Martin Bronstein reporting from THE EYE GROUP BRITISH OPEN
FOR SOME STRANGE REASON the organisers scheduled local hero Peter Nicol for the doldrums of the afternoon, rather than in the evening when the mass of Aberdonians could come out to praise him.
In his place they put another Scot, who, despite never having reached number one or won a world open, is a very fine squash player.
Martin Heath has talents that I doubt Nicol will ever have: a range of touch shots and extremely fast hands.
Heath is good enough to have been ranked four in the world and has played well enough to reach these quarter-finals without really being pushed.
Unfortunately he was in the top, tough half of the draw and met world number one, the incomparable and highly voluble Jonathan Power, a player with even better shots and faster hands. The speed of his tongue is beyond electronic measurement.
It was easily the best match of the day, the sort of match where you hung on to every shot of every rally of every game. That Heath lost is due to the unalterable fact that Power is a better player. Not a whole lot better, but just enough to go that extra yard.
Heath is a black-haired rugged Scot with a black rugged temper and at times you can see smoke coming out of his ears. A bad call can ruin his game for the next three points. Power, on the other hand, rants and raves but as soon as the ball is in play, he has erased all memory and emotion - he's winning the next point.
The first game saw Heath slightly nervous. Mis-hits gave Power a handful of penalty strokes which together with his winners put Heath just too far behind: few people can win when the Canadian is 11-5 up. Heath then committed three errors on his backhand and gave away another stoke to lose 15-8.
The second game was much more even and Heath displayed his incredibly fast hands and perfect accuracy to make Power work. His only mistake was to get into dropping duels at the front corners and Power won every one of them. Although Heath opened up a 5-1 lead Power pulled up and they fought evenly until 11-all. A dropping duel gave Power a point, a forehand drop another point and then a Heath forhand drop hit the tin followed by a backhand drop into the same place and it was Power's game 15-ll.
Heath was not deterred and suddenly he was 7-0 ahead in the third and then 9-2. It looked as though Power would let him have the game and then Heath committed the sin of a full body charge which knocked Power right off his feet. Power was outraged; suddenly he was determined not to let Heath get the game and his pressure pulled more errors from Heath's racket until he had pulled up to 11-12. There were some wonderful, prolonged rallies, probably the best sort of squash you will see anywhere with Heath showing that he deserves to be on the same court as the top four. Power got to 13-14 but a superb backhand drop gave Heath the game point to cheers from the Scottish crowd.
The fourth game found Heath not quite as sharp and Power moved to a comfortable 11 -7 lead. Once more, Heath, charging from the front to the back of the court sent Power flying like a ten ounce skittle. The referee had no hesitation in giving Power the point - 12-7 - and penalising Heath with conduct point, making the score 13-7 to Power. There was absolutely no chance of Heath coming back and Power duly closed out the game 15-9 to move into a semi-final meeting with Ahmed Barada.
Later Heath said Power shouldn't get in the way and excused his conduct by saying Power is the greatest blocker in the game and uses every part of his body to that end.
There was a time in the fourth quarter-final when David Evans of Wales seemed capable of pulling off another of his great upsets. He took the first game from Barada 15-7 in 16 minutes and looked very good in the process. The reason was obvious - he was making Barada play his patient length game thereby taking the Egyptian's arsenal of winners away from him. Evans played the ball incredibly tight to the wall and it seemed that Barada could do nothing but play safe.
But in the second game Barada regained his attack and the slightest looseness saw him sending the ball short. Now Evans was moving to the front of the court and being made to play Barada's game. The effect was immediate and Barada had the second game 15-6 in under nine minutes.
He was 13-3 up in the third in six minutes and although Evans managed to stop the rout he could do very little to stop the eventual result as Barada won 15-10 in ll minutes.
Evans is simply not used to players who put so many balls into the front corners and in the fourth he gave the impression that he was thoroughly sick of all this bending and lobbing. Barada on the other hand is at home at the front and can get under the meanest drops to lob it to the back of the court.
The second women's semi-final between Leilani Joyce and Natalie Grainger fizzled rather than sparkled. The slim, wonderfully attractive Joyce is a better player. It is that simple. Grainger was too loose and perhaps too tense to play the sort of squash that would trouble Joyce and Joyce in her turn was too precise and experienced to fall to nerves. She won 9-4, 9-3, 9-4 in 35 minutes to join Cassie Campion in Saturday's final. [12-10 afternoon report]
In his place they put another Scot, who, despite never having reached number one or won a world open, is a very fine squash player.
Unfortunately he was in the top, tough half of the draw and met world number one, the incomparable and highly voluble Jonathan Power, a player with even better shots and faster hands. The speed of his tongue is beyond electronic measurement.
The first game saw Heath slightly nervous. Mis-hits gave Power a handful of penalty strokes which together with his winners put Heath just too far behind: few people can win when the Canadian is 11-5 up. Heath then committed three errors on his backhand and gave away another stoke to lose 15-8.
There was a time in the fourth quarter-final when David Evans of Wales seemed capable of pulling off another of his great upsets. He took the first game from Barada 15-7 in 16 minutes and looked very good in the process. The reason was obvious - he was making Barada play his patient length game thereby taking the Egyptian's arsenal of winners away from him. Evans played the ball incredibly tight to the wall and it seemed that Barada could do nothing but play safe.
The second women's semi-final between Leilani Joyce and Natalie Grainger fizzled rather than sparkled. The slim, wonderfully attractive Joyce is a better player. It is that simple. Grainger was too loose and perhaps too tense to play the sort of squash that would trouble Joyce and Joyce in her turn was too precise and experienced to fall to nerves. She won 9-4, 9-3, 9-4 in 35 minutes to join Cassie Campion in Saturday's final. 