as a hobby in Spain.

Then I moved to Barcelona, and happened to join the Cam Melich club, which was a superb club with 20 courts, and very “elite squash” orientated, with the support of a great Spanish Federation at the time.

So I started playing more seriously, did a few competitions, and actually did a lot of ECC events – I started in 2001! I have to confess I found the love of my life thanks to squash and ECC! It’s all Lauren Siddal’s fault…

She introduced me to her dad, Gary, and the rest is history. I moved to Ponte 5 years ago, and this year, with the top girls dropping out of the teams, I got the chance to come and play, to see how it’s really done.

It’s such a great event, great atmosphere, and most of it if done for fun (apart from a few teams that are here to win). We all are having a great time…

Thierry Lincou 3-0 Grégoire Marche 11/8, 11/5, 11/6

If The Acrobat was not at his best today, Thierry was. Mentally strong and physically sound, the ‘Guv went into Greg’s head, and with a tight immaculate squash, was able to frustrate the young Frenchman.

Thierry took an excellent start, 5/2, Little Greg fought back, 6/7, but Thierry after some plunging from Greg at 7/5, Thierry seem to find a way to put excellent pressure on his young opponent. 10/6 game ball, and 11/8 to set up the tone.

In the second one, it’s Little Greg that was dominating the start of the game, 5/3, but after another throwing himself on the floor to catch Thierry’s superb drop shot at the end of a long rally, it’s the Old Timer that took the advantage – a little discussion to make sure that he would mess with Greg mind, sort of reminding him who’s “Le Patron”, the boss. And it worked …

5/5, 7/7, 8/8. It’s all happening; And Thierry’s experience in crucial moments that speaks, 11/8 on a last tin….

In the 3rd, the former world number 1 just screwed the nail a bit deeper, 6/1, with Greg getting more and more frustrated.

The young man got back in the game, fought very hard, and we could see that it would be a good idea for Thierry to win that one, cause the legs and the breath were getting heavier and heavier! Feeling the danger, Thierry gives it a big last push. And it’s 10/6 for the Guv, and match on the first match ball…. As Little Greg stated, “the Perfect Match”.

It’s always a big disappointment to lose. I was expecting Mathieu to struggle against Nick, but I know how furious he was not to manage to sneak in a game. He fought tooth and nail, but Nick was just too good today.

Thierry did an exceptional match today. He I think had at heart his revenge from the League Team match they did a few weeks ago, where Thierry got beaten 3/0. He probably wanted to prove to himself he could still do it.

It’s always difficult to build a team for those events, between the rules, the points, the PSA matches, it’s very complicated. And all credit to Worms, even weakened by the last minute absence of Marcus Berret, they produce an excellent match.

I truly was hoping that we would get a victory out of Joan, his defeat stays a bit of a disappointment, especially as he let it go at the end. And the 3rd place is going to be even more difficult, the teams on the other side being even stronger! It would take an exploit from Mathieu and Thierry…

Another final. Our 4th in a row. Or is it 5th?

I don’t know, I’ll have to check that.

But I know we won it twice, and we hope we can do it a third time! The Triple!

We are a funny team you know. We are so relaxed, and I told the guys, you know, we had so much bad luck, let’s see what happened, we might as well win it, who knows…

But yes, we want the Triple….

  Olli Tuominen 2-3 Jon Kemp
         14-16, 11-6, 9-11, 11-6, 3-11 (52m)

FAST AND FURIOUS

Good thing about those two, you do know it’s not going to be a long encounter. It’s attack, attack, attack, tin tin tin, attack attack attack, tin tin, tin!

Stunning speed from the two “Old Guys” Olli, 35, Kempy 33. A speed that you can only dream about really!

Kemp was down 6/7 in the 3rd, wins it 11/9, then takes a little rest in the 4th while Olli is finding superb attacks and sending Kempy to visit the court a few times, 11/6 in the 4th

But what an amazing 5th for Kempy! Superb accurate squash attacking and finding his front court target so precisely that Olli just cannot do anything. Match ball at 10/2, and match 11/3….

It’s the whole difference when you are playing for yourself, or playing for other people. The Team. That’s what you fight for. When I was down in the 3rd, I thought, no, I’m not letting them down. And I started holding and flicking everything. Once I found my game plan, I just had to stick to it and focus on what to do.

A massive push in the 5th, got a nice lead…. And you know, it’s the first time ever I play him.

I just kept the best for last [this is probably Kempy’s last Club game as he is off to Qatar on Monday! Read the story on the blog]

 Chris Simpson 3-1 Adrian Grant
     8-11, 11-8, 11-8, 11-8 (69m)

What a horrible start! Did you see the start? It was a horrible start, scrappy, physical, bad tempered. I got annoyed with everything, myself, the racquet, the court, the ball, the ref, the lunch I had, the lunch I had yesterday, EVERYTHING.

But Simon had a good chat with me at the end of the first, and after that, I was as calm as a yogi man! Which is funny because normally, he winds me up!!!

We have only 1 place difference on the ranking, I’m 25 he is 24. And no, the “he’s got the experience, and I’ve got the legs cause I’m younger doesn’t work, Fram. Have you seen his legs????

The CWG, what an experience. I can think of four things, four amazing experiences/high. One, the Flag Bearing for Guernsey, then the chat with Prince William, then squash wise, I was playing against Ryan, and didn’t even want to watch the glass court not to put pressure on myself, so in the morning, went for the practice at 11h30 with James Willstrop, walked in the arena. One thousand people were there, cheering the practice. One Thousand People!!!!! And then the fourth one, playing Nick Matthew, and probably playing the best match I ever played.

After that, I took a short break, but I felt that I lost a bit of momentum, plus there was so much building up to the Games, that I really had the CWG blues…. But now, I’m back and ready to play a hard season, and especially to play as well as I did in the Games, as often as possible….

Raphael Kandra 3-0 Richie Fallows
          11-9,11-6, 11-7 (47m)

Yes, we knew that it was one of the most important games!

I had played him once last year, he was an up and coming junior, a bit all over the place, over pushing himself, and it was pretty comfortable. But this year, I knew he had a few nice PSA wins, and I was expected a much closer game. Which it was.

We had a few discussions with the ref in the first game, he gets a bit fiery sometimes doesn’t he! I just didn’t know how to show the ref I could get to the ball! He’s got such long legs, and such a long reach, sometimes I really couldn’t show the ref I could reach the ball!

The first game was very close, but I tried and kept it tight, and especially to keep in front of him, to avoid a lot of troubles for myself. Once I got the first game, I felt I was more controlling, and dominated the rallies better.

  Tim Garner 1-3 Scott Handley         11-4, 10-12, 3-11 rtd (28m)

This is typically a Team Champs match for me. Those two boys, well, I would like to read their memory card in the brain to count how many hours of squash, how many travelling with the boys, billeting, little hotels in the middle of nowhere, and a lot of sweat, injuries and aches between them two….

Yes, I could have watch Rafa v Richie; probably a higher quality game on paper. But it was not you know? When you have two gentlemen that love the game, no, that are passionate about the game, it replaces the younger legs.

Tim took the first game comfy 11/4, was up in the second 8/2, Scott making sooo many errors – “what’s that” he scolded himself. The 20 Colets man eventually took the game 12/10, then the third 11/3.

When the ref asked the two players “do you want to continue?” as Rafa ‘s victory had done it for the Paderborn camp, Scott went, yes, I want to, while Tim went, no, I don’t want to.

“I’m 44, and I have a decider rubber to play tomorrow! And I’m first on! So, no, I don’t want to keep on playin”

Fair enough…