St. Cloud Prohibitive favorites at Euro Teams

SQUASHTALK Martin Bronstein reporting from the 13th European Club Championships Hoofddorp, Netherlands.

YOU CAN'T KEEP A GOOD WOMAN DOWN
Good club players are fine in their environment but when it comes to tournaments like the European Club championships, you need the world class professionals. While one or two of the 31 men's and women's teams gathered here in Hoofddorp (pronounced 'howfdorp') have stayed true to the spirit of the word 'club' in the title, for the rest it is a case of ' buy the best we can afford'. So it is the clubs with star players who forge ahead. You've already read about the world class men's team assembled by St Cloud, a club just outside Paris. The women's competition is for three-player teams and while no club can compete with St. Cloud, there are some top females around and they proved their worth by winning their pools.

CHARMING CHARMAN
The bubbly cockney Linda Charman led the German team Guterslohe SC to the top of her pool with the help of Daniela Grzenia and Simone Korell and then met the Edinburgh Sports Club, one of the few teams boasting native players. Although Senga and Helen Macfie were brought up in England they moved back to their Scottish roots and loive in Edinburgh. Helen won at third strings but Senga, a regular on the WISPA circuit, could not handle world number four Charman and lost in three. Grzenia cleaned up to put the German team in the final.

GRINHAM AT A CRUISE OVER LIZ IRVING
The playing pro beat the teaching pro in the other semi-final; Rachael Grinham, now up to 11 in the world rankings, took an easy 3/0 victory over former world number three Liz Irving, who now lives and coaches in Amsterdam. Irving, at her peak, was a supreme squash player but now simply doesn't have the fitness or speed to handle someone like Grinham, but it was good to see that Irving racket hand at work again.

BELGIAN CHAMP WINS TO BEAT BELGIAN CLUB
Although Liz had Kim Hannes, the top Belgian player at number two, it didn't help Liz's club, the host Meersquash, to get a final place. Indoor Sportcenter's third string Michou Cauwels had won at third string ensuring the Belgian club's final place.

SICK MAN BLUES
I finally found out why Jonathon Power is not playing for the St. Cloud club despite being in Hoofddorp. He got food poisoning on Thursday night and throwing up ever since, He still nursing a badly sprained thumb picked up in his match against John White in Hong Kong, which stops him playing full tilt.

Simon Parke played at number one for St Cloud and found that four matches in two days is not good for the fitness. David Palmer, world number eight, and Parke produced a scintillating five game 80 minute match worthy of any tournament with Parke finally running out of steam to lose the fifth game 1-9.

WHAT'S FRENCH FOR WINNER?
St. Cloud have won the French championship ten years in a row and won this title twice back in the early nineties. Jacques Fontaine, team manager and President of the French Squash Federation told me that they could not compete in the last five years because of clashes with other dates for their top players. This year they got it all together, assembled seven players from the world top twenty and produced a team of such power that the European Squash Federation are wondering if they can produce rules that prevents this happening again.

THOSE LUCKY SWEDES
They will face the lucky Malmo Club of Sweden in the final. Lucky because they beat my club - England champions Colets - in Pool 3 on game countback to go through to the semi-finals. Once again they tied 2-2 - this time with they tied with Ingoldstadt of Germany and once again got through on game countback. Their luck will almost certainly run out when they meet St. Cloud.

results next column --->

Semis Results

Women
Indoor Sportcenter (Belgium) 2 Meersquash (Netherlands)
1 Rachael Grinham bt Liz Irving 9-8, 9-1, 9-5
Katline Cauwels lost to Kim Hannes 3-9, 0-9, 9-3, 4-9.
Michou Cauwels bt Milja Dorenbos 9-4, 9-2, 1-9,10-9.
Gutersloher S.C (Germany) 2 Edinburgh SC (Scotland)
1 Linda Charman bt Senga Macfie 9-3, 9-3, 9-2.
Daniela Grzenia bt Lisa McKenna 9-2, 9-1, 9-4.
Simone Korell lost to Helen Macfie 7-9, 5-9, 6-9.

Men
Capitol St.Cloud (France) 3 Pueblo General Parcel Linz (Austria) 1 Simon Parke lost to David Palmer 7-9, 3-9, 9-3, 9-4, 1-9.
Paul Johnson bt Clemens Wallishauser 9-5, 6-9, 9-l, 9-5
Peter Marshall bt Graham Stewart 9-2, 9-0, 9-3.
Mark Chaloner bt Markus Rossler 9-0, 9-1, 9-1.
OSC Ingolstadt (Germany) 2 Malmo SRC (Sweden) 2
Marcus Berrett lost to Ollie Tuominen 7-9, 8-10, 4-9.
Simon Frenz bt Timo Tuominen 9-4, 9-0, 9-0.
Florian Possl lost to Fredrik Almquist 4-9, 5-9, 1-9.
Stefan Leifels bt Pieter Sjosten 9-5, 5-9, 4-9, 9-4, 9-4.
MALMO WINS ON COUNTBACK

Final Pools:

Women: Final Positions:
Pool 1
1) Gutersloher SC (Germany)
2) Malmo SC (Sweden)
3) SC Stels_Wil (Switzerland)
Gutersloher 3 SSC Stelz-Wil 0

Pool 2
1)Meersquash (Netherlands)
2) Can Melich Club (Spain)
3) Galway LTC (Ireland)
Meersquash 3 Can Melich Club 0

Pool 3
1) Indoor Sportcenter (Belgium)
2) New Eltham SC (England)
3) Tampereen Squashkerho (Finland)
4) Dixon-Tax Banska Bystgrica (Slovakia)
Indoor Sportcenter 3 Dixon Tax 0
New Eltham SC 3 Tampereen Squashkerho 0

Pool 4
1) Edinburgh Sports Club (Scotland)
2) Squash Team top fit (Austria)
3) UWIC Academy of Squash (Wales)
4) Marsa Squash Malta
Edinburgh Sports club 3 Marsa Squash Malta 0
Top Fit 2 UWICC 1

MEN:
Final positions: Pool 1
1) Capital St. Cloud (France)
2) Odense Squash Club (Denmark)
3) Rich M & Poor M (Hungary)
4) Lanta SC Bratislava ( Slovakia)
Capitol St Could 4 Lanta 0
Odense 3 Rich M 1

Pool 2
1) OSC Ingolstadt (Germany)
2) Squash Zwolle (Netherlands)
3) Newlands TC (Scotland)
4) Kfar Maccabi (Israel)
Ingolstadt 4 Newlands 0
Squash Zwolle 4 Kfar Maccabi 0

Pool 3
1) Malmo SRC (Sweden)
2) Colets (England)
3) SC Royal Cham (Switzerland)
4) UWIC Academy of Squash (Wales)
Malmo 4 Royal Cham 0
Colets 3 UWIC 1

Pool 4
1) Pueblo General Parcel Linz (Austria)
2) Squash Ocho (Spain)
3) Meersquash (Netherlands)
4) Fitzwilliam LTC (Ireland)
Squash Ocho 3 Meersquash 1
Pueblo 4 Fitzwilliam 0

First Round Results:

MEN Pool 1
Capitol Saint Cloud (France) v Odense Squash Club (Denmark) 4-0
Rich M & Poor M SC (Hungary) v Lanta SC Bratislava (Slovakia) 4-0
Capitol Saint Cloud v Rich M & Poor M SC 4-0
Odense SC v Lanta SC Bratislava 4-0

Pool 2
Squash Zwolle (Netherlands) v Newlands TC (Scotland) 4-0
Squash Zwolle v OSC Ingolstadt (Germany) 2-2
OSC Ingolstadt v Kfar Macabia (Israel) 4-0
Newlands TC v Kfar Macabia 4-0

Pool 3
Colets Health & Fitness (England) v SC Royal Cham (Switzerland) 3-1 Colets Health & Fitness v Malmö SRC (Sweden) 2-2
Malmö SRC v UWIC Academy of Squash (Wales) 4-0
SC Royal Cham v UWIC Academy of Squash 3-1

Pool 4
MeerSquash (Netherlands) v Pueblo General Parcel Linz (Austria) 0-4 Squash Ocho (Spain) v Fitzwilliam LTC (Ireland) 4-0
MeerSquash v Fitzwilliam LTC 4-0
Pueblo General Parcel Linz v Squash Ocho 2-2

WOMEN Pool 1
Gutersloher SC (Germany) v Malmö SRC 3-0
SC Stelz-Wil (Switzerland) v Malmö SRC 0-3

Pool 2
Molenaar & Lok 'MeerSquash(Netherlands) v Galway LTC (Ireland) 3-0 Can Melich Club (Spain) v Galway LTC 3-0

Pool 3
Indoor Sportcenter Belgium) v Tampereen SquashKerho (Finland) 3-0 Indoor Sportcenter v New Eltham SC (England) 2-1
New Eltham SC v Dixon-Tax Banska Bystrica (Slovakia) 3-0 Tampereen Squashkerho v Dixon-Tax Banska Bystrica 3-0

Pool 4
Edinburgh Sports Club (Scotland) v UWIC Academy of Squash (Wales) 3-0
Edinburgh SC v Squash Team Top Fit (Austria) 3-0
Squash Team Top Fit v Marsa Squash Malta 3-0
UWIC Academy of Squash v Marsa Squash Malta 2-1

• Golestan Radwan: Egypt
• Tomas Barva, Czech Republic
• David Blick, Alaska USA
• Kim Tunney: Midwest USA
• Andre Maur: Atlanta USA
• Paul Ansdell: Massachusetts USA
  

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