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2002 Super Series Final ($50,000)
Broadgate Arena, Liverpool Street
London, England
June 17-21

[last update was 19-jun-02 ]

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WEATHER HEATS UP, SQUASH COOLS

After the shenanigans of the first day pool matches, the second day was quite tame, but I suspect a lot of oomph has been taken out of the event with the withdrawal of Jonathon Power.

Things had been hotting up quite nicely between Power and Nicol this year (thanks to Power’s three victories over the new England number one). Even Power’s loss to Nicol for a couple of points in the final of the French club championships didn’t detract from the fans’ eagerness to see these two marvellous players on the same court.

Walker looked good but couldn't win as a stand-in for Power (photo © 2002 Fritz Borchert)

My theory is that Power is saving it all for the Commonwelath Games, the one title that has eluded him so far. Only John White can stop Nicol and Power getting to the Games final in late July, but I will still put my money on Power to win the medal.

But back to the Super Series Finals, now sponsored by the Bank of Scotland. On a rare summer’s day that was sunny and hot, the squash was mostly cool. There was some fine squash played but somehow the audience remained remote and put one in mind of learned men studying a new biomedical phenomenon at the University of Zurich in 1893.

A LONG WAY TO COME FOR A BEATING
Stewart Boswell has been training at the Australian Institute in Brisbane, about 12,500 miles from the sparkling glass court erected in Broadgate. He arrived a week ago and as soon as he’s finished in London, he goes back to Australia for a month and then flies to Britain again as part of the Australian Commonwealth Games team. That’s two circumnavigations in five weeks. Peter Nicol lives about ten miles from Broadgate and probably jogged over to play his matches.

Boswell threw in the towel in the fourth against Nicol. (photo © 2002 Fritz Borchert)

Once Nicol had won the first game fairly easily, they got down to some real rip-your-guts-out, see-who-blinks-first squash. There were a lot of long rallies, tight drives, some feather drops and wonderful retrievals. Nicol was not in a generous mood and almost every one of his shots made Boswell work. But the second game found the skinny Australian warmed up and ready to try for his first ever victory over Nicol. He led for the first part of the game and then Nicol took over to lead 12-10.

It is at this point that Nicol’s opponents tend to see the hopelessness of the situation and fall over. Boswell didn’t and using some rare shots – there were very few fancy shots used throughout the match - Boswell hit some winners and took the game 15-13 to tie the match. The crux was that Nicol almost never gave away a cheap point while Boswell did. Boswell earned his points with very tight drops – and they had to be very good to flummox the Nicol racket. This point was brought home at with Boswell leading 9-7 in the third. Suddenly his focus dropped and a few errors plus some bad shot selection put Nicol right back in control to win the game.

It was hot, Boswell was slightly off form, he was 2/1 down to the world champion: you can understand perhaps why he put up very little fight in the fourth. He knew he couldn’t win, so he might as well save himself for the third pool match when he plays Thierry Lincou of France, a match he has a good chance of winning and thus putting him into the semis. So he went through some of the motions and Nicol won 15-4 in 7 1/2 minutes.

Boswell said later he never felt comfortable in the court, that he never found decent length and his lobs were going out of court. Nicol was more positive saying he doesn’t feel the pressure and that, if as world number one and reigning Super Series Champion, he did feel pressure, he would give up.

LINCOU BEATS OLD WALKER
Thierry Lincou took a fairly easy 3/0 victory over Chris Walker, who had no idea he would be pulled into this elite event after Power’s late withdrawal. Hence, no preparation, mental or physical and an understandable two losses in two matches. So Lincou and Boswell find themselves in the same exact position, both have been beaten by Nicol in the Fleet Group and they have both beaten Walker. Tomorrow they fight each other for a place in the semis, which should make things rather lively.

A SORRY PALMER

Ong looked fried. (photo © 2002 Fritz Borchert)

David Palmer has had some strange results since he won the British Open two years ago. Despite being the top seed he lost his first match yesterday to Mark Chaloner, whose pressing style seems to bring out a high frustration level in a lot of players. It is said that Palmer was so upset at the referee that some bad language was used on court and Palmer is supposed to have apologised to organiser Satinder Bajwa and the sponsor for his behaviour.

Today Palmer was the perfect gentleman as he played the always courteous Ong Beng Hee, who has also had some problems of late. Today Beng Hee was far from focussed. I shall go as far as to say I have never seen him play so badly and with such lack of concentration. He did sustain enough pressure in the second game to win it, but Palmer mistakes were also of some help. The third and fourth game were almost walkthroughs with Beng Hee hitting loose shots and berating himself – a rare sight. He lost and sat dejectedly in his chair at the finish, not wanting to move. Either he is overtaining or very stale and he should do something about it.

WHITE HEAT

White was too focused for Chaloner. (photo © 2002 Fritz Borchert)

John White raised the temperature a little with his sledgehammer hitting and display of racket skills (that are quite remarkable; he is certainly number two behind Power in racket skills.) All accomplished so effortlessly, while Mark Chaloner worked so hard, crashing balls in an attempt to leave White flatfooted, but White’s impossibly fast reaction often sending these cannoballs back as winners. There were some truly great rallies and White made his share of errors, but his straight nicks more than made up for them and by the third game the rallies were down to three of four shots with Chaloner was almost reduced to role of the feed man. It doesn’t take a genius to see a final consisting of White and Nicol. And it will be a damned good final.

RESULTS;
Fleet Group;
Peter Nicol (Eng) bt Stewart Boswell (Aus) 15-7, 13-15, 15-12 , 15-4 (72 mins) Thierry Lincou (Fra) bt Chris Walker (Eng) 15-9, 15-3, 15-7. (33 mins)

Harrow Group:
David Palmer (aus) bt Ong Beng Hee (Mal) 15-11, 10-15, 15-5, 15-7. (64 mins) John White (Sco) bt Mark Chaloner (Eng) 15-12, 15-9, 15-7. (46 mins)