SquashTalk>Columns>Team Kneipp > World Teams 2005 > Pool D Preview

The 20th Mens Teams

Pool D: [4] Australia, [9] Netherlands, [13/18] Finland, [19/22] USA

As we’ve mentioned already Australia is the most successful country ever at producing men’s squash teams. They are the current trophy holders and go into the event with a real chance of defending their title with a team consisting of; Palmer the former world #1 and the most consistent player on the tour at the moment; Ricketts the current British Open Champion; Boswell former world #4; and hell-of-a-nice-guy-Kneipp who used to be ranked 10 but is getting a little tired of winning squash games at the moment thank you very much so he’s giving losing a try. Even with Kneipp having the lowest ranking he had had in three years and Boswell not yet back in his top five spot the average of the team’s ranking is 13. Not as impressive as England’s average of 7, but it’ll make for a very interesting encounter.

Oops. Hang on. We’re going into this tournament without Palmer due to his disqualification. Palmer, the bloke who has been the Aussie number one since about when the new millennium began. Palmer, the bloke who just finished second in the World Open, Qatar Classic and US Open. I’ve been thinking about this and I’d say it’s going to make it harder for us to win without Palmer. Yep that’s the kind of hard-hitting inside-the-pro-tour insight we’re delivering.

Okay so Palmer is serving the last part of his ban from the World Squash Federation and isn’t with us and that’s a shame, but we can still win this tournament and naturally that’s what we’re here to do. Boswell’s return from injury has been very well timed and Cameron Pilley sneaks into the fourth position over Dan Jenson.

Australia should have a reasonably comfortable passage through to pool stage.

Which brings us to a similar situation to the Pools A,B and C. One team well out in front, and the real action in the pools coming from the second place tussle.

Netherlands, Finland & the USA

The Netherlands has played in 11 of the previous 19 World Team Championships, had their best result in 1991 coming 6th, and finished 11th in Vienna. They have three new players in 2005.

Finland has participated 12 times, came 3rd as the host country in 1991 and had their worst performance ever last year, finishing 25th out of 30 teams.
The have one new player with them this year.

USA has only missed three events, had its best result in the early 80s with single figure placings, and came 20th at the 2003 event. Team USA arrive with Illingworth, Gordon and River to replace Walker, Crombie and Wyant.

The second place in this pool should have been a formality for the Netherlands. If Tommy Berden wasn’t injured and Lucas Buit didn’t miss his cheese too much to leave Holland (okay so he’s sick of travelling and has a young family), then the Netherlands would dawdle past Finland and USA, and could even pose a threat to Australia. Tommy had a last minute bizarre thumb injury and Lucas really does like his Dutch cheese, so the pool turns into a tight three horse race. The Netherlands and Finland have a head start on the US with Anjema and Tuominen at one, but Finland’s strength drops off very quickly. Holland’s Dylan Bennett can play better than his ranking of 70 suggests, but his movement up the ranking list has been surprising slow and stagnant for a player that was European U19 Champion a couple of years back.

The US should have too much depth for Finland, but will probably stumble against the Netherlands.

Australia
Anthony Ricketts
Joseph Kneipp
Stewart Boswell
Cameron Pilley

The Low Countries
Laurens Jan Anjema
Dylan Bennett
Tom Hoevenaars
Marc Reus

Finland
Olli Tuominen
Matais Tuomi
Erno Teitti
Hameed Ahmed

USA
Preston Quick
Julian Illingworth
Chris Gordon
Beau River

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