Colin McQuillan reports for
SquashTalk from Hong Kong, Aug 26, 1999
FROM McQUILLAN'S NOTEBOOK...
A Hill
Too Far
© Colin McQuillan and Squashtalk, all rights reserved.
Photo of Anthony Hill © 1998 Stephen Line
Hijacking
by Hill and Haddrell
Anthony Hill, the much disciplined and disruptive Australian, hijacked
the headlines from yet another session of top level squash here today
when he suddenly walked off court in the fourth game of his second  round
match in the Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Open Squash Championships against
Billy Haddrell, apparently unwilling to continue in what had become
a scrappy and ill-tempered encounter.
There was always the chance of a strange outcome from the clash of
Melbourne's least favourite squash sons; billed as "Bad Boy" Hill against
"Mad Billy" Haddrell.
In fact, as one spectator remarked on the way out of the Hong Kong
Squash Centre, it was more a case of "Billy
and Hillie acting Silly." The affair was further complicated
by the presence of another Hill, the well respected former Singapore
international Peter Hill, in the referee's chair.
HILL CLAIMS
ELUSIVE INJURY
Although Hill later insisted in a press conference that he had a knee
ligament problem that became a worry, no reference to this was made
when he suddenly and silently left the court with Haddrell leading 2-1
and 4-0 in the fourth game. Haddrell said the departing Hill made no
mention to an injury and the official Hill said no such explanation
was offered to him.
ONE HILL
COMMENTS ON THE OTHER...
"Anthony is a very fine squash player but he brings things on himself,"
Peter Hill said. "I don't know if he will be punished for the action.
He has in a way already been punished by tipping over his own rice bowl.
Like all squash professionals, he lives by what he can win on court
but he seems determined not to use his talents properly."
Today's incident may have been based in the failure of the two Melbourne
me to recognize the depth of Peter Hill's experience in the game. It
is some years since Peter Hill was gracing the courts with the likes
of Jahangir Khan and Qamar Zaman, but he has continued as a playing
a refereeing presence on the Asian scene for most of the last two decades
and he was quite capable of containing what seemed to be a combined
Melbourne attempt to discountenance what they might have identified
as an attempt to "mug" a local referee.
"I was quite able to deal with their nonsense," Hill told me later,
"But then they started getting at each other."
ANTHONY
IN LINE FOR SUSPENSION?
Anthony Hill was last week fined 200 pounds
sterling by the Professional Squash Association (PSA) for a disqualification
in similar circumstances at June's Libertel Open in Holland. That fine
took him within 50 pounds sterling of a three year cumulative total
of 2000 pounds sterling in fines that would automatically trigger a
one year ban from the PSA world tour.
Haddrell, a talented but scatterbrained player who has shared squash
courts with Anthony Hill since they were nine-year-old schoolboys, gained
an easy access to a quarterfinal tomorrow against the second seeded
Peter Nicol of Scotland, whose own progress was even more simple with
a 44 minute 15-10, 15-8, 15-6 win over England's Chris Walker, with
whom he has been barnstorming North America for the past two months
in a series of exhibitions
BARADA
ALSO THROUGH
Also in the bottom half of the draw, Egypt's Ahmed Barada came through
a 73 minute 15-9, 14-15, 15-11, 15-10 challenge from England's Mark
Chaloner to meet Alex Gough, the 55 minute 15-12, 15-13, 15-9 winner
against Martin Heath of Scotland.
In the top half, British Champion Paul Johnson defeated Scottish Champion
John White 15-17, 15-9, 15-10, 15-8 in 73 minutes to meet Graham Ryding
of Canada, a 64 mine 11-15, 15-5, 15-11, 15-13 victor over Belgium's
Stefan Casteleyn.
POWER SMOOTHER
The top-seeded defending champion Jonathon Power of Canada, also progressed
15-4, 15-14, 15-9 in 46 minutes against Stewart Boswell, the young Australian
who put former world champion Rodney Eyles out
the previous round and who had been expected to put more pressure
on Power.
Power admitted after the match that he was still operating at only
60 percent of his real potential. "My back was OK today but my stroke-play
is still not back in the groove, which means I cannot create the game
pressure that I need to win comfortably," Power said.
With his next challenge coming today from Simon Parke, the English
number two who beat him twice in a week during an international challenge
late last season, 60 percent may not be good enough to keep the title.
Parke was impressively dominant today against Paul Price, an improving
and skilled young Australian who has collected an impressive array of
scalps recently, winning 15-12, 15-12, 15-13 in 49 minutes by the well-worn
tactic of raising the pace of each game in its last third.
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