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2002 World Invitation Doubles:
Grinham and Grinham are Great
National Squash Center Manchester
UK
[View Schedule of Upcoming Matches]
Individual Match Results final draws and pools
Special to SquashTalk
by Colin McQuillan © 2002 Colin McQuillan
last update: 04/19/2002 9:46 PM
World Invitation Doubles Features Fabulous Sister Act
Australia took the two main titles at the World Invitation Doubles Championships tonight at Sportcity, Manchester, with a little and large operation that saw the towering partnership of David Palmer and Paul Price defeat the reigning Commonwealth Games champions, Paul Johnson and Mark Chaloner of England, 15-7 17-15 in 55 minutes, and the Grinham Dynamos, diminutive sisters Rachael and Natalie, defeat Cassie Campion and Linda Charman-Smith, another top English combination, 15-10 15-12 in 39 minutes.
England saved some host country pride when Chris Walker and Fiona Geaves defeated Nick Taylor and Vicky Botwright 15-17 15-8 15-10 in a 67 minute mixed doubles final.
POWER OF "P"
Palmer and Price went on court plainly determined to bull their way to victory,
In the first game they seemed to fill more than two-thirds of the court space,
powering the ball to deep court on either hand and then deftly cutting the
play into the front court while filling the avenues against their opponents.
The Commonwealth champions looked outclassed, but they came back into the second game with a clever spreading game gave them their own access to the front court and forced the big Australians into errors on the counter-attack. It was an approiach that took the English partnership to a 13-5 lead and seemed certain to take them into a third game. But then the Australians grew back into physical dominance, taking eight points in a row to level the score at 13-13.
At 13-14 they might still have found the game going against them but then fortune, in the disciplinarian shape of referee Bruce Kettle, took a hand as a drive on the forehand was first blocked from Chaloners approach forward by Prices body and then his attempt to tun for a backwall boast was frustrated by having his racket head trapped under Prices trail arm. Kettle decided on a no-let call since he saw no interference in the appproach to then backwall.
Chaloner and Johnson were disconcerted and it is fair to say that Kettle, who had arrived at the championships only for finals day and was not partt of a generally more allowing refereeing attitude through the week that had caused even Geoff Hunt, the Australian team coach, to congratulate tournament referee Graham Horrex,blew their concentration to shreds with his call.
The last three points went quickly into the Australian tucker bag.
SERIOUS SISTER SHOWCASE
It was all quite different from the womens final in which the Great Running
Grinhams energetically burst onto the mobile glass showcourt of the new National
Squash Centre to humiliate the last pair of big people who chose to attempt
beating them at the doubles game.
Rachael and Natalie Grinham might have been designed to play doubles squash on then new 25 foot wide doubles courts. They are shorter than the average squash player, which is something of a disadvantage in the singles games, and they learned their basics in a sort of isolated inventive process in Toowoomba, a deep bush town in Queensland that most people only travel away from.
Eventually Rachael and Natalie Grinham travelled away also, the first to take up residence in Cairo and the second, the slightly younger version, in Amsterdam. They play different angles which throw off the rest of the womens top players, especially in rapid-fire doubles, and they are quick, dartingly, disorientingly, quick about their respective halves of the wider doubles court, which they exchange almost at will, and without apparent discussion.
SOUND TACTICS
Having said all that, they lassoed Cassie Campion and Linda Charman-Smith
in pretty traditional fashion, identifying Charman-Smith on the backhand side
as the weaker element of the English combination and directing almost their
entire attack in her direction.
Charman-Smith is a willing competitor, whose strength and staying power serves her well on the WISPA World circuit. But she is not the quickest turner in the game, not the most nimble traveller up and down the court. With the Running Grinhams chipping away at her rhythm and balance, firing a few surprise shots at the cooling Campion on the forehand side, then shafting darting little drops and angles back at their main victim, it was only a matter of time before the silver medal was heading to English possession.
WALKER WALKS TALL WITH FIONA'S HELP
Chris Walkers long schemed plan for a return to the Commonwealth Games as
the oldest member of the England squash squad took shape in Manchester yesterday
when with Fiona Geaves he took the Mixed Doubles Gold medal at the World Invitation
Doubles Championships that are effectively a rehearsal for the Games on the
same courts later in the year.. Walker and Geaves, both aged 34, defeated
Nick Taylor and Vicky Botwright, the England second team and surprise semi-final
winners over the top seeded Australian pairing of British Open Champion Sarah
Fitz-Gerald and Paul Price, 15-17 15-8 15-10 in an 86 minute final. Walker
won a Gold in the first World Doubles Championship in Hong Kong four years
ago in partnership with Mark Cairns, having entered the mens doubles specifically
to gain selection for the 1998 Commonwealth games in Kuala Lumpur, where the
pair took a Bronze medal.
Although Taylor and Botwright, a Manchester team with strong local support, started well yesterday and took the first game enterprisingly after play stopped briefly at 14-14 for a racket strike on Botwrights protective goggles, the senior England combination redirected their fire towards the less experienced Botwright, with occasional surprising volleys crosscourt at Taylor, and increasingly drew errors from the junior pair.
Nick was forcing up the court and sometimes blocking me out of the top left corner, the left-handed Walker told SquashTalk. We decided to concentrate our fire on Vicky and then for Fiona to cross court behind Nick to force him to turn and chase. He was increasingly wrong-footed by the tactic and then Vicky started to tighten up a bit under the pressure.
We really just had to keep rallying and clean up the mistakes towards the end. For England Squash the result was a significant relief. They must select a squad of five men and five women for the Commonwealth Games and, with chances of medals in the individual events there, are keen to form their doubles combinations largely out of the singles probables.
Neither Taylor nor Botwright are likely to demand singles selection and their presence as World Mixed Doubles Champions with local support would have created a strong demand for their selection on purely doubles demand. Paul Johnson and Mark Chaloner, Englands reigning Commonwealth Games champions, went down 15-7 17-15 in 55 minutes to David Palmer and Paul Price of Australia in the mens doubles and in the womens final Cassie Campion and Linda Charman-Smith of England lost 15-10 15-12 in 39 minutes to the Australian Grinham sisters, Rachael and Natalie.
World Invitation Doubles Championships Sportcity, Manchester
Mens Doubles
Final:
David Palmer/Paul Price (Aus) bt Paul Johnson/Mark Chaloner (Eng) 15-7 17-15
Third Place Play-off :
Del Harris/Simon Parke (Eng) bt Peter Nicol/Lee Beachill (Eng) W/O
Fifth Place:
Stewart Boswell/Anthony Ricketts (Aus) bt David Evans/Alex Gough (Wal) 15-10
15-13
Seventh Place:
Rodney Durbach/Adrian Hansen (RSA) bt Martin Heath/Neil Frankland (Scot) 15-10
15-12 Ninth Place: Paul Steel/Glen Wilson (NZ)
Womens Doubles
Final:
Rachael & Natalie Grinham (Aus) bt Cassie Campion/Linda Charman/Smith (Eng)
15-10 15-12
Third Place Play-off:
Sarah Fitz-Gerald/Liz Irving (Aus) bt Tania Bailey/Stephanie Brind (Eng) 15-6
9-15 15-6
Fifth Place:
Shelley Kitchen/ Lara Petera (NZ) bt Claire Nitch/ Sjeane Cawdry (RSA) 15-8
11-15 15-12
Seventh Place:
Carol Owens/Louise Crome (NZ) & Sharon Wee/Nicol David (Mal)
Mixed Doubles
Final:
Chris Walker/Fiona Geaves (Eng) bt Nick Taylor/Vicky Botwright (Eng) 15-17
15-8 15-10
Third Place Play-off:
Sarah Fitz-Gerald/Paul Price (Aus) v Ong Beng Hee/Nicol David (Mal)
Fifth Place:
Joe Kneipp/Robyn Cooper (Aus) bt Rodney Durbach/Calire Nitch (RSA) 15-8 15-10
Seventh Place:
Daniel Sharplin/Carol Owens (NZ) bt Paul Steel/ Shelley Kitchen (NZ) 15-7
15-9
Ninth Place:
Mohd Azlan Iskander/Sharon Wee (Mal) bt Adrian Hansen/Sjeane Cawdry (RSA)
15-10 11-15 15-13
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