England Score Double Victory
May 2, 2004 by Howard Harding, SquashTalk Independent News Service © 2004 

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ENGLAND WINS FAMILIAR DOUBLE IN EUROPEAN FINALS

England's Cassie Jackman beats Holland's Vanessa Atkinson to bring home England's 27th title. Photo © 2004 Fritz Borchert

England powerfully demonstrated their supremacy in European squash with comprehensive victories in the finals of the European Team Championships in Rennes - crushing Netherlands 3-0 in the women's final and overwhelming hosts France 3-1 for the fifth successive year in the men's final.

Team newcomer Vicky Botwright, the world No11 from Manchester, put England in a commanding position in the women's final with a 9-3 9-4 9-1 win over the Dutch No3 Karen Kronemeyer in the opening match.

Top string Cassie Jackman, the world No1 from Norfolk, then made amends for her surprise loss to world No3 Vanessa Atkinson in last year's European Team final in Nottingham, by beating the seven-times Dutch champion 9-6 9-4 10-9 to clinch the title for England for the 27th year since the inaugural event in 1978.

England veteran Linda Charman, the 32-year-old world No. 6 from Eastbourne who marries the French men's team's No. 5 Laurent Elriani this summer, made sure of maximum points for the top seeds with a 9-4 9-2 win over Annelize Naude in the 'dead' rubber.

England's James Willstrop wins over Frances Jean-Michel Arcucci . Photo © 2004 Fritz Borchert

After nervous wins over France over the past two years, in ties which ended 2-2 and required countbacks to separate the teams, England were keen to enforce their strength on paper over the French squad - especially in a stunning arena in Rennes which boasted a crowd of well over 2,000!

Team No4 James Willstrop, the world No13 from Pontefract in Yorkshire, set about the task in positive style, despatching France's Jean-Michel Arcucci 9-1 9-0 9-5. His county colleague Nick Matthew, the world No9 from Sheffield, was next in action - and again came through unscathed, beating the French No3 Renan Lavigne 9-0 9-4 9-5.

England's Nick Matthew gets win #2 over France's Renan Lavigne . Photo © 2004 Fritz Borchert

At this point, all that England required was one further game, but a rejuvenated Peter Nicol - appearing in his first tournament since reclaiming the world No1 spot he had held throughout 2002 and 2003 - swept to a 9-3 9-1 9-3 victory over France's greatest squash player of all-time Thierry Lincou, the 28-year-old from Paris who briefly succeeded the Englishman as world No1 in January.

With the 29th European title already assured, England's Lee Beachill played out a 'dead' rubber against France's fastest-rising star Gregory Gaultier - with the crowd grateful of a consolation victory as Gaultier recorded a 9-6 9-6 win.

In the play-offs for third place, Wales took the men's bronze medal by beating Netherlands for the third successive year - while France achieved their best ever result in the women's event with a 2/1 victory over Belgium.

RESULTS: European Team Squash Championships, Rennes, France

Men's final:
[1]ENGLAND 3 [2]FRANCE 1 (Peter Nicol bt Thierry Lincou 9-3 9-1 9-3; Lee Beachill lost to Gregory Gaultier 6-9 6-9; Nick Matthew bt Renan Lavigne 9-0 9-4 9-5; James Willstrop bt Jean-Michel Arcucci 9-1 9-0 9-5)
Women's final:
[1]ENGLAND 3 [2]NETHERLANDS 0 (Cassie Jackman bt Vanessa Atkinson 9-6 9-4 10-9; Linda Charman bt Annelize Naude 9-4 9-2; Vicky Botwright bt Karen Kronemeyer 9-3 9-4 9-1)

Men's 3rd place play-off:
[3]WALES 4 [4]NETHERLANDS 0 (Alex Gough bt Laurens Jan Anjema 9-3 10-8; David Evans bt Dylan Bennet 9-0 9-0; Gavin Jones bt Gabor Marges 9-5 9-2 9-5; Ricky Davies bt Marc Reus 9-4 9-4 9-1)
5th place play-off:
[6]IRELAND 3 [7]SPAIN 1 (Liam Kenny bt Borja Golan 9-7 9-3 1-9 9-4; Derek Ryan bt Oriol Salvia 9-1 3-9 9-3 9-1; Steve Richardson bt Victor Montserrat 3-9 2-9 9-3 9-1 9-1; John Hurley lost to Albert Codina 4-9 0-9 3-9)
7th place play-off:
[12]GERMANY 3 [11]FINLAND 1 (Stefan Leifels lost to Olli Tuominen 3-9 2-9 3-9; Edgar Schneider bt Tatu Murronmaa 9-3 7-9 9-7 9-7; Hansi Seestaller bt Matias Tuomi 9-2 9-5 9-1; Johannes Voit bt Hameed Ahmed 9-3 9-7 9-7)
9th place play-off:
[8]DENMARK 3 [10]SWITZERLAND 1 (Mikkel Korsbjerg lost to Lars Harms 1-9 5-9 0-9; Morten W Sorensen bt Andre Holderegger 10-8 9-0 10-9; Danny Knudsen bt Marco Datwyler 9-4 9-10 9-5 9-5; Mads Korsbjerg bt Kevin Villiger 9-3 9-3 9-2)
11th place play-off:
[5]SWEDEN 3 [9]SCOTLAND 1 (Christian Drakenberg lost to John White 0-9 3-9; Badr Abdel Aziz bt Peter O'Hara 2-9 9-6 ret.; Joakim Karlsson bt Stuart Crawford 9-6 3-9 9-7 9-5; Henrik Lofvenborg bt Martin Woods 9-1 9-0 9-2)
13th place play-off:
[13]BELGIUM 3 [14]AUSTRIA 1 (Steve Dries bt Andreas Fuchs 5-9 5-9 9-4 9-2 9-3; Ben Vandezande lost to Gerhard Schedlbauer 4-9 6-9 0-9; Rik Smet bt Jakob Dirnberger 1-9 9-6 9-0 9-5; Bart Govaerts bt Aqeel Rehman 9-4 9-1 9-2)
15th place play-off:
[17]ISRAEL 3 [16]CZECH REPUBLIC 1 (Ilan Oren lost to Jan Koukal 1-9 0-9 0-9; Ron Levy bt Martin Stepan 9-0 3-9 7-9 9-7 9-0; Dove Drokman-Haruzi bt Milos Pokorny 10-8 0-9 9-5 9-3; Moshe Sarfaty bt Jan Vesely 10-8 9-4 9-5)
17th place play-off:
[23]ITALY 3 [18]GREECE 1 (Andrea Capella bt Petros Tzamaloukas 9-1 9-3; Simone Rocca bt Fabian Kalaitzis 9-5 9-0 9-0; Giacomo Marotta lost to Paul Gregory 0-9 2-9 1-9; Buglioni Paolo bt Konstantinos Kargioitis 9-0 9-0 9-1)
19th place play-off:
[21]POLAND 3 [22]GIBRALTAR 1 (Andrzej Wierzba bt Malcolm Head 9-7 9-6 9-2; Marcin Leszewicz lost to Stephen Shacaluga 8-10 5-9; Maciej Chadzynski bt Christian Navas 9-0 9-2 9-2; Lukasz Nitka bt Anthony Brindle 9-5 9-5 10-9)
21st - 23rd place play-offs:
[19]ISLE OF MAN 3 [20]RUSSIA 1 (David Norman lost to Alexey Severinov 7-9 10-8 3-9; John Knight bt Pavel Sergeev 9-6 9-3 9-7; Kevin Watterson bt Serguei Kostrykine 9-1 9-4 10-9; Steve Morley bt Roman Fetisov 9-3 9-4 9-6)
Final placings: 21 Hungary, 22 Isle of Man, 23 Russia

Women's 3rd place play-off:
[5]FRANCE 2 [7]BELGIUM 1 (Isabelle Stoehr bt Kim Hannes 9-6 10-8 1-9 9-4; Laurence Bois lost to Katline Cauwels 5-9 7-9; Corinne Castets bt Charlie De Rycke 10-8 9-7 7-9 9-2)
5th place play-off:
[8]GERMANY 2 [4]DENMARK 1 (Sabine Tillman lost to Ellen Petersen 7-9 6-9 0-9; Kathrin Rohrmueller bt Line Hansen 9-5 9-7 1-9 9-4; Karin Beriere bt Julie Dorn-Jensen 6-9 9-5 6-9 10-9 9-2)
7th place play-off:
[6]IRELAND 2 [3]SCOTLAND 1 (Madeline Perry lost to Pamela Nimmo 6-9 4-9; Aisling Blake bt Susan Dalrymple 9-7 9-6 6-9 9-6; Nikki Ann McDowell bt Lauren Gray 9-5 6-9 9-6 7-9 9-4)
9th place play-off:
[9]SPAIN 3 [10]SWITZERLAND 0 (Olga Puigdemont bt Gaby Schmol 9-7 4-9 9-3; Elisabet Sado bt Olivia Hauser 9-3 9-0 9-5; Margaux Moros bt Gabi Hegi 9-2 9-2 9-5)
Remaining final placings: 11 Austria, 12 Wales, 13 Italy, 14 Finland

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