England Expected to Repeat in Euro Teams
April 27, 2004 by SquashTalk Staff, SquashTalk Independent News Service © 2004 

FRANCE MOUNTS HOME BID
France, runners-up to England for the past four years, are gunning to equal or exceed their strong performance in last year's event, where they came exceedingly close to beating England. Should they succed, they would lift the title for the first time in the event's 32-year history. But England, with a resurgent Peter Nicol at the helm and James Willstrop and Lee Beachill in excellent form, will be very difficult to unseat.

The 2004 championships get underway on home soil in Rennes on Wednesday (28 April).

On the first occasion that the event has been held in France since 1993 (when England's men began their unbeaten sequence), No2 seeds France are expected to meet favourites England again in the men's final. In the women's event, England are seeded to extend their all-time unbeaten record in the event by lifting the trophy for the 27th time after meeting Netherlands in the final on Saturday (01 May).

The England men's team, winners of the title in all but three years since the inaugural event in 1973, will be led by world No2 Peter Nicol, winner of the PSA Qatar Masters title at the weekend - together with world No4 Lee Beachill, world No10 Nick Matthew, world No13 James Willstrop and, making his senior international debut, Londoner Adrian Grant, the world No17.

France, who lost out both last year and in 2002 in dramatic finals, both of which finished at 2-2 and required games and points countbacks, will field the same squad for the third successive year - led by world No3 Thierry Lincou, with world No12 Gregory Gaultier, world No21 Renan Lavigne, world No50 Jean-Michel Arcucci and Laurent Elriani, ranked 91.

World No1 Cassie Jackman leads the England women's campaign, supported by Linda Charman, Vicky Botwright and Jenny Duncalf, ranked 6, 11, and 12, respectively, in the world. The Netherlands squad, runners-up in 2003, will be led by world No3 Vanessa Atkinson, backed by world No25 Annelize Naude, Karen Kronemeyer and Margriet Huisman.

Qualifying matches will take place in six men's and four women's pools on Wednesday and Thursday, leading to semi-finals on Friday and the finals on Saturday.

The qualifying groups are - Men:
Pool A: [1] England, [4] Netherlands, [5] Sweden, [8] Denmark
Pool B: [2] France, [3] Wales, [6] Ireland, [7] Spain
Pool C: [9] Scotland, [16] Czech Republic, [17] Israel
Pool D: [10] Switzerland, [15] Hungary, [18] Greece, [23] Italy
Pool E: [11] Finland, [14] Austria, [19] Isle of Man, [22] Gibraltar
Pool F: [12] Germany, [13] Belgium, [20] Russia, [21] Poland

Women:
Pool A: [1] England, [4] Denmark, [5] France, [8] Germany
Pool B: [2] Netherlands, [3] Scotland, [6] Ireland, [7] Belgium
Pool C: [9] Spain, [12] Wales, [13] Finland
Pool D: [10] Switzerland, [11] Austria, [14] Italy

Official website: http://eurosquash2004.free.fr/

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