COLETS  FINALS: CONTRASTING CONTESTS PROVING INTRIGUING

Martin Bronstein reporting fromColets Health and Fitness Club, Thames Ditton, Surrey

Despite feeling under less than 100 percent fit both top seeds still managed to take home the trophies and winners’ checks.

Madeline Perry got the better of Kasey Brown (Photo ©Alex Wan )

Madeline Perry started well against  Kasey Brown, fell away in the second and  came back in the third  which was when Brown twisted her knee to more or less put an end to her challenge. Perry put her second game lapse down to nausea and said she had not been feeling well for a couple of days.

Adrian Grant followed the same scenario, starting well in the first game against Joey Barrington, then falling apart. He too said that he was affected by a bout of flu, which the England team picked up in Italy last week when they won the European team championship title.

A DRAMATIC TWO HOURS
But it was the men’s final that provided the real drama. While the women’s final was over in 33 minutes,  Grant and Barrington fought and struggled through an hour and three-quarters before Grant shook the hand of a very disappointed Barrington. He had every right to be disappointed, having played aggressive squash and made far fewer errors than Grant. He will lose many a night sleep thinking about the fourth game when he held four match balls and failed to win any one of them.

Grant started well, cracking the ball down his forehand wall with tremendous pace and accuracy; every shot on that wall was a challenge to Barrington. Barrington did not play badly, but he simply was not as good as his opponent.  Although there is a gap between their world rankings – Grant is 15, Barrington 29 -  they have split the last two meetings, so Barrington obviously has the goods to beat Grant.  But in this first game, it was Grant who came out on top after 11 minutes, 11-6.

THE EVIL FAIRY

Barrington gave Grant fits (Photo ©Martin Bronstein )

The second game was a nightmare for Grant as error followed error. Even easy shots were going down and he could do no right. It was as though his racket was in the grip of the Evil Fairy who was determined to destroy his every move. Barrington kept the pressure on, made no mistakes and was soon at game ball 10-0; that’s right ten point to nothing.  Two strokes in Grant’s favour put him back in the rallies and a No Let for Barrington, gave Grant his third point. Then the next rally ended in a Stroke to  Grant and suddenly the score was looking slightly respectable at 10-4. Grant is a fighter and a grinder when he wants to be and there flickered the faintest glimmer of hope that he had gotten rid of his error demon and returned to normal.  Which is when a working drive from Barrington hit the nick at the back wall to give him his eleventh point.

THE CONFIDENCE GAME
The third game was based on Barrington’s confidence. He went to a lead straight away as two more errors came from Grant, but then  Barrington  started hitting winners, with the ball still running for him – another lucky nick put him 6-1 ahead; he completely missed the ball as it skidded on a sweat patch to give Grant his second point and  Barrington showed that he can play winners by hitting a slambang forehand crosscourt kill to lead 7-3. When he hit another forehand drop winner to move to 8-3, it seemed all over for Grant. But a Stroke for Grant stopped Barrington’s run and  started  a Grant comeback. He settled down, the errors stopped and he inched back up to 5-8 and then 6-9 before hitting a forehand drop into the tin to put Barrington at game ball 10-6.  Grant kept fighting, moving the ball around constantly playing to Barrington’s backhand. He recovered to  8-10 at which point they fought a battle within a battle. Let followed let – there were six lets in all before  the error came from Grant and Barrington won the game 11-8 after 19 hard, dramatic minutes.

A SPOT OF SWEAT
In the fourth game the discussions with the referee became more frequent and as the game wore on, Grant’s critical predicament affected his game. By his fourth error he was trailing  5-9 and Barrington was two points from victory.  A three wall nick gave Grant his  seventh point but a controversial stroke to Barrington when the verdict should have been a Let,  made things even more critical for  Grant as he faced match ball at 7-10. He saved three match balls, with each rally full of suspense and bringing an increased rate of oohs and aahs from the packed galleries. Barrington got very upset when denied a let  to put the score at 10-8 and then Grant hit two wicked winners, the second was another forehand straight kill to force a tie break. He had got out of jail. But then Barrington was awarded a Stroke to end the next rally, to put him at match ball again, 11-10.

Now controversy: Barrington serves, the ball skids off the sweaty wall and Grant misses entirely. Before the referee can say anything Grant is vehemently protesting at the state of the court. The referee says Play a let.   They do and after the walls have been toweled down, Grant hits a long backhand drop for a winner to level the score at 11-11. Barrington is under pressure in the next rally and hits the ball out of court to put Grant at game ball and when Grant is given a Stroke to give him the game  - and a reprieve – Barrington blows his top and smacks the ball upwards towards the referee.  The game had taken 33 minutes – including sweat breaks – and Grant had come back from the dead to tie the match at two games all.

The fifth game starts with  Barrington getting a conduct warning for his ball-blasting and the two player get down to the serious business of winning this vital game. Once more Barrington is steadier as he leads 5-2 but then gradually the pace begins to tell on him and he is now the one hitting the errors.As in the last three games, the rallies are long, mostly  down the walls with the odd drop or boast thrown in, but it is all about consistency and patience as well as hitting to good length and width when under pressure. They can both handle these difficult tasks but Grant has enormous experience – he was playing for England as a junior at the age of 15 – and he pulled back from 2-5 to lead 8-6.   These are the big points and this is where experience usually comes out on top. They both get points from penalty strokes and Grant  plays an unexpected forehand drop to reach match ball  10-7. Psychologically Barrington must have felt wretched; from having four match balls he was now facing defeat.  Grant’s long drop into the tin gave Barrington a fighting chance but he finished the match with an error. There was no triumph from Grant as both players realized how much fate had played in the outcome. Grant stood, dazed, it seemed, in the middle of the court while Barrington stared at the wall in disbelief, his disappointment tangible. Finally the two players came together and shook hands, leaving the court to prolonged applause after 106 minutes of cruelly hard work but terrific entertainment for the spectators.

Psychologically Barrington must have felt wretched; from having four match balls he was now facing defeat.  Grant’s long drop into the tin gave Barrington a fighting chance but he finished the match with an error. There was no triumph from Grant as both players realized how much fate had played in the outcome. Grant stood, dazed, it seemed, in the middle of the court while Barrington stared at the wall in disbelief, his disappointment tangible. Finally the two players came together and shook hands, leaving the court to prolonged applause after 106 minutes of cruelly hard work but terrific entertainment for the spectators.

PERRY AIDED BY A TWIST OF FATE

Kasey Brown gave Madeline Perry a battle. (Photo ©Martin Bronstein )

For the first two games of the Women’s final, it looked as though Kasey Brown might  not only put up a fight, but pull off another upset.  In the first game Madeline Perry was at her best, her drives down both walls tight enough to take the paint off.  This game was all Perry and she had Brown scurrying around the back corners in an effort just to stay in the rally, never mind win it. This was beginning to look like an easy time for the Irish champion as she won  11-7 in eight minutes.

 Yesterday Brown had said that she never goes on court without a game plan, but it never seemed as though she had one. But when the second game started, it all changed.  Suddenly it was  all Brown, hitting good length and controlling the rallies with Perry’s error rate creeping up to alarming proportions. The game ended with two Perry errors, 11-7 in Brown’s favour.  She had shown that she could stay on the same court as Perry and also dominate  when needed.

In the third game things changed again and although they were level at 5-5   Perry pulled away easily to win 11-6 in just  seven minutes.  Something was obviously wrong and when Brown made seven errors in the fourth game to lose it  11-1 in four minutes we knew an injury had destroyed Brown’s movement and concentration.

Brown confirmed later that she had twisted her knee in the middle of the third game.

“I’ve been having trouble with it this week and I thought it was getting better,” she told me with her leg elevated  and a bag of ice on her knee.

“Madeline started strongly and I couldn’t do anything in that first game. In the second game my length improved and her’s dropped off. Then she tried to force her game and  made errors. I was alright until the middle of the third and then my movement was badly affected,” she explained.

Perry revealed that she had been nauseous for a couple of days and that in the second game she felt sick.

“In the third game I just ignored it and got my length back to get  on top again,” Perry said.

All in all an interesting tournament with some good upsets. Colets hope to get even bigger next year – there’s even talk of a marquee on the rugby pitch and a four-wall  glass court.

COLETS OPEN FINALS

WOMEN
Madeline Perry (IRL) bt  Kasey Brown (AUS)  11-7, 7-11, 11-6, 11-1 (33mins)

MEN
Adrian Grant (ENG) bt Joey Barrington (ENG)  11-6, 4-11, 8-11, 11-10(3-1), 11-9 (106mins)

Madeline Perry and Adrian Grant Collected the Silver. (Photo ©Martin Bronstein )