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Photo Galleries
Draws & Results
XTRAS: Minnows
Diary
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TODAY at the EuroTeams:
Wed 28th, Day TWO
Another 27 matches at Set Squash
today, again in six sessions, as the pool stages continue.
In the top pools most of the semi-final places were decided, but
Men's Pool B could yet throw up a surprise in tomorrow's final
matches.
Match of the day was Wales' narrow 3-1 win over Scotland, which
leaves the Welsh in pole position to join England France and
Holland in the men's semis, but the Irish could still spring a
surprise.
The women's semis will be between England, Holland, France and
Ireland, who plays who to be decided in tomorrow's group
deciders.
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Session 1:
Poles delighted
The day opened with Men's Pool D and D matches. Spain
eased past Israel 4-0, although Borja Golan was given much
tougher workout today, Ido Avron getting close in the first two
games before the Spaniard eased ahead in the third.
Croatia recorded their first win, 4-0 over Turkey to give
themselves a chance of further progress.
The Polish squad was delighted to record a first win,
beating Cyprus 3-1 to reach the 21-24 playoffs for the first
time, guaranteeing themselves a best-ever finish.
Meanwhile 10th seeded Denmark found themselves in a
tougher than expected battle against Austria. Austrian #1 Aqeel
Rehman continued his good form with a 3-2 win over Kristian
Frost Olesen, largely through playing more steadily at the
business end of the match. Denmark still look like winning 3-1
though ...
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Session 3:
France & Holland join the semis,
Wales hold off the Scots ...
 The
top two in women's group B was also decided, hosts France
easing through against Denmark with Coline Aumard starting the
ball rolling and Line Hansen unable to repeat yesterday's
heroics as she lost to Camille Serme in straight games.
 It
wasn't so easy for the Dutch though, who were resting
number one Vanessa Atkinson. Margriet Huisman put them ahead
with a tight 3/0 win, then Annelize Naudé needed all five games
to see off Gaby Schmol, who recently won the Swiss Open unseeded.
Finishing the women's action for the day, straightforward wins
for Finland, Austria and Sweden. Their big matches come
tomorrow.
There was a ding-dong men's Pool B battle out on courts 9 and 10
as Wales took on Scotland.
Alan Clyne put the scots ahead at top string with a 3/0 win over
Jethro Binns, Alex Gough levelled with a hard-fought 3/1 win
over Harry Leitch, both players unhappy with the referees
several times.
 Wales'
other veteran David Evans put Cymru ahead with a comprehensive
win over Chris Small, just moments before the final match
finished on the adjacent court.
Peter Creed and Stuart Crawford (who took a game off Thierry
Lincou yesterday, contrary to the report, apologies) were level
at two-games all ... the Welshman took a 5/1 lead in the decider
but the Scot fought back to earn matchball at 10/9.
A cracking crosscourt volley into the nick levelled it for
Creed, who then floated another volley into the opposite corner
nick to move to match point for himself and the team.
Crawford put in a tight drop to the front right, Creed flung
himself into the corner to just scrape the ball back into the
middle. Crawford was expecting an easy putaway, but played it
too loose, meanwhile Creed was back on his feet, sprinted to the
middle to earn himself a stroke which left the Welsh elated and
the Scots deflated. Phew ...
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A good way to save match ball ...
... a strange way to win it |
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Session 5:
Matthew pulls it out, Dutch deny Germans ...
 Defending
champions England made it two wins out of two, but
Finland's Olli Tuominen came close to creating a sensational
upset when he went two games up against world number two Nick
Matthew.
By the time Matthew had clawed himself back to parity, Daryl
Selby and Peter Barker had put England two-nil up, and when
Matthew completed the recovery, 11/8 in the fifth after 82
minutes in front of a packed and noisy court one crowd (it's a
good job they installed an industrial-strength fan there, it's
getting pretty hot!) England were in the semi-finals.
 In
the other Pool A match Holland were locked at one-all
against Germany after LJ Anjema and Rudi Rohrmuller chalked up
opening wins.
It was looking close as Jens Schoor levelled at one-all with
Dylan Bennett, but Dylan reasserted to take it 3/1 and Piedro
Schweertman finished off a 3-1 win in style to set up a Poll
decider with England.
 "Dylan
played very well," said Dutch manager/coach Lucas Buit,
"he dug in to pull us out of a tight situation. We expected a
win from LJ of course, number eleven in the world, and
Sebastiaan [Weenink] is a promising player but he got a bit
frustrated at himself and with some decisions, he'll learn from
that. Piedro had a bad loss yesterday but he bounced back well
from that.
"As a coach I'm happy and proud, our target is still to make the
podium, so far so good, but it will be difficult against England
tomorrow. You want to go all out for the win but you know that
even if you do you still have another match to make the final." |
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Play Belgium, get Chocolates .... Marton hits his own his leg
with his racket (ask him to see the mark) |
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