Grant Survives Close Shave
April 21, 2005, by Martin Bronstein
SquashTalk Independent News Service © 2005 all Rights Reserved;

Grant Leaves Hospital to win at Colets

Adrian Grant show where glass was removed from his face, photo © 2005 Martin Bronstein

Adrian Grant, the 24-year-old England No5 and World No16 from South London, completed his first round match of the Colets Open in Surrey today in a daze after three days in hospital checking for damage from a write-off car crash last Sunday. He defeated Joey Lee, the 15-year-old son of former England international Danny Lee, 5-11 11-5 11-2 11-9 in 40 minutes.

Born in South London but these days training at Queens Club in Halifax, Grant was the first black squash player to represent England when he joined the squad that captured the World Junior Men's title in Cairo in 1996 and this year became the first black player to be selected for the senior England squad.

“I am counting this as an official close shave,” Grant told SquashNow as he approached the court. “Police and doctors suggested it was extraordinary to have come through such a collision without real damage. I suffered a lot of cuts and it took some hours to remove all the glass splinters from my face and body and to stitch up the worst cuts.

“I had returned home from the Bermuda Open at about 5am on Sunday and decided to get my body clock back to normal by pushing on through the day without sleep. I had been out to visit friends in the evening and was driving about five miles from home when I was surprised by a fox running out on the street at the top of a long hill. Perhaps it was tiredness or jetlag, but somehow I managed to wedge my foot down on the accelerator as I swerved and kind of speeded up down the hill into three or four vehicles before flipping over.

“I had a real pain in the back when I woke up with the paramedics getting me out of the car and, to be honest, I thought I must have broken something. They braced me at the scene in case there was severe injury and the doctors at Lewisham Hospital were so surprised to find nothing broken that they carried out a second set of X-rays. Then they insisted on keeping me under observation for three days to make sure nothing like brain damage was going to show.

“I went back to look at the car and the only corner of the front roof panel and windscreen not completely flattened was the section above the driver seat. I hate to think what would have happened if I had been carrying passengers. The doctors said it is almost unheard of for a driver to get out of a crash like that without injury. The pain I was feeling must have been from whiplash, they said."

BSPA HEAD GRAND PRIX SERIES - COLETS OPEN

COLETS HEALTH AND FITNESS CLUB, THAMES DITTON SURREY APRIL 21 RESULTS

PRE QUALIFYING
Alex Ingham w/o
Neil Desai bt Steve London 11-10(2-0), 11-10 (2-0), 11-6
Neil Dickson bt Mike Klose 11-9, 11-10 (2-0), 11-6.
Mike Tolson bt Martyn Ballands 11-4, 11-7, 7-11, 11-4.

FIRST ROUND QUALIFYING

[1] Anthony Ricketts bye
D Barry bye
J Arnold bye
Ben Ford bt Chris Tasker-Grinder 11-7, 11-7, 11-6
Stacy Ross bye
Tom Richards bt David Harris 11-2, 11-5, 11-4.
Tom Robbins bt Dave Stanton 3/0
Scott Handley bt Mike Biggs 11-8, 11-7, 11-4.
Alex Gough bt Hitchins 3/0
Lewis bt Williams 3/0
Binns w/o
Joey Barrington bt Alan Thomson 3/0
McGill bye
Paul Rawdon bye
Simpson bt Davidson 3/1
[3/4]Simon Parke bt Neil Dickson 3/0
[3/4]M A Izkandar bye
James Wright bt Frank Preston 11-8, 11-2, 11-6.
J. Matthews bye
Ben Garner bt Issa Kamara 11-3, 11-4, 11-7
Danny Meddings bt Chris Truswell 11-9, 11-5, 11-2
Shahid Khan bt Nick Douglas 11-8, 6-11, 11-7, 11-10 (2-0)
Steve Coppinger bt Darryl Fryatt 11-5, 11-3, 11-1
Alex Ingham bye
Steven Meads bt Toby Mortimer 11-6, 11-7, 11-10 (2-0)
Daryl Selby bt Neil Desai 10-11 (6-4), 11-4, 11-4, 11-9.
Sam Miller bt Mike Tolson 11-5, 11-7, 11-3
Iain Higgins bye
Pennel bye
Peter Genever bt Robbie Temple 11-5, 11-5, 9-11, 11-3
Sam Howell bye
[2] Adrian Grant bt Joey Lee 5-11 11-5, 11-2, 11-9

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