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YMG Capital Classic
Quarterfinals: Scotland Versus the Rest
by Colin McQuillan © 2000 Squashtalk; photos Debra Tessier© 2000
29 November BCE Center Toronto
The strong British challenge for the YMG Capital Squash Classic, the first major squash tournament to be contested in Toronto, Canada, for a decade, was concentrated to a purely Scottish challenge by the end of a quarter-final session at the BCE Centre that saw Peter Nicol, the top seeded world champion, emerge the 11-15 15-13 15-13 13-15 15-9 winner of a 93 minute encounter with Mark Chaloner and Martin Heath win 13-15 15-11 15-8 15-11 in 65 minutes against Paul Johnson.
Nicol, a 27-year-old from Inverurie, meets Egypt's Ahmed Barada in the semi-finals, while Heath, a Stirling born 27-year-old, plays the second seeded home favourite, Jonathon Power.
NICOL STRETCHED
Playing in front of another packed house in a city that has plainly been
starved of top squash for long enough to judge by the enthusiasm with
which this event has been greeted, Nicol could not reproduce against Chaloner,
the same sort of rhythmic domination he inflicted upon Graham Ryding,
another favourite Toronto son, the previous evening. He needed every rally
of the 93 minute all-court action-packed quarter-final to subdue Chaloner,
the England number five who seemed keen to inflict upon the Scot's return
from the first injury of his career, an inflamed foot tendon, the same
sort of disappointment he engineered by beating Nicol in a British National
Championship semi-final the very day the young Scot was first promoted
to world number one back in 1998.
HEATH CRUISES
Heath, who unexpectedly ejected the England number one, Simon Parke, from
the previous round, this time accounted for the second ranked Englishman,
Johnson, with rather more ease. The Nottingham based Scot seems to enjoy
the North American squash scene. He reached the final of the Tournament
of Champions in New York last year and the Florida Open Final earlier
this month. While the all-British quarter-finals were enjoyable for Toronto's
squash afficianados, with several noting the similarity of Chaloner's
slightly awkward style and huge endurance to that of Jonah Barrington
in a previous era, it was the other two play-offs of the evening that
produced crowd-pleasing firecrackers from the dismissal of a brace of
good young Australians.
Power defeated David Palmer 15-11 17-14 15-9 in a 67 minute match that hung largely on the outcome of the tiebreak in the second game, in which a certain sympathy in the appeals referee, Derek Ryan of Ireland, towards Power's speed of movement and recovery drove the Australian to break his own racket in a fury of frustration.
BARADA'S
FURIOUS PACE
Barada drove Paul Price into bitter incapacity by attacking him hard from
the beginning and beating him 15-11 15-4 15-4 in just 37 minutes. "I am
beginning to get my squash back after the stabbing injury earlier this
year," said Barada. "I watched Paul beating Mark Cairns and decided to
go at a high pace right from the start. He fell off so early and so quickly
that I think he must have an injury of some sort, but I kept the pressure
up right to the end."
PALMER POWER
FISTICUFFS
Both Australians strode from the arena in bitter silence, although Palmer
said he would be able to talk about the match the next day when he was
not so furious.
In this tournament the refereeing is arranged around the expertise of the players as appeals officials with a regular referee calling the shots. Ryan, the Irish champion, went out in the qualifiers but happily joined Poulton on the chair. "It's a good job. I enjoyed it," he said after the quarter-final when asked about the pressure of the role.
Palmer has been doing good things lately and has risen to become the top Australian on the PSA World Tour. He plainly thought Power could be taken in front of his home crowd and in the crucial second game he took a 9-5 lead from which he looked capable of taking over the court.
But a no-let call from Ryan on a tight and apparently good strike in the top right corner began to tip the balance the other way and, although Palmer fought his way to 12-8 and 14-10 against a series of just but unsympathetic decisions, Power moved back to level at 14-14 with the help of a couple of borderline penalty strokes, then on to 17-14 with a couple more, finishing off with a back hand clinging drive.
It was during this tiebreak that the anger began to simmer meaningfully. Palmer deliberately broke his own racket as a comment on the fourth of the penalty stroke decisions that took the game to 16-14 in Power's favour. As he walked out to get another racket, he heard the referee Poulton handing down a conduct warning for racket abuse and Power demanding a penalty point because his opponent left the court after breaking his own racket.
"Its in the rules," screamed the Canadian. "I don't actually know that rule," responded Poulton. Power had to deliver a clinging backhand drive to clinch the game. The anger boiled over alarmingly with Palmer forcing back into the third game at 8-12 and trying to reach a drive down the lefthand wall. When Power blocked his progress , the big Australian pushed and, when nothing happened, he pushed again.
Power crashed into the sidewall like a rag doll, bounced, flailed and came out fighting. It took a high piping entreaty from his girlfriend in the crowd to stop Palmer going in for another bite. He was still so angry at the end of the 67 minute 15-11 17-14 15-9 quarter-final that he refused to comment.
YMG Capital Squash Classic At
BCE Place In Toronto
RESULTS
- QUARTERFINALS
Ahmed Barada (Egy) def Paul Price (Aus) 15-11, 15-4, 15-4
Jonathon Power (Can) def David Palmer (Aus) 15-11, 17-14, 15-9
Peter Nicol (Sco) def Mark Chaloner (Eng) 11-15, 15-13, 15-13, 13-15,
15-9
Martin Heath (Sco) def Paul Johnson (Eng) 13-15, 15-11, 15-8, 15-11
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