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TODAY in Espoo ... Thu 28th,
Day TWO |
Day Two, Thu 28th:
With the top seeded teams in Division One all playing twice
today, there was a lot at stake - semi-final places for the
winners and advantageous positions in the playoffs for the
losers.
In the event everything went pretty much as expected - if
slightly against seeding in some cases - and tomorrow's
semi-finals are:
Men: England v
Netherlands, France v Italy
Women: Netherlands v France, England v Ireland
There were some crucial Division Two matches too, with one men's
match that went down to a two-point difference ...
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Photo Gallery |
09.30 M1A
England 4-0 Italy
M1A Wales
3-1 Czech
Republic
W2 Austria
2-1 Finland
W2 Switzerland
3-0 Czech Republic
W2 Wales
2-1 Belgium
11.30
M1B France 4-0 Germany
M1B Netherlands
2*-2
Scotland
W1A Netherlands
3-0
Germany
W1A Ireland
2-1 Spain
W1B England
3-0
Scotland
W1B France
3-0 Italy
14.00
M2-QF Spain 2*-2 Belgium
M2-QF Finland
2-2 Hungary
M2-QF Ireland 1-3
Sweden
M2-QF Switzerland
1-3 Denmark |
16.30 M1A
England 4-0 Wales
M1A Italy
4-0 Czech
Republic
M2-9/11
Ukraine 0-4 Austria
W2 Belgium
2-0 Finland
W2 Wales
2-1 Czech Republic
W2 Switzerland
2-1 Austria
19.00 M1B
Germany 4-0 Scotland
M1B France
3-1
Netherlands
W1A Netherlands
2-1
Ireland
W1A Germany
2-1 Spain
W1B France 0-3 England
W1B Scotland
2-1
Italy
Order of play:
W: 1-2-3, M: 1&3 then 4&2 |
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"I'm playing Nick Matthew,
keep your advice!"
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1: England cruise through,
tough in Women's two ...
After yesterday's comprehensive win over Wales, Italy's
men were brought down to earth with a bump as hot favourites
England beat them in the same scoreline, with only Daryl
Selby dropping a game.
 In
truth it was a good humoured match as Nick Matthew, Peter Barker
and Jonathan Kemp all won in straight games. Highlight of the
match was when Devide Bianchetti decided to argue with the
referees, as he does, claiming "I wasn't sure about that ball at
the front, but that one on the side was was 99% out, no 100%
out."
When Nick pointed out to Davide that it was the Italian's own
shot that he was talking about, he quickly backtracked. "Ok,
let's start again - that one at the front was definitely down
..."
"It was the funniest thing I'd ever seen on court," commented
Italian skipper Marcus Berrett. Matthew concurred, adding "and
he still somehow managed to get a let out of it!"
 As
for Wales, they bounced back with a 3/1 win over the
Czech Republic. Jan Koukal kept the Czechs in the hunt as he
beat Peter Creed 11/8, 11/8, 11/7 in the top string, but Alex
Gough, David Evans and Nic Birt gave the Welsh the win.
If those two were fairly predictable, there were some nailbiting
matches in women's division two, none more so than
Switzerland's win over the Czech Republic. First Gaby
Schmohl came from two games down to beat Lucie Fialova, then
Sara Geuby also won in five to seal the points for the Swiss.
Finland suffered their first loss as the women's team
went down to Austria. The Finns fought all the way, but
Birgit Coufal won the top string in the fifth, and Sandra Polak
won another thriller, 12/10 in the fourth.
 The
Welsh women also bounced back after a disappointing
defeat yesterday. Deon Saffery and Tesni Evans both beat their
Belgian counterparts 3/0 before Nele Gilis pulled one back for
Belgium, sneaking the first 22/20 along the way!
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2: Scots fall agonisingly short
as women's seeds ease through
 Second
seeds France came through their second group match in Men's
Division One Pool B comfortably enough,, but third seeds
Netherlands had to hang on for a draw against Scotland.
France faced Germany, who were resting number one
Simon Rosner, and duly won 4-0 for the loss of only one game,
but it was actually much tougher than scoreline suggests,
Gregory Gaultier, Julien Balbo and Greg Marche all needing extra
points to convert one of their games, and there was very little
to separate Yann Perrin and André Haschker despite the 3/1
scoreline to the Frenchman - 11/9, 8/11, 11/9, 11/8 sounds more
like it.
Netherlands v Scotland, now that was a different type of
encounter, for sure. Before the match the Scots had targeted
this match as a "possible win", and how close they came.
 Chris
Small twice came from behind in order to pip Piedro Schweertman
to the post 8/11, 11/8, 9/11, 12/10, 11/9, that match finishing
as Alan Clyne was tied at 6-all in the fifth with LJ Anjema.
In a noisy, tense, finish to the match, the Dutchman extended to
10/6, but the gritty Scot pulled three of those match points
back, 10/9.
Anjema (and the entire Dutch team) thought he'd won it with a
drive deep into the corner with Clyne struggling to get past his
opponent in the middle of the court, and couldn't believe the
let that was given.
 Another
let that LJ felt only mildly aggrieved about, then the Dutchman
slammed the next serve into the nick and raised his arms aloft
in relief as much as anything else.
Dylan Bennett saw off
Stewart Crawford 11/6, 11/6, 11/6, and though Lyall Patersen led
Rene Mijs 11/4, 11/9, when the Dutchman took the third 11/5 the
Dutch knew that should it go to countback they would hold the
advantage, all else being equal.
In the event Mijs continued his comeback to have match balls in
the fifth, but Paterson closed it out match for the draw.
The top four women's seeds all won comfortably enough -
England 3-0 over Scotland, France 3-0 over Italy,
Netherlands 3-0 over Germany, and Ireland 2-1 over Spain.
Ireland's top duo of Madeline Perry did the business
again, but whereas yesterday they both won close first games
before pulling away, today they both eased into two-game leads
and hung on to sneak the third. There's probably a plan in
there somewhere ...
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3: Finns first into the semis
as four-man finishes come into play
Finland bt Hungary 3-1
Sweden bt Ireland 3-1
Denmark bt Switzerland 3-1 Spain bt Belgium 2-2
The first of the playoff matches
were the Men's Division Two quarter-finals - four to go through
to the semis, the winners of those to be promoted to the top
table next year, so no quarter given or asked for here.
All of them had finishes typical of the four-man team system -
you don't get that 'winner takes all' final match - but you
don't half get some exciting alternative finishes ...
 Finland's
flagbearer Olli Tuominen found himself two games down to
Hungarian number one Mark Krajcsak, and the packed crowd on
courts seven and eight were worried.
Krajcsak had been playing smoothly, not letting Tuominen dictate
the pace, but the third and fourth saw a change of fortunes as
Olli managed to get in front, up the pace and unsettle his
opponent. It was tough going though, really tough.
The comeback fizzled out somewhat in the fifth, Olli seeming to
accept defeat in the final few points. That may have had
something to with the fact that Matias Tuomi and Henrik Mustonen
had both already won 3/0 on the other court, so the match was
Finland's despite Mark's massive efforts.
 Elsewhere,
Denmark took on their preferred opponents Switzerland,
and although Nicolas Mueller took the first match 3/0 for the
Swiss, Denmark responded with two 3-0 wins for Morten Sorensen
and Caspar Neilsen.
Michael Frilund's levelled from a game down against Patrick Miescher,
which was enough to ensure progress for the Danes, but he went
on to win 3/1 anyway.
Sweden took the first two matches 3/1 against Ireland,
then picked up two games in the next match to render the tie
dead despite Derek Ryan
Another unexpected victory at the top of the order saw
Belgium's Stefan Casteleyn come from a game down to beat
Spain's Borja Golan in four games, 8/11, 11/9, 12/10, 11/2.
 "He
wasn't expecting that," said a delighted Casteleyn, who recently
claimed his 16th Belgian National title. "It takes a little
while for the old diesel to get warmed up these days, but it's
nice to get a win like that once in a while!"
While they were finishing that it was one each on the other
court which meant that Belgian youngster Jan van den Herrewege
took on Hugo Varela knowing that he had to win 3/0 to take the
match to points countback.
 He
duly took the first two games, and by then pretty much everyone,
including the players, knew that the points stood at 117-111 in
Spain's favour, so Jan needed to win 11/5 or better to put
Belgium through.
He got as far as 7/1, both sets of supporters up in arms at some
of the decisions being given in the pressure cooker atmosphere,
but Hugo mounted a comeback, getting to 5-8 and neck and neck on
points.
A tin from Jan though and it was all over. he eventually won the
game 11/7 but it wasn't enough.
s
"Football is definitely our game!" commented one relieved
Spaniard. "We lost to them 4-0 last year, so getting this close
is a big improvement for us, especially with two juniors in the
team," was the Belgian verdict.
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5: The final places
If the hard work had already been done for the teams in the
previous session, there was still all to play for for most of
those involved in this final session.
In men's division one Pool B, France still had work to do
to claim the top spot their seeding required, but as they were
resting number one Gregory Gaultier the potential for a slipup
was there.
 And
sure enough the Netherlands took the early lead, LJ
Anjema shrugging off his lunchtime marathon to beat Mathieu
Castagnet 11/9, 11/6, 11/7. The French were soon level though,
after a determined performance from Yann Perrin, beating Piedro
Schweertman 11/1, 9/11, 11/4, 12/10.
Greg Marche wasted little time in beating Dylan Bennett 11/4,
11/3, 11/3 and France's top spot was assured, but the result of
the final match between Julien Balbo and Sebastiaan Weenink
could have had a bearing on other positions. Balbo won 11/7,
11/2, 11/6 which might have given Scotland a sniff of finishing
third, but ...
 Germany,
with their number one restored, beat Scotland 4-0 to
ensure third place, and an advantage in the playoffs for the
relegation positions. Simon Rosner beat a tired looking Alan
Clyne 11/3, 11/4, 11/3 and Andre Haschker camer from a game down
to beat the morning's hero Chris Small 4/11, 11/5, 11/3, 11/5.
That made it a seriously uphill task for the Scots and the
Germans didn't relent - Raphael Kandra beat Harry Leitch 11/8,
11/4, 11/5, and Jens Schoor beat Stuart Crawford 7/11, 16/14,
11/1, 11/9 saving seven game balls in the third in the process.
So that made it France, Netherlands, Germany and Scotland, in
that order, with semi-finals of England v Netherlands and
France v Italy.
Women's Division One
And so to the women's top division. Long story short, the
top four were already assured of their places in the
semi-finals, and everything went to expectation - if not to
seeding - but there were some dramas along the way.
 Defending
champions Netherlands looked to be on the way to a
comfortable win as Vanessa Atkinson raced into a two-game lead
over Madeline Perry, who was Ireland's beat chance of
applying some pressure. "I was just lulling her into a false
sense of security," joked Madeline after completing her 8/11,
7/11, 11/8, 11/4, 11/9 comeback, although she looked distinctly
hot and bothered as she said it!
Netherlands were always favourites and numbers two and three,
and so it proved as Natalie Grinham beat Aisling Blake 11/6,
11/5, 11/7 and Orla Noom eased past Claire Staunton 11/6, 11/2,
11/2.
 In
the same pool Germany narrowly escaped being upset by
Spain. All looked well when Sina Wall gave the Germans the
lead, beating Xisela Aranda 11/3, 9/11, 11/4, 11/5, but the
Spaniards unexpectedly struck back as Stella Carbonell edged
past Pamela Hathaway 11/6, 11/8, 6/11, 12/10 to the delight of
her team-mates.
Eva Brauckmann made sure the
fifth seeds didn't lose to the eighth with an 11/7, 5/11, 11/9,
11/9 win over Laura Alonso, but the Spanish will take great
heart from pushing the Germans this close.
In pool B France and England met to see who would
finish top. The English will have felt at home on the cut adrift
court three, since this was their third match in a row "out
there" - possibly an advantage, but to be honest not a nice way
to treat the 32-time champions.
 Anyway,
France certainly had their opportunities in the first two
matches, but Jenny Duncalf opened England's account with a
15/13, 11/9, 4/11, 11/5 win over Camille Serme and Sarah Kippax
wrapped it up with a 12/10, 11/9, 11/4 victory against Isabelle
Stoehr.
Emma Beddoes, revelling in her first ETC, wrapped it up 11/7,
11/9, 11/1 against an increasingly disgruntled Coline Aumard.
Scotland were generally expected to beat Italy,
despite their seedings ot eight and seven. It took Manuela
Manetta the full five games to see off a determined Senga Macfie
11/6, 11/7, 8/11, 10/12, 11/7 to give the Italians the lead, but
Frania Gillen-Buchert and Lisa Aitken both won comfortably in
three to give the Scots their win.
All that meant the semi-finals are Netherlands v France and
England v Ireland.
And that's all for today .... see you tomorrow! |
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