16s Round Parke Excels Again

by Martin Bronstein
All content © 2002 Squashtalk

SIMON PARKE DOES IT AGAIN

Simon Parke - SquashTalk file photo, © 2002 Vaughn Winchell

Simon Parke will not be popular in Australia today.

Yesterday he overturned Joe Kneipp (ranked 14 slots above him) and today showed world number four what retrieving and fitness was all about when he outlasted the young Australian Stewart Boswell in their hundred minute battle to go through to the quarters.

Parke, a mainstay of England squash for almost 16 years as junior and senior, has been mocked for his ‘headless chicken’ approach, a soubriquet he owns up to. But when he is on form he can retrieve anything from anywhere and slot in his own brand of winners. At his age (the big 30) you could be forgiven for thinking that when he underwent ankle surgery last year and slipped to 45 in the rankings, he would never recover to compete in today’s super-fast, explosive squash. But today he showed not only his talent, but his determination.

He lost the first game of long rallies and was 7-0 down in the second - the expected scenario – when he made the first of two amazing recoveries to fight his way back and then win the game. He then inexplicably gave away the third game with a series of errors to lose it 5-15. When he was 7-0 down in the fourth, it again looked all over, but Parke does not give up. "I never thought about it being too late," he said afterwards. "I just kept going, digging in and seeing what happened." And he did it again, forcing the game into overtime which he won 17-15.

By the fifth it was the younger man, Boswell, who first showed signs of fatigue while Parke kept up his patented retrieving and rallying to take the a well earned victory.

"One of my best wins ever!" was how the delighted former world number three summed up his victory. And then added: “"People think I like running and retrieving, but I'd love to play a more attacking game if I could"

After two five setters in a row, Parke will have a day off to recover before his quarter final match with John ‘The Shooter’ White who beat Mark Chaloner in four. White doesn’t like to hang around too long in a squash court which is why he developed the most fearsome set of winners in the game today. Faced with a player of Parke’s constant rallying style, he could well be forced into going for winners too quickly – which he has often done before, to his detriment.

Another Australian, Anthony Ricketts did much better than his mates. The very rapidly improving graduate of the Australian Institute of Sport ousted Ong Beng Hee in straight games and will likely swap ranking places by the end of the year. Beng Hee is presently at number seven, two places ahead of Ricketts, who will now have 48 hours to think about a strategy to beat Peter Nicol, his quarter-final opponent.

[1] Peter Nicol (Eng) bt [21] Mansoor Zaman (Pak) 15/8, 15/8, 15/11 (31m)
[9] Anthony Ricketts (Aus) bt [7] Ong Beng Hee (Mas) 15/8, 15/8, 15/5 (43m)
[26] Simon Parke bt [4] Stewart Boswell (Aus) 7/15, 15/13, 5/15, 17/15, 15/12 (100m)
[5] John White (Sco) bt [10] Mark Chaloner (Eng) 15/9, 15/13, 10/15, 15/9 (56m*)