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Aix en Provence: The 2002 Euro Clubs Venue (photo© 2002 Dan Kneipp)

TThe European Club Champs is the competition for the winning men’s and women’s league team from each European country. A ‘best of the best’ for league competition.

When you go to a PSA tournament you can feel the tension and competitiveness in the air. Some players just ignore everyone else, others stick to very basic courtesies but not much more. People try to be personal at PSA tournaments but for a pro squash player it is the equivalent of an important business meeting where someone is going to get sacked.

MORE RELAXED
Where to begin with the differences between that and the competition we’ve just arrived for? Firstly it’s in Aix-en-provence in the south of France. As the European summer comes to a close players aren’t going to turn down a trip to a warm Mediterranean destination. There’s the first draw card. There are not many tournaments these days that have both the men and women competing at the same time. Here there are 86 men competing in 15 teams and 52 women competing in 14 teams. 138 athletes all together for a slightly social tournament is a big second draw card. As there are no world ranking points and not too much patriotism (France Aix, Denmark Odense, Ireland Fitzwilliam, Israel Macabia and Slovakia Imet are the only club teams that don’t have a foreigner playing for them) then the atmosphere becomes slightly more relaxed.

Some teams know that they are not to stand a chance so they come here to enjoy themselves. The winning club from Slovakia and Israel may be a big fish in their country’s pond, but they’re guppies in this lake.

PLAYERS FOR HIRE
Most of the pro players play league in a few countries. Joe plays mainly in Holland and Germany with occasional matches in English league, Czech and Belgium league. So if more than one of these teams win the league in their country, players have to choose which side to compete for at the Europeans champs. Joe’s Dutch team Zwolle were league champions. But both Peter Nicol and Alex Gough committed to playing for Germany and France respectively. A team that has Nicol, Gough and Joe Kneipp in it is going to be very hard to beat, but take out Nicol and Gough and you have to hope your team has some depth to it.

ZWOLLE SCRAMBLES
So what Zwolle has done is take a semi serious team. Joe at number one, former Finland #2 Janne Kyttanen (snicker, snicker) and at #3 nine times Dutch national champ Lucas Buit. Unfortunately it’s at this point that the team loses it’s way. One amateur Dutch player and a former PSA member Michael Voetogen who has gone out to pasture long ago. The considerably less talented member of Team Kneipp (Dan) fills in the number five position of the team. I’m very certain though that if we play Vatican City I’m definitely going to win. Most of the cardinals and bishops don’t have enough time on their hands to do enough racquet practice.

GREAT VENUE
The setting here is amazing. From the hotel it’s a fifteen minute drive along a very narrow, winding, blind and obscure French country road. I would be taking in the nice scenery of the countryside but I’m too worried that a car is going to come the other way too fast and Team Zwolle will all be hospitalised. Once you’ve travelled along this road long enough to be absolutely certain that it can’t lead to a club, venue or civilization big enough to host even a social game of squash you arrive.

It all looks very unassuming as you walk past the clay tennis courts surrounded by olive trees amongst pretty undulating hills. Round the corner and there is an indoor clay court that has been transformed into the show court, creating a great atmosphere. Of 29 teams not many can use this court so there has to be plenty of normal courts. The beauty of this place is it’s unassuming and slightly blasé setup. Walk through a small door, follow a long tunnel-like corridor and suddenly there’s eight of so courts built into the place like bunkers. Follow the other direction past eating areas and more courts spring up. Walk out of the club past the clay courts, follow a small road up the hill and another bar and restaurant areas looms up out of the vegetation with three enormous pools. The place is a really relaxed labyrinthine hobbit hole that makes for a great squash centre.

Just looking at the team list you can tell which countries have the strong leagues with lots of money. Five of the six French Capital team have at some stage been top ten players, and not a single Frenchman in sight. No real surprise then that they’re seeded number one. The men’s comp will start with pools for the first two days, then semi finals on Sunday. The pools and their team members are:

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