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Australia Hits the Skids

by Collin Mcquillan in Manchester, August 3 2002

[last update was 4-aug-02 ]

Colin Mcquilllan, live from Manchester on Saturday Night

Leilani Rorani with Chance for two Golds

Australia started today with half-a-dozen chances of success in the Commonwealth Games Squash Doubles competition and real chances of Gold in all three departments.

They finished with one chance, with the fourth seeded Stewart Boswell and Anthony Ricketts in the men's double final against the third seeded English pairing of Peter Nicol and Lee Beachill, while England can add Cassie Jackman with Tania Bailey and New Zealand can boast Leilani Rorani in company with Carol Owens against the Jackman-Bailey combination and in company with Glen Wilson against the young Malaysians Ong Beng Hee and Nicol David.

Paul Price especially suffered today: First with World and Commonwealth Champion Sarah Fitz-Gerald as they went down to Chris Walker and Fiona Geaves 17-16 13-15 15-7 in a 63 minute quarter-final of the mixed doubles; then, as part of the top seeded men's double pairing with David Palmer, as they went down 13-15 15-9 15-9 to England's Peter Nicol and Lee Beachill in a 101 minute semi-final of the men's doubles.

The last effort earned him a Bronze medal, but it was hard to recognise any joy in the fact as he left the courtside arguing with the England support team and insisting that he had been cheated and sworn at.

"If this is home country hospitality, I don't think much of it," Price commented as he left the arena.

Palmer, who had been saying the previous day that the English players just hit the ball up and down the walls and would be easy to dismiss, claimed that foul words had been directed at his girlfriend after the match and then went on to claim that Nicol had repeatedly picked up double bounces in the lefthand court during play.

No other observer of the game could recall a single instance in which a Nicol pick-up seemed questionable. Nobody has ever previously accused the world number one and world champion of cheating on court.

With Roger Flynn, the Australian team coach, anxiously restraining both players as they approached the press area, both Price and Palmer had extended altercations first with Stafford Murray, an England coaching analyst, and then Paul Carter, the Assistant National Coach.

"Basically, they don't know how to lose well," commented Beachill. "There was an exchange between members of the England squad which they misinterpreted as being directed at them, and they built it into an issue."

In a calmer moment Palmer was prepared to acknowledge that none of this had anything to do with the English victory. "They outplayed us," he said. "But they could have done it in a more sporting manner."

Some of the Australian bitterness may have stemmed from the ruthless manner in which the English pair attacked Price, who was visibly tired from his efforts in general in two competitions through the week, and the previous mixed doubles quarter-final in particular.

Walker and Geaves had similarly concentrated their fire in that match on Fitz-Gerald, a 33-year-old who had played straight through to the singles Gold medal and then switched to both women's and mixed doubles in search a triple medal record. She had played badly the previous evening when losing a women's doubles quarter-final with Liz Irving and today Price did a lot of running to cover her.

Nicol Hunting Gold Again

"We have spent a lot of time training for this doubles competition," said Beachill. "It is exciting and interesting because it is a whole new game with different demands. One of the things you have to do is expose the weaknesses of your opponents and attack those weaknesses. Today Paul was increasingly the Australian weakness."

Nicol, who unexpectedly lost the singles final on Wednesday to Jonathon Power, said the new format had been a welcome change of concentration. "I didn't have time to think much about losing the final, although I didn't sleep much the night after.

"We were straight into the tactical stuff of doubles. Before this match we discussed the work that Price had put in earlier and how best to exploit it, and we talked about the tactics all through the match. Interestingly, by concentrating most of the rallying on Price we were also able to take points from Palmer by firing at him when he was sidelined from play in the other court.

"I came to these Games looking for a Commonwealth Gold Medal for England to match the one I won for Scotland last time in Kuala Lumpur. I could only manage the Silver in the singles this time, but now I have the chance to get the Gold I want in the doubles."

Saving Australia's Blushes
Stewart Boswell and Anthony Ricketts, the Australian second string men's doubles pairing, removed the top seeded defending titleholders, Mark Chaloner and Paul Johnson of England, from a 115 minute 15- 8 13-15 15-12 semi-final of the men's doubles, firing on their squad's frustration over the earlier removal of their country's first string pair.

"We were pretty keen to prevent an all-England final," said Ricketts. "When it got to be 12-12 in the third game we just opened up and let them have everything and it paid off. I managed to keep my head right through the game, which is not always the case, and we won it well in the end."

Boswell was less inclined to discount personal achievement as mere squad mentality. "It is mentally draining out there and we won because we kept our discipline right to the end," he said. "We lost to this pair in the World Invitation Doubles here a few months back so it is a step forward to beat them in the Commonwealth Games semi-finals.

"The last thing we wanted to do was to get knocked out at the semi-final stage. We needed to keep the pressure on them.

"Obviously it is good to be in the hunt for the Gold medal but, if Nicol and Beachill are playing well enough to stop our top team, we obviously still have a bit of work to do. We will have to play at least as well as we did today to win in the final."

Boswell had the right to talk about strain. He and Paul Johnson, a lefthander, battled throughout the semi-final, short and long, volley and half-volley, straight and angled, down the lefthand wall, with Chaloner and Ricketts often left to scrap over ball-free space so energetically that the referee, Chas Evans of New Zealand, was forced once or twice to warn them top tone down their wrestling.

Most of England's score points came from Ricketts errors when the ball was released to his court space, and most of Australia's scorepoints came from Johnson mistakes as he attacked.

Boswell was tight and disciplined under intense pressure. Chaloner similarly dependable under spasmodic attack. Yet it was a tinned Chaloner forehand, the first mistake noticed on his watch by this writer, that gave the Australians the initiative in the vital last stage of the third game.

"You can't attribute blame," said Johnson. "We came here as a team to defend what we won in Kuala Lumpur four years ago against some teams who were not particularly interested at that time. Now they all know there are medals at stake. They have trained and prepared, and we were still only a point or two away from the final.

"We wanted to take the Gold again, but the Bronze is no disgrace. It is certainly better than no medal at all."

Leilani Can Equal Michelle's Haul
Leilani Rorani, out of the game for most of the year with a ruptured Achilles tendon, failed to get among the medals in the squash singles at The Commonwealth Games in Sportcity, Manchester, but she is managing a magnificent compensation operation for New Zealand in the doubles competition.

Early today, in partnership with Glen Wilson, she had the difficult chore of removing fellow Kiwis Carol Owens and Daniel Sharplin 15-13 15-3 from a 42 minute mixed doubles quarter-final. Then she teamed up with Owens to beat the top seeded Australian Grinham sisters, Rachael and Natalie, 15-13 15-8 in a 39 minute women's doubles semi-final.

Finally, 11 hours after she took to the court for the first time today, she and Wilson defeated Robyn Cooper and Joe Kneipp of Australia 15-11 15-11 in a 40 minute semi-final of the mixed doubles.

It is possible Rorani, who left the singles court in tears of disappointment and frustration after losing to Rachael Grinham, could still go home to Auckland with a brace of Golds, equalling the haul of Australia's Michelle Martin at the last Games..

Fifth seeded in the women's doubles she will meet England's Cassie Jackman and Tania Bailey, the third seeds, who today won 15-3 16-17 17-15 in 87 minutes against their country's second string pairing, Linda Charman and Fiona Geaves, the giant-killers against second seeded Sarah Fitz-Gerald and Liz Irving in the previous round.

Asian Champs Strike For Commonwealth Success
Eighth seeded in the mixed she faces the young second seeded Malaysians, Ong Beng Hee and Nicol David, who in a very delayed last match tonight defeated the top seeded English pairing of Chris Walker and Fiona Geaves by a single point 15-14 12-15 15-14 in an 85-minute semi-final which concluded at 11.35pm - almost six hours after its scheduled start time!

England, the oldest team in the competition with Walker now aged 35 and Geaves 34, had matchballs at 14-12 and 14-13 in the third game, then chose a single point tiebreak for the second time in the match, only for an exhausted Geaves, whose earlier women's semi-final defeat also came in a third game tiebreak, to mishit and give Malaysia the place in the final.

Ong Beng Hee, a former world junior champion and reigning Asian champion, aged 22, said:"Nicol played brilliantly against Fiona in the forehand court. She had to deal with most of the balls, and I just covered for her. It's brilliant to be in the final. All we aimed for was a medal, and now we could get Gold.

David, the current world junior and Asian senior champion, aged 18, added: "I couldn't have done it without Beng Hee. It was without doubt the toughest match I've ever played, both physically and mentally."

Owens Opts For The Women's Final
Rorani said earlier that she thought Owens and Sharplin were good enough to make the final, but she might tomorrow be happier to meet a young pair who have already exceeded their Commonwealth expectation.

"Its stinks having to play your own team mates." Rorani said. "Out of all the teams in this competition, we did not want to get them. They were terribly disappointed too. We could both have been in the final, really." Owens virtually admitted that she gave up on the mixed doubles in order to concentrate on the women's doubles : "Here I was hammering away at the person I had to play with later in the day to win a place in a final that selfishly I think is much more important. I couldn't play in the second game against Leilani because it seemed so pointless."

Commonwealth Games Doubles Squash

Men's Doubles Semi-final Results:
Peter Nicol/Lee Beachill (Eng) bt David Palmer/Paul Price (Aus) 13-15 15-9 15-9
Stewart Boswell/Anthony Ricketts (Aus) bt Mark Chaloner/Paul Johnson (Eng) 15-8 13-15 15-12

Quarter-final Results:
David Palmer/Paul Price (Aus) bt Gavin Jones/Scott Fitzgerald (Wal) 15-11 15-12
Peter Nicol/Lee Beachill (Eng) bt David Evans/Alex Gough (Wal) 15-6 9-15 15-10
Stewart Boswell/Anthony Ricketts (Aus) bt Martin Heath/Neil Frankland (Scot) 15-12 17-15 Mark Chaloner/Paul Johnson (Eng) bt Mansoor Zaman/Shahid Zaman Khan (Pak) 15-4 15-5

Women's Doubles Semi-final Results:
Leilani Rorani/Carol Owens (NZ) bt Rachael Grinham/Natalie Grinham (Aus) 15-13 15-8 Cassie Jackman/Tania Bailey (Eng) bt Fiona Geaves/Linda Charman (Eng) 15-3 16-17 17-15

Quarter-final Results:
Rachael Grinham/Natalie Grinham(Aus) bt Shelley Kitchen/Lara Petara (NZ) 15-8 15-8 Leilani Rorani/Carol Owens (NZ) bt Melanie Jans/Margo Green (Can) 15-8 15-8
Cassie Jackman/TaniaBailey (Eng) bt Katrina Hogan/Karen Hargreaves (Wal) 15-4 15-4 Fiona Geaves/Linda Charman (Eng) bt Sarah Fitz-Gerald/Liz Irving (Aus) 15-11 15-5

Mixed Doubles
Semi-final Results:
Glen Wilson/Leilani Rorani (NZ) bt Joe Kneipp/Robyn Cooper (Aus) 15-11 15-11
Ong Beng Hee/Nicol David (Mas) bt Ong Beng Hee/Nicol David (Mas) 15-14 12-15 15-14

Quarter-final Results:
Glen Wilson/Leilani Rorani (NZ) bt Daniel Sharplin/Carol Owens (NZ) 15-13 15-3
Joe Kneipp/Robyn Cooper (Aus) bt Paul Johnson/Stephanie Brind (Eng) 15-11 15-12
Chris Walker/Fiona Geaves (Eng) bt Paul price Sarah Fitz-Gerald (Aus) 17-16 13-15 15-7 Ong Beng Hee/Nicol David (Mas) bt Gavin Jones/Karen Hargreaves (Wal) 15-13 15-7

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