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TODAY at the Nationals: Wed 10th,
Day FOUR
Steve Cubbins in Manchester |
Day four and it was down to the last 16 for both men and
women.
The masters joined in today too, so even though the top
eight seeds made it through in both main events, there was lots
happening at Sportcity ...
Afternoon session
Evening session
[1] Nick Matthew (Yorks) bt
[9] Tom Richards (Surrey)
11/5, 11/9, 11/8
(51m)
[5] Alister Walker (Glos) bt [13] Alan Clyne (Scotland)
13/15, 11/8, 11/5,
7/11, 11/9 (82m)
[4] Adrian Grant (Kent) bt [11] Chris Simpson (Hants)
11/8, 12/14, 11/8,
11/5 (59m)
[7] Jonathan Kemp (Shropshire) bt [15] Laurence Delasaux
(Yorks)
11/5, 11/5, 11/9
(24m)
[8] Joey Barrington (Somerset) bt [16] Joe Lee (Surrey)
5/11, 12/10, 11/7,
11/8 (84m)
[3] James Willstrop (Yorks) bt Nic Birt (Wales)
11/7, 11/2, 11/2
(21m)
[6] Daryl Selby (Essex) bt [14] Adrian Waller (Herts)
11/5, 11/7, 11/9
(36m)
[2] Peter Barker (Essex) bt [10] Chris Ryder (Herts)
11/4, 11/8,
11/3 (38m)
[1] Jenny
Duncalf (Yorks) bt [Q] Deon Saffery (Wales)
11/7, 11/4, 11/4
(25m)
[6] Lauren Briggs (Essex) bt [Q] Millie Tomlinson
(Derbyshire)
6/11, 11/5, 15/13,
11/5 (55m)
[3] Madeline Perry (Ireland) v Lauren Siddall (Yorks)
11/8, 11/6, 11/6 (27m)
[5] Tania Bailey (Lincs) bt Fiona Moverley (Yorks)
11/2, 11/8, 11/2 (19m)
[7] Sarah Kippax (Cheshire) bt Victoria Lust (Beds)
11/6, 11/5, 11/1 (23m)
[4] Laura Massaro (Lancs) bt [Q] Carrie Ramsey (Yorks)
11/3, 11/4, 11/4 (21m)
[8] Emma Beddoes (Warwicks) bt Laura Hill (Derbyshire)
9/11, 7/11, 11/7,
11/8, 11/7 (55m)
[2] Alison Waters (Middx) bt [Q] Sarah-Jane Perry (Warwicks)
11/1, 11/4, 11/3 (19m) |
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Afternoon
Session:
Walker survives to make quarters
 Two
fairly comfortable wins to start the day with Jonathan Kemp
and Sarah Kippax wasting no time in booking their places
in the quarter-finals (three if you add in Dave Lumsden's
demolition of yours truly in the O55, thus can't comment on the
other matches).
The women's first round continued with two more quick wins,
Laura Massaro and Alison Waters despatching
qualifiers Carrie Ramsey and Sarah-Jane Perry in 20-odd minutes.
Adrian Grant, who feels he is "moving much better now
than I was in Edinburgh or Sweden" took an hour to see off the
challenge of Chris Simpson. Most of the match was played out at
the back of the court.
 "It's
very hot on there, and Chris is a real fighter," explained
Adrian, "and even when I went short at the right time it just
brought him back into the rally, so I had to just try and
contain him at the back."
"I didn't want to drop the second game, but he played well, and
I'm happy with how I'm playing now and looking forward to
getting on the glass court which rewards your shots more."
Alister Walker did more than drop a single game against
speedy Scot Alan Clyne, the fifth seed was taken to the wire,
finally winning in five in 84 minutes, the longest match of the
tournament so far.
Clyne took the first on extra points but Walker struck back to
take the lead and all looked well. But Clyne is fast, fit and
never stops, as many of his opponents will testify, and he took
it to a decider.
 Walker
quickly established control, leading 3/1 then 6/2 then 8/2 with
two glued dropshots. All over you thought, but back came Clyne,
aided by Walker hitting the ball back to himself three times and
now it was 8/7.
"Why did I play that one" said the look on Alan's face as he put
a ball into the tin that he could have asked for a let on. He
pulled one back to make it 9/8, then Alister put a drop just too
tight to do anything other than tin it, match ball.
 A
couple of minutes elapsed while Alister tended to a finger that
had been clipped by his opponent's racket, then they came back
on to play two humungous rallies. The first one ended in a let,
the second with a crosscourt flick by Alan to make it 9/10.
The crowd were ready for more, but Alister slammed his service
return close enough to the nick to make it unreturnable and he
was through, by the skin of his teeth.
"It's hard to play good squash on those courts, plus he's very
fit and gets a lot back," said a relieved winner.
"He played to the conditions perfectly, got his tactics right
and was probably unlucky in the end. Just the sort of match you
want when you've probably got Nick Matthew next ..."
 Nick
Matthew next it is, but the defending champion also had to
work hard to see off Tom Richards in three. After taking the
first fairly comfortably Matthew found himself 7/2 down in the
second and from then on had to work hard for every point.
He managed to take the second and always led the third, but
could never open up enough of a gap to enable him to relax.
"I felt in control for the first half of the first game," he
explained, "but after that it was very tough, you can never up
the pace on these courts you have to play in fits and starts and
use the turbo at just the right time."
"I didn't fancy going one-all and getting into a tough one.
Tom's stepped up his game a lot, he used to hit more winners and
errors but now he's very steady. As soon as I saw the draw I
knew I had the hardest draw possible, he'll be top twenty very
soon."
 The
last match of the session saw eighth seed Emma Beddoes
escape from two games down to thwart Laura Hill.
"I was 9/3 up in the first and never got another point," said
Emma. "I don't really know what happened, but it's very easy to
become too defensive on these courts. Laura's a great retriever
and if you don't do something with the ball she's going to hang
in and win the point.
"It wasn't the greatest squash and she was hitting a better
length than me. I just had to stick in there, I've never made
the quarters before so there was no way I was going to go down
without a fight.
"I don't get to play on the glass court that much, so it will be
brilliant to play on it, and I even get a day off!"
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Evening
Session:
Perry celebrates early, Barringtons through ...
As the session second started (not that there was much of a gap)
it was Northern Ireland's Madeline Perry who was the
first winner, although Lauren Siddall made her work for it in
all three games. It's Madeline's birthday tomorrow but she
doesn't get a day off ... blame the organisers.
 The
first men's match was expected to be a long one as Joey
Barrington took on Joe Lee. Joey is renowned for hogging
court time and Joe, excellent and promising player that he is,
isn't really known as an attacking shotmaker.
Add to that the hot and bouncy court conditions that others have
mentioned before and you have a recipe for a long match, and
that's what we got.
"That was tough," said Joey, "Joe played well."
He did too, taking the first, pulling back to almost take the
second, and coming from 8/2 down to make the fourth tough too
before Joey took it 11/8.
 In
a masterpiece of scheduling, on the court next door James
Barrington, Sales & Marketing Director of Cathay Pacific,
won his debut Over 50 match (in 27 minutes) just 10 seconds
before Joey did.
We had to get them together for a photo, and of course Joey took
the opportunity to say "I must talk to you about some flights!"
Meanwhile Joey's next opponent James Willstrop was taking
just 21 minutes to end the run of lucky loser Nic Birt.
"I really enjoyed that," said Nic. "I've enjoyed the whole week,
good games, tough games, and I certainly got my money's worth."
Daryl Selby and Peter Barker set up a rematch of
their recent Nova Scotia marathon, both winning in fairly quick
straight games over Adrian Waller and Chris Ryder.
"I had too many long games at the weekend," said Daryl, so I
didn't want this to be a long one. Adrian's been playing well,
especially beating Olli [Tuominen] at the ToC, so I took it very
seriously and prepared professionally, so that's partly why it
was fairly quick.
"I was playing well, making him work hard and was quite clinical
when I got the chance to put the ball away."
 So
that was all eight men's seeds through to the quarters, and it
was the same story in the women with Tania Bailey and
Jenny Duncalf easing past Fiona Moverley and Deon Saffery,
while Lauren Briggs got embroiled in a "you'll make a
mistake before I do" sort of match with young Millie Tomlinson.
 Millie
was playing very well, taking the first and having game balls
for a 2/1 lead in the third before losing it 15/13. "Lauren
doesn't usually play like this does she," asked one spectator
during one of those loooong rallies at the back of the court.
No, she doesn't, but with the ball bouncing higher than ever
neither of them really had much choice.
Eventually Lauren's experience prevailed in four games after 55
minutes.
As the day drew to an end, an enthralling masters match saw
Jersey's Allen Brown beat Masters chairman Martin
Pearse in an entertaining and often brutal encounter.
Martin, who was repeatedly running into his opponent, sometimes
getting lets and sometimes not, saved six match balls to level
it in the fourth, but Allen recovered from 3/6 in the fifth to
take it 9/6, much to the delight of Nick Taylor and the Jersey
contingent.
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