Phillip Van der Ven's Vision

Colin McQuillan in Vienna 4/29/2000 ©Squashtalk 2000.

England dominate's European champs, Van Der Ven Visualizes "Ryder Cup Of Squash"...

[final men's results] [final women's results]

England loses only one game between both finals...

As the England squad partied hard in Vienna last night after securing the 23rd successive women's title in the European Team squash Championships and a 25th title in the 28 years of the men's championship, Philip Van der Ven, the 54-yearold Dutch President of the European Squash Federation, confided to me his secret ambition to create a Ryder Cup style competition between Europe and North America, possibly excluding the all-conquering English.

"It is just a little dream of mine," he said as he sorted the trophies and prizes that would be awarded during the evening's festivities. "Europe is the engine room of squash and North America, I am sure, is the next great expansion area for the game. "It would make sense to bring the two areas into competitive connection and perhaps it would do the rest of us a bit of good to keep the English out of it at the start. Other people could get a taste of international team success. "Squash is booming again in Holland. They cannot build courts fast enough. I think if we can raise the profile of the game again that pattern could be repeated all over Europe, perhaps in tandem with the growth in North America."

A big, florid man who knows how to party a bit himself, Van der Ven looked ready to back away from the game after a long period as President of the Dutch Squash association failed to deliver him into the World Squash Federation Presidency that fell to New Zealand's Susie Simcock upon the retirement of Malaysia's Pete Imran.

"I just thought I should give Susie some space," he insists now. "It was a hard campaign for the Presidency and I felt she would be better off setting up her own office without the beaten opposition hanging around." He is back on the WSF Executive Committee and he had a spell as President of ARIS, the organisation for sports recognised by the Olympic Games but not included in the world's greatest sporting money machine. "I was instrumental I think in getting squash included in The World Games and The World University Championships.

"I think we missed our great opportunity for Olympic participation when the Australians failed to get us included for the Sydney Olympics. I still get furious when I think about how that failed to even get off the ground. There are hopes expressed that we couled get into a Beijing Olympics through Hong Kong or a Cape Town Olympics through the South African association, but that is all so far off." He has just sold out most of his insurance business interests and is planning a semi-retirement that might allow him to increase the 25 hours a week he already spends travelling and working on behalf of squash.

"I have another little plan for a 'Famous Places' tournament series organised by the ESF and its member countries acting as our own promoters and finding our own sponsors, both for the series and the individual tournaments. "I see ESF tournaments in the Champs Elysee, for instance, or The Vatican City, or Trafalgar Square. Big name affairs that would bring television and publicity to the game. We have allowed ourselves to slip into the background of the big money sports and we have to develop a strategy for making ourselves noticed again." There was a certain amount of champagne talking in this conversation. But, fanciful or not, it was a refreshing change to encounter an old world squash official who refused to talk down the game as 'dying' or 'middle-aged'.

"With a little co-operation from our friends across the Atlantic, we can make this game hum again," Van der Ven insists. "But for the moment let us go and congratulate England for another brilliant performance in the European Championships." For the record : Germany lost the women's final for the fifth year running without taking a game from the England squad of Cassie Campion, Linda Charman, Stephanie Brind and Tania Bailey. France reached the men's final for the first time but only Thierry Lincou, the new world number eight and the first Frenchman into the world top ten, managed to get a game from a squad that could afford to rest the British Champion, Peter Marshall, for a slight back strain while Simon Parke, Paul Johnson, Del Harris and Mark Chaloner finished the job in the final.

The finishing order was as follows :

European Team Squash Championships in Vienna
[WOMEN'S FINAL and sem DETAILED RESULTS]

WOMEN Final :
England 3 Germany 0
Cassie Campion bt Sabine Schone 9-1 9-4 9-3 ,
Linda Charman bt Sabine Baum 9-3 9-0 9-1
Stephanie Brind bt Danielle Grzenia 9-4 9-6 9-2

Third Place Playoff : Scotland 2 Netherlands 1
Pamela Nimmo lost to Vanessa Atkinson 9-5 9-5 9-3
Senga Macfie bt Daphne Jelgersma 9-4 9-2 9-0
Claire Waddell bt Bea Dreu-Spitse 9-0 9-0 9-1
Fifth Place: Denmark 2 Spain 1
Seventh Place : Switzerland 3 France 0
Ninth Place : Ireland 2 Belgium 1
11th Place : Italy 2 Wales 1
13th Place : Finland 3 Israel 0
15th Place Norway 3 Hungary 0
17th Place Austria
18th Place Slovenia
19th Place Slovakia

[men's final and semi complete results]

MEN Final:
England 4 France 0
Simon Parke bt Thierry Lincou 9-6 9-1 3-9 9-3
Paul Johnson bt Renan Lavigne 3-0
Del Harris bt Jean Michel Arcucci 9-6 9-1 9-1
Mark Chaloner bt Gregory Gaultier 9-6 9-6 9-5

Third Place Playoff : Finland 3 Wales 1
Olli Touninen bt David Evans 9-3 9-3 9-4
Juha Raumolin bt Alex Gough 9-4 9-7 9-0
Timo Touminen lost to Greg Tippings 9-7 2-9 4-9 4-9
Janne Kyttanen bt Gavin Jones 7-9 9-6 9-3 9-3

Fifth Place : Germany 3 Netherlands 1
Seventh Place : Switzerland 2 Austria 2 (Switzerland win 7-6 on games countback) Ninth Place : Sweden 3 Italy 1
11th Place : Belgium 3 Spain 1
13th Place : Ireland 4 Denmark 0
15th Place : Greece 2 Slovenia 2 (Greece win 8-6 on games countback)
17th Place : Hungary 3 Israel 1
19th Place : Czech republic 4 Slovakia 0

Men's semi-finals:
[1] ENGLAND bt [2] WALES 3-1
Simon Parke lost to David Evans 5-9 6-9 3-9
Paul Johnson bt Alex Gough 5-9 9-0 9-0 9-3
Del Harris bt Gareth Davies 9-1 9-0 9-1
Mark Chaloner bt Gavin Jones 9-2 9-1 9-2

[4] FRANCE bt [3] FINLAND 4-0
Thierry Lincou bt Olli Tuominen 9-4 5-9 9-2 9-1
Renan Lavigne bt Juha Raumolin 7-9 10-8 9-0
Jean-Michel Arcucci bt Timo Tuominen 9-5 9-3 9-6
Gregory Gaultier bt Janne Kyttanen 9-5 9-3 9-7

5-8 play-offs:
[5] GERMANY bt [7] SWITZERLAND 4-0
Oliver Kowalski bt Lars Harms 9-7 2-9 9-4 9-0
Simon Frenz bt Reto Donatsch 9-2 9-0 9-2
Edgar Schneider bt Andre Holderegger 9-1 9-3 9-6
Stefan Oppolzer bt Dany Oeschger 9-4 9-5 9-2

[10] NETHERLANDS bt [8] AUSTRIA 2-2 (9-8 in games)
Lucas Buit bt Clemens Wallishauser 9-5 9-2 9-2
Tommy Berden bt Gerhard Schedlbauer 3-9 9-3 9-2 2-9 9-2
Ronald Cune lost to Leopold Czaska 9-7 1-9 3-9 5-9
Gabor Marges lost to Wolfgang Rothbacher 9-6 9-7 6-9 2-9 4-9

9-12 play-offs: [13] Italy bt [9] Belgium 3-1, [6] Sweden bt [11] Spain 3-1 13-16 play-offs: [14] Denmark bt [20] Slovenia 4-0, [12] Ireland bt [15] Greece 4-0 17-20 play-offs: [18] Israel bt [17] Czech Republic 3-1, [16] Hungary bt [19] Slovakia 4-0

Women's semi-finals:
[1] ENGLAND bt [3] NETHERLANDS 3-0
Cassie Campion bt Vanessa Atkinson 9-0 9-7 9-0
Linda Charman bt Daphne Jelgersma 9-6 9-1 9-0
Tania Bailey bt Bea Dreu-Spitse 9-0 9-1 9-0 [2]

GERMANY bt [4] SCOTLAND 2-1
Sabine Schoene bt Pamela Nimmo 9-4 9-2 9-4
Sabine Baum lost to Senga Macfie 7-9 0-9
Daniela Grzenia bt Claire Waddell 0-9 9-5 9-1 5-9 9-6

5-8 play-offs:
[6] SPAIN bt [8] SWITZERLAND 2-1
Natalia Meneu lost to Agnes Mueller 1-9 0-9 5-9
Elisabeth Sado bt Manuela Zehnder 9-5 9-1 5-9 9-7
Laia Sans bt Gaby Schmohl 10-8 10-8 10-8

[5] DENMARK bt [10] FRANCE 2-1
Ellen Petersen bt Isabelle Stoehr 9-6 10-8 9-0
Julia Dorn-Jensen lost to Corinne Castets 3-9 9-4 7-9 2-9
Line Hansen bt Mylene Demuylder 9-3 9-2 10-8

9-12 play-offs: [12] Ireland bt [9] Wales 2-1, [7] Belgium bt [14] Italy 3-0 13-16 play-offs: [18] Israel bt [16] Hungary 3-0, [13] Finland bt [15] Norway 2-1 17-19 play-offs: [11] Austria bt [15] Slovakia 3-0, [11] Austria bt [17] Slovenia 3-0, [15] Slovakia bt [17] Slovenia 2-1.