Palmer Wins ... Finally
by Martin Bronstein in London, Mar 24, 2004 © 2004    Draw/results  

CANARY WHARF WEDNESDAY (Second report)

After his much publicized dash across England to play two matches in on evening, and losing both of them, David Palmer must have said 'enough, already' and took to the court against Lee Beachill with murder and mayhem in his heart.

He rolled over the gangly Yorkshireman in a way that I would not have thought possible. Despite his traveling Palmer was fresh, fast and fastidious. Poor old Beachill must have wondered what Palmer ate for breakfast. Well, actually, he didn't have much to wonder; the first game was over in 4 ½ minutes….that's right, 270 seconds. Hunt, Barrington and Jahangir used to play rallies that long. Palmer attacked every ball - a hack to the back was simply out of the question. He boasted, chopped and cut with a speed and accuracy that left Beachill powerless. When Palmer did aim for the back corners it was usually to such perfect length, the ball died before Beachill could do anything with it. So 9-4 in the time it takes to boil an egg.

FASTER AND YET FASTER
An aberration? Beachill caught cold? Not a bit of it. Palmer came back for the second obviously upset for taking so long in the first game and promptly won the second game in three minutes and 50 seconds. (A soft boiled egg, this time) Yes, Beachill made errors but he must have been so disconcerted by events that he lost concentration. He was down 7-3 in the third, two points from defeat, before he settled into driving the ball into the back corners and suddenly we had rallies. Give Beachill credit, he fought and fought and suddenly he was hitting the winners. He climbed back to tie the game at 7-all and even held game ball at 8-7 but then hit the ball out of court producing a deuce situation. They battled through four deuces, Beachill saving three match balls before Palmer hit a feather-like forehand volley drop into the nick to win 13-11 (10-8 on the scoresheet). The whole affair had taken 27 minutes. Is this what the customers want?

The interesting point of this result is that in the Canada Place Group all four players have won one and lost one, making the final pool matches tomorrow (Beachill vs White, Willstrop vs Palmer) that much more vital.

NICOL IN THE FOOTHILLS
Peter Nicol also won in three in his group match against Nick Matthew in 29 minutes. It was much the same performance as yesterday with Nicol's wicked length, width, drops and accuracy being too much for one player to handle. I imagine it is liking facing a firing squad composed of rifles, howitzers, Kalishnikovs and poison darts. The point is Matthew is no hack and certainly earns a place in today's top ten, but Nicol brings all his experience and practice to bear and that is an awfully good arsenal to have.

Nicol leaves on Saturday for Katmandu and 14 days schlepping up Mount Everest. Why? What's the challenge? Thousands and thousands of people have climbed that mountain. They have Macdonalds half way up selling organic Yak burgers, and a Ramada Inn at the top with a casino and bowling alley. You can rent an SUV at base camp and drive up. Would I lie to you?

WHAT'S THIS? USING THE BACK CORNERS?
Ong Beng Hee and Thierry Lincou closed the evening with an engrossing display of ordinary squash, a welcome relief after the wham-bam-slam of the previous matches. These two highly skilled players used the entire court which was also quite a change. They also produced one game that went longer than five minutes!

Ong Beng Hee took the first game 9-6 and Lincou responded by taking the second by the same score. Then battle commenced as the rallies got longer and they both fought harder. Lincou took the iniative to lead 7-6 and then the REAL battle commenced. This was tooth and nail, all court stuff with some of the most engrossing points of the evening as they went point-for-point through five deuces. It always seemed that Lincou would win, holding advantage three times but finally Ong took the winning pint at 14-12 to take a 2/1 lead. It had taken over 25 minutes and worth every second.

The excitement must have been too much for Ong because he lost the fourth game
9-1 in six minutes to set up a decider. Once more it was nose-to-nose up to Ong getting to match ball 8-7 only to be stroked to make it deuce. He should have had the next point on a stroke but the referee gave a let, surely the worst decision of the entire tournament. But he got the next point on a stroke - also questionable decision and then followed a huge long rally which Ong finished with a stunning forehand cross court slam into the nick

SECOND ROUND POOL MATCHES (draws/resuts)

CANADA PLACE GROUP
James Willstrop (Eng) bt John White (Sco) 9-7, 6-9 9-7, 9-7. (45 mins)
David Palmer (Aus) bt Lee Beachill (Eng)9-4, 9-3, 10-8 (27 mins)
JUBILEE PLACE GROUP
Peter Nicol (Eng) bt Nick Matthew (Eng) 9-7, 9-6, 9-7. (29 mins)
Ong Beng Hee (Mas) bt Thierry Lincou (Fra) 9-6, 6-9, 10-8, 1-9, 10-8

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