CANADA THE PERFECT HOSTS?

Rachael and Natalie Grinham: Not seen in Edmonton as Australia sunk to 10th. Photo © 2006, Alex Wan.

We all know what nice, friendly and hospitable people Canadians are, but I thought they took their generosity as hosts a little too far at the  recent  Women’s World Team Championships in Edmonton.  They finished 13th just ahead of  Japan, Spain and Austria. This was the fifteen championships (held every two years since  1979).  When Canada hosted the event in Toronto in 1981 they finished seventh and in  1992 in Vancouver they finished sixth. Two years later  in Guernsey in the Channel Islands they dropped to twelfth. So this year was their worst ever finish – in front of their own home crowd. Oh the pain!   But then I don’t suppose it is nearly as painful as the Australians finishing in 10th spot, due to  the Grinham Sisters pulling out over an disagreement with the selection progress. In the entire history of the event the  Aussies have won it  six times and  have been runners up four times; they have never finished out of the top three,  a record bettered only by England.

On the other hand Egypt never even sent a team until  1994 and now have finished in the top four in the last four championships.  How long will it be before  they win it? With their constant stream of top juniors, it won’t be too long.

THE  MOTHER OF ALL COUNTBACKS

Although Peter Nicol has retired from the PSA circuit he still keeps his hand in on the European leagues and continues to lead the German team Paderborn.  Again this year Paderborn reached the semis of the European club champships, held in Sweden, where they faced Bishop Stortford,  a club who came from nowhere to knockout England’s perennial champions, Colets, on their way to the England title and the right to play in the European finals.   When the four -man teams had finished, the score was 2/2 in ties. So they  calculators were  brought out for the countback to decide the winner. Remarkably  all ties had finished  with the identical 3/1 scoreline, so the clubs were tied 8-8 in games. Bigger calculators were produced to add up every point score in every game in every tie.  The result was – unbelievably – a tie, exactly 108 points for each club.  The rule book was perused and it directed  that the impasse would be broken by the first string result.  Anthony Ricketts had beaten  Peter Nicol 3/1, so, sensationally Paderborn were out and  Bishops Stortford went through to the final where they got hammered by another German team. You don’t get results like that very often.

MY CRYSTAL BALL IS NOT ONLY FOGGY BUT SLIGHTLY CRACKED

Ramy Ashour wrecked my HK Crystal Ball Photos © 2006, Alex Wan.

Unable to get to Hong Kong for the Cathay Pacific tournament, one of the biggest ones on the tour, I settled instead for some forecasting. In the men I forecast the four semi-finalists to be   Shabana and Ricketts,  Lincou and Palmer with Palmer as the eventual winner.  Along came Ramy Ashour, a 19 year old Egyptian and two-time world junior champion, who tore  my predictions to shreds. First of all he beat John White and then, sensationally, knocked out Thierry Lincou. We had hardly got our breath back from  that shock result when he went a step further  knocking out Peter Barker (the young left-handed Englishman who had knocked out Lee Beachill) to reach the semifinals.  It was there that David Palmer awaited him and surely the young upstart would now be sent packing.  Not a bit of it, Ashour  beat Palmer in four  to make it an all-Egyptian final against Amr Shabana.  It should be worth noting that a third Egyptian, Karim Darwish had dispatched  Anthony Ricketts to make it to the  quarters where he in turn was knocked out by  James Willstrops, who is back to form and had a good tournament, I’m glad to say.

Alright so I got two out of four, but as they were the top two seeds that wasn’t too clever was it?

HOORAY FOR NICOL DAVID

My crystal  ball was clearer for the WISPA event, predicting Nicol David as the winner (easy) and the other semi-finalists as  Engy Kheirallah of Egypt, Tania Bailey and Alison Waters of England.  So  two out of four again. The wise old Rachael Grinham just found enough fitness to outlast Kheirallah to make her way to the semis, while I had correctly seen Tania Bailey, seeded seventh, as a real threat. True enough she knocked out second seed Vanessa Atkinson in straight games and and then did the same thing to Vicky Botwright in the semi-finals. In fact  Bailey never dropped a game on her way to the final where she was totally outclassed by  Nicol David.

Nicol David - quite dominant in Honk Kong. Can anyone push her now? Photo © 2006, Alex Wan.

Although David had a couple of hard matches, she will continue to dominate for years to come. Unless Bailey comes up with a new strategy in her matches against  David, I cannot see any player posing a real threat to the Malaysian’s number one spot.

INDIA : DECEMBER  2007. A FOUR-WAY BATTLE TO RELISH

I know I may be looking too far ahead, but with the rocket-like progress of Ramy Ashour, I cannot help thinking about the next men’s world team championship which takes place in India just over a year from now.

Egypt will be fielding  Amr Shabana,  Karim Darwish and Ramy Ashour. Australia will have David Palmer, Anthony Ricketts and  Stu Boswell. England will feel very confident with James Willstrop, Nick  Matthew and Lee Beachill while France will  pose a real threat with  Thierry Lincou, Gregory Gaultier and Renan Lavigne. 

Using the patented Bronstein Index on the three players puts Australia at the top,  England second, Egypt third and France fourth. But these are three man teams, so using the BI on just the two top ranked players in each team changes the order slightly: Australia,  Egypt,  France and England.

Between  now and then  Ashour will certainly be in the top five.  Furthermore, Egypt are the only country with five players in the top 20: Shabana, Darwish, Ashour, El Hndi and Abbas. With  Nicol now out, England can count on just four top 20 players: Willstrop, Matthew, Beachill and Grant.

POWER IS STILL AROUND AND SUPPORTING THE GAME

Jonathon Power delighting the Village Open crowd after a 27 block run. Photo © 2006, Debra Tessier.

The new Village tournament  in New York was more as much charity bash as anything else and, according to Ron Beck, superbly supported   by a great many people. Since Gregg Zaff started SquashBusters in Boston, a program to get inner city kids into the privileged US world of squash, other cities have followed suit . New York have  City Squash and this was their event.   Chicago  a similar program and one day we can only hope that these programs produce the US version of Jahangir.

On the final day of the tournament Jonathon Power turned up to lend his support and give an exhibition with John White (two of squash’s great showmen of recent times if not of all times). Power’s  brain and wit are as sharp as ever: when he couldn’t get a cab  to go the 27 blocks from Grand Cenral Stationto the venue, Power decided he had to go by foot. When Ron Beck asked him if he enjoyed the 27 block jog Power retorted. “I didn’t jog , I ran”. Well done Jonathon, it was all in a good cause.

JONNY LESLIE STILL HAS FORM

Back in the 70’s when the game was still amateur Jonny Leslie was an automatic choice for the Great Britain team.  He was a wonderfully stylish player and although I never saw him in his prime, I did see him play in a league match for Lambs, and his racket work and ball distribution was a joy to behold.  He sort of disappeared from view and rarely showed up at the British Open age group events, but Lo!  In South Africa this month he came out of hibernation to win the World Masters title in the over 55 group.

In the over 65’s Adrian Wright, a tough left hander from Yorkshire,  beat Chris Stahl – he of the European Squash Federation , a repeat of the British Open final.

JAHNGIR WINS THIRD TERM

In case you had not heard, Jahangir Khan has been voted in for his third term as president of the World Squash Federation.  He has made the difficult  transition from player to  official with charm and  warmth and is enormously popular wherever he goes. I shall be seeing and talking to him in Belfast when he makes his  official appearance at the women’s world championship next month.

If you have any questions you would like me to put to him,   e-mail them to me here at Squashtalk and we’ll feature his answers in the December Global Gallery.