Another White-out for Nicol
By Martin Brontein
May 11, 2004 All content © 2004 Squashtalk
[last update was 11-may-04 ]

CLASS IS OUT
I think the semester is over for Peter Nicol; he's handed in his term papers and can't wait to get to a sandy beach and zonk out for a month. Not that he played badly in losing in straight games to John White, it was just that he was a half a yard short of his usual self and when faced with the bazooka shots of White, he was never going to win.

Peter Nicol didn't have an answer for John White's attack (photo © 2004 Fritz Borchert)

They were playing all-out attack for most of the match and the pace was gripping. You kept waiting for a quiet up-and-down-the-wall rally, like in the good old days, so that you can get your breath back - or even have time to take a breath - but the players, probably aware of the new scoring system (to 11 points), know they don't have the luxury of coasting.

Nicol led for the first half of the first game but White was getting warmed up and was starting to hit not just his whiz-bang shots, but some wonderfully soft drops at the front of the court. Indeed throughout the match they played some incredible shots at the front of the court, both players demonstrating a wonderfully soft touch.

But it was Nicol who seemed to do most of the stretching and bending. At 9-9 White sent him the wrong way to get to game ball and then finished it off with fine drive to win 11-9.

A HANDFUL OF WINNERS

Peter Nicol on the run but appearing fatigued (photo © 2004 Fritz Borchert)

It would have been foolish to read anything - or to bet money - on that first game, but when the second game started White set his stall out with a vengeance, hitting four outright winners and hitting one shot so hard that all Nicol could do was stick his racket out and pray. The ball rocketed from his strings out of court: White led 5-0. Nicol then disproved the notion that the new scoring ruled out comebacks from a large deficit, buckling down to his game, concentrating on White's backhand and finally drawing level at 5-5.

White then started to really paste the ball and the sheer power and speed was too much for Nicol. Even if the ball didn't die, Nicol's prodded response was weak enough for White to have another bash -which he did with great glee. White's winning shot - a drive down the left wall would not normally have troubled Nicol, but at this stage all Nicol could do was to stick out a tired arm with a racket on the end - after the ball was past him and White had the second game 11-7 in ten minutes.

THREE AND YOU'RE OUT
The chance of Nicol winning were slim if not non-existent. As White said after the match, any time you can take a win over Nicol or Power, you take it regardless of the venue or conditions. He went for winners on every shot and made five unforced errors by the time the score had reach 6-6. But his approach had Nicol dancing on a piece of string, constantly being stretched to his limit and the last six rallies finished rapidly to give White the game 11-7 in just seven minutes, his second Group Victory and probably his ticket into the final. Nicol will certainly not be there to defend his title.

SECOND ROUND QUALIFYING (in progress)
HARROW GROUP
John White bt Peter Nicol 11-9, 11-7, 11-7 (36 minutes)

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