by Martin Bronstein London June 5, 2000 11 PM

SUPER SERIES, Monday JUNE 5 2000, Day One

From Martin Bronstein at Broadgate Arena.

[Draw with pool results live]

TROPHIES BEFORE PLAY
This is obviously going to be a far better tournament than last year. Suddenly there's a real professional sheen to everything about the tournament, starting with the press conference in the beautifully refurbished Great Eastern Hotel. This is an old "railway hotel" dating from the days when every major railway terminal had its own Edwardian grand hotel. The eight players flanked the head table looking suitably serious and were told by promoter Satinder Bajwa that they were already champions for reaching the Super Series Finals and gave them all a trophy. I'm surprised that none of them went home, quitting while they were ahead.

BARADA BETTER.
There was a lot of interest in Ahmed Barada making his first appearance since some loonie attacked him with a knife three months ago. I asked him how he felt and he said "Better", which, in its own, way spoke volumes. He spent just a week in Germany getting massages with all types of the latest equipment. The 4cm deep gash in his back muscle was actually sewn up in Egypt before going to Germany. Hesham el Attar said he had been training for six weeks and was getting over the mental effects very well.

HEATH LIMPS OUT
If I carry on watching much more squash, I shall be able to write a whole new TV series called Squash Hospital. All I seem to do is report injuries. The last big one was when Barada limped out of the final of the Flanders Open with an infected toe on his left foot. Strangely, enough another left foot was responsible for stopping his match against Martin Heath.

Heath, tanned, travelled, and amazingly still solvent after a trip to Las Vegas, was playing as confidently as ever and took the first game from Barada 15-11 in 13 minutes. It was good squash too and it was hard to believe that the world number three had not played a match for over three months.

Amusing too to see Heath slam a high overhead into the nick; this is the shot that Barada has almost made his own.

In the second they were getting down to the nitty-gritty with neither player giving an inch; you just knew this was going to go to 17-16. But suddenly at the six minute mark with the score 6-all (doesn't three sixes have some sort of weird significance?) Heath stopped and looked behind him as though he had trodden on something. He hadn't of course, something in his left foot had gone wrong and he immediately limped off the court.

GOUGH BROUGHT IN AS SUB
At first he conceded the game in order to get two minutes more injury time, but within five minutes, he had conceded the match, and a disappointed Barada had his first victory. Disappointed because a good match would have sharpened him up. Alex Gough who was in Carcassonne, that delightful walled city in the south of France ( a week ago I was there on vacation), was immediately contacted and told to fly to London to take Heath's place.

St. ANTHONY LOSES TO NICOL
The first match of the day - the Fleet Group (Nicol, Barada, Hill and Heath) - featured Anthony Hill facing the reigning champion, Peter Nicol, who can justly claim that he?s never lost at Broadgate.

Hill was so well behaved that you could almost see a halo. He was charm and good humor personified. When he smiled, as he did constantly, stars danced out of his eyes. But that never helped him in his squash; Nicol was in great form and first round match or not, he never gave an inch. His deception count was at an all time high and he constantly had Hill stranded where he thought the ball should be but wasn't.

Nicol is a student and a double Grade A student at that. When he learns something it stay learnt and obviously he and Neil Harvey have been working on these shots.

I've seen Hill play better and with more determination, but he probably felt that he would do well to save his energies for Barada and (now) Gough. Nicol won comfortably in three inside 30 minutes and with Heath now gone, the revenge match between the two Scotsmen is once more denied us.

PARKE AND JOHNSON REVISE THE ENGLISH GAME
It was then the turn of the Harrow Group (Power, Parke, Evans and Johnson) and if the paying customers felt they had been given short measure in the first two matches, Simon Parke and Paul Johnson certainly made up for it. Once upon a time these two would have played for several hours, specialising in the English game of up and down the walls. Parke is now an accomplished all-round player and given a semi-loose ball will go for the winner. He and Johnson understand each other, rarely get in each other's way and so the ref/decision count is admirably low and the squash count is entertainingly high.

There were in the first two games a lot of unforced errors which I have to put down to the ball - 6% bigger and, it seemed, heavier. On four occasions Parke went for a volley drop, only to see the ball hit the tin. A black yellow dot would have been a winner.

Johnson knew that a deadish ball favored the attacker and so he was also looking for winners. This was squash that used all four corners and the height of the court as well as the sidewalls. They can both hit paintstrippers from any angle, but neither would let a side wall duel go beyond six shots before they tried to force a weak response. Parke's forehand boasts were particularly effective in their accuracy and surprise.

Parke won the first game 15-12 after 17 1/2 minutes and then recovered from game ball down to take the second 17-16, which must have been very frustrating for Johnson.

A BIT OF LUCK MAKES THE DIFFERENCE.
Johnson came back for third with renewed vigour and turned a 0-3 deficit into a five point lead at 10-5. He was playing well, but had the rub of the nap, just that tiny bit of luck on some shots that frustrated Parke enough to reduce his determination. There was simply nothing he cold do to stop Johnson who ran out a 15-7 winner in just over 10 minutes.

The notion that Parke had decided to save himself for the fourth wasn't fanciful and he moved up just a notch to take control to win the 15 minute fourth game 15-10. Last year Johnson beat Jonathon Power twice but this year will be a different story and I doubt whether he will get into the semi-finals.

POWER BACK ON FORM?
It is hard to imagine Johnson beating Power this week. The Canadian was fresh from the French league finals where he beat Peter Nicol 3/0 - the third game 9-0, according to Simon Parke, who said they were both playing for real, meaning that Nicol has not yet got Power's number in full. On his showing against David Evans, nobody will ever get Power's number - it is infinite. Evans has become a damn fine squash player, a delight to watch, with a superb range of shots, and an elastic reach, but The Magician was simply too much for him. This was a totally different game of squash from Park/Johnson, a different approach, a different mentality, a different perception. Scintillating is the word that sums it up; Power just bamboozles his opponents; every time they think they have him figured, out comes another bunny rabbit from the hat. In the second game, after winning the first 15-12, Power screamed at the ref "You're driving me crazy!" and then hit about seven straight nicks, probably feeling that was the only way the officials would give him a point.

Evans was playing beautifully and actually led 13-11 only to see Power take four points in a row to win 15-13 in 16 minutes.

Evans never gave up, and was level at 7-all in the third but Power was reading the game so well that Evans was always going to play catch up which he never did and Power won the third 15-10. Evans will not finish bottom; he has beaten Parke on their last three meetings and has the game to beat Johnson. The first match on Tuesday is Parke vs Evans and that could be the first big upset unless Parke has worked on an anti-Welsh strategy.

EQUITABLE LIFE SUPERSERIES FINALS  RESULTS:

[complete pool results]

Day One:
Fleet Group Pool:
5pm Peter Nicol v Anthony Hill - Nicol 15/8, 15/5, 15/8
6pm Ahmed Barada v Martin Heath - Barada 8/15, 6/6, retired injury

Harrow Group Pool:
7pm Simon Parke v Paul Johnson - Parke 15/12, 17/16, 7/15, 15/10
8pm Jonathon Power v David Evans - Power 15/12, 15/13, 15/10