Heath-Power match a little too serious: By Ron Beck
Exclusive to Squashtalk by Ron Beck in Aberdeen:
Dec 11th 1999, 1AM , Aberdeen
JONATHON POWER GRANTED EXTRA TIME TO REST
THE WORD HEARD AROUND THE BAR AT THE FORTE HOTEL AT MIDNIGHT FRIDAY was that several Scottish fans started to get ugly following Canada's Jonathon Power's win over Scotland's Martin Heath.
Heath, though, in his press conference had acknowledged that "Jonathon is the best player in the world right now. I can beat most of the players with my game, but right now not Jonathon." He followed that remark, though by stating that, "I didn't hit Jonathon on purpose out there. And he added, "All the players know that Jonathon makes full use of his body to block out the opponent when he plays up front." Martin also noted, "I guess I set myself up for it by playing open balls that let Power create those positions."
The match had gotten perhaps a little too serious when midway through the third game Friday night, Heath rammed Power into the back corner of the court after a point had concluded. At that high level of play, with the players in control of their every move, it was hard to interpret that contact as anything else but intentional.
Then, near the end of the fourth game, as Heath found himself behind in the score, he rammed Power again, this time resulting in a misconduct point being awarded against Heath, effectively ending his opportunity to win the match.
Immediately following the match, Power requested a postponement of the starting time of his semi-final by two hours. It was scheduled to begin at 4:00 PM Saturday. The Power-Heath match ended at 11:00 PM Friday. The tournament committee has partially granted Power's request, on the basis of his request for extra recovery time following the contact during the match described above. They have moved back the starting time of his match by 1/2 hour to 4:30. The entire schedule had previously been altered, apparently in anticipation of possible TV broadcast of the Barada-Power match in Egypt. However, with the Ramadan holiday conflicting with the tournament timing, live TV coverage there was viewed as unlikely.
