Barrington's Brief Foray — Kneipp Survives
© 2004 Colin McQuillan from Nottingham for Squashtalk, all rights of reproduction reserved. Oct 31, 2004

A Barrington Returns, Briefly
The field is strong and parity the watchword at the 2004 British Open in Nottingham. The result — there are no easy draws. That can be attested two by a number of players, but in particular Joe Kneipp, the seventh seed was kept on court through five see-saw games before advance against Egyptian Wael El Hindi while qualifier Joey Barrington had his hopes dashed in five gruelling games by workmanlike French pro Renan Lavigne.

In the opening afternoon session at Nottingham Squash Club that took on a strangely Gallic atmosphere, the first Barrington to appear in a British Open main draw for 24 years; Joey the 24-year-old son of the legendary Jonah Barrington, yesterday lasted just 87 minutes before subsiding 11-8, 4-11, 10-11 (1-3), 11-2, 11-3 in his first round match against Renan Lavigne, the Marseille based French No3.

The first Barrington legend of six British Open wins was built on the physical resilience of Jonah, but Joey, whose mother Madeline was a pretty useful middle distance runner in her time, has yet to develop a similar core of stubborn resistance, it seems.

He was required to play in a strong qualifying tournament through the weekend and survived an 88 minute five game final against Peter Genever of Sussex late on Saturday before facing Lavigne in the first match of the main draw on Sunday afternoon.

After losing the first game, the 24-year-old World No14 from Glastonbury in Somerset won the second, but fell behind 2-7 in the third. "I started to think a bit more and play better rallies," said Barrington later. "I pushed hugely at that point in the game and saved two game balls to go 2/1 up, but it took a lot out of me and after about 75 minutes I was very, very tired.

"I am at the stage of my career when I am having to qualify for the big events, so I am used to the business of going straight into the first round after demanding preliminary matches, but I could certainly have done with an extra day's break. I must try and get my opponents off court more quickly in future," added Barrington after his battling five game defeat.

“I could have done with a bit more rest, although this is what life in the qualifiers is about all over the world,” he acknowledged wryly. “I made a huge effort in the third game fighting back from 2-7 down to win it on the tiebreak, but I was very, very tired after that.”

Typically for their close but separately busy relationship, the father was in Bishop’s Stortford for the British Under-13 Championship while the son was following the family footsteps into the British Open. Joey trains at the Millfield Academy under the executive eye of Jonah, although his personal training is supervised these days by Ian Thomas. “Disappointing for him, but part of the learning curve,” the old man (Jonah) said before going on to rave about the brilliant young talent around him at the junior event.

The result was hardly more rewarding for Lavigne. He goes to the French No2 and European Champion Gregory Gaultier in the second round after the Aix-en-Provence 21-year-old removed the experienced Welsh No1 Alex Gough 11-10 (2-0), 3-11, 11-9, 11-6 in 70 minutes on the next court. The winner goes on to meet the victor between Australia’s defending champion, David Palmer, and Olli Tuominen of Finland.

In the quarter above them Lee Beachill, the top seed, apparently fully recovered from a strained abductor sustained last weekend, easily defeated South African champion Rodney Durbach 11-2 11-3 11-9 in 35 minutes and will now meet his ninth seeded Pontefract training partner James Willstrop, who defeated Borja Golan of Spain 11-4 11-9 11-5 in 37 minutes.

"It was almost my perfect match," said Beachill."I was more than happy with my movement throughout the match and wasn't aware of any problems at all," said the 26-year-old World No1.

"Once you get to the second round of the British Open, all matches are tough," conceded Beachill when asked about his next match. "But I admit that I would rather not be playing James at this stage of the event, and I'm sure he feels just the same way. But it's something we're obviously going to have to get used to, more and more."

STRAIGHT GAME ACTION IN WOMEN'S PLAY
Australian implications were in play for the women’s first round also. Defending champion Rachael Grinham set the tone for the afternoon dismissing England’s Stephanie Brind 9-0 9-5 9-3 in 39 minutes. No other women’s match went beyond that straight games example, although Dominique Lloyd-Walter kept the 11th seeded Jenny Tranfield 55 minutes for her 10-8 9-3 9-0 victory.

Grinham goes to Manchester's Vicky Botwright, the 12th seed who crushed compatriot Lauren Briggs, a qualifier from Essex, 9-3 9-4 9-1 in 22 minutes.
There was another 22-minute English triumph when Tania Bailey beat Danish qualifier Line Hansen 9-0 9-0 9-3 in her first appearance in the event since reaching the final against the odds two years ago. The 16th seed from Stamford in Lincolnshire, who is fighting back from a series of injury setbacks, now meets Malaysia's seventh seed Nicol David who despatched Canadian qualifier Runa Reta 9-3 9-5 9-2 in 27 minutes.

The remaining first round matches, in the lower halves of both the men's and women's draws, take place at the Nottingham club tomorrow (Monday).

White versus Willstrop at the 2004 English Open - Now on DvD