Stoehr Outplays Nicol David
Sept 26, 2004, SquashTalk Staff; SquashTalk Independent News Service © 2004;

MARTIN BRONSTEIN REPORTING FROM THE FRANS OTTEN STADION IN THE SUBURBS OF AMSTERDAM      [pools draw]

THEY STILL DO THINGS WELL IN HOLLAND

Frans Otten Stadion, Amsterdam photo © 2004 Frans Otten Stadion

Wow! What a setup…21squash courts, 24 tennis courts, great restaurant … this venue just goes on and on. Only opened six months ago, the courts are almost pristine and the Centre Court, three glass walls and a solid front wall is beautifully laid out. In fact so successful is this club, that they are planning a further six squash courts.

SOME BUMP…

Bumped into Michelle Martin, or perhaps visibly pregnant she couldn’t help but bump into me. She is the Australian coach and must pray every morning to Mr and Mrs Grinham in Toowoomba for producing two such good squash players. The sisters Grinham, ranked one and five, are responsible for Australia being seeded one and unless England’s top two, Cassie Jackman and Linda Elriani, can pull the odd rabbit out of the bag, that seeding will hold good.

Learning Dutch: World #3 Vanessa Atkinson coached by Dutch team coach, former World #2 Liz Irving. photo © 2004 Martin Bronstein, SquashTalk

Host nation Netherlands could also pull off a surprise with Vanessa Atkinson and Annelise Naude playing better than ever. And as we saw two years ago in Denmark when Australia beat the fancied England, it only needs one player in a three player team to be off form and the entire picture can change.

BATTLE OF THE BANTAMS
If you laid Nicole David and Isabel Stoehr end to end they still wouldn’t make a decent-sized basketball player. These are small people, maybe 5’2” in stilettos, but goodness, are they tough players.

After the number three for Malaysia, Tricia Chuah, had handily beaten Soraya Renai, in straight games, the number ones came on and Stoehr went into overdrive immediately and although she is ranked seven places below David (15 to 8) she simply outplayed her, cracking the ball to the back and, given half a chance, smacking the ball into the nick for outright winners. David was unable to turn the tide – more like a tidal wave – and lost the game to love. After being given a good talking to by the team manager David got back into the game and managed to sneak it 10-9 to even the match, but the third game went the way of the first, Stoehr controlling the game in all parts of the court to take yet another 9-0 decision.

And once more David recovered her fighting spirit to match the Manchester -based Frenchwoman (now THAT’S a funny accent) point for point. This was squash of a very high order and almost certainly the best match of the day. But in the final analysis Stoehr either wanted it more or was that little bit sharper and she took that fourth game 10-9 to give the match score a strange symmetry.

I congratulated Stoehr on her win and asked her what her strategy was.

“I know that Nicol is very fit and so I tried to volley everything and put her under pressure. And, when the opening came up, try to finish the point. I was surprised that I won the first game so easily, but I kept to my game plan and it worked,” she said, obviously pleased at such an important win.

Nicol David admitted she had been outplayed.

“Isabel always raised her game when she plays for a team….her game goes up to another level. I couldn’t do anything against her in the first game, did much better in the second and fourth, but she just played too well,” said Nicol, who is now based in Amsterdam under the tutelage of Liz Irving.

GET THEE TO A NUNNERY LIZ AND LEARN THE BLOODY LANGUAGE
Irving was otherwise engaged as the Dutch team manager. Despite her decade long stay in the Netherlands, Miss Irving, still cannot speak the local language. She got so tired of people saying: “What? You don’t speak Dutch after all these years?” she is taking herself off to a nunnery at the end of October. Just for a week and the only vow the 39 year old Iriving is taking is not to speak English for the whole week. It seems that this place of virtuous women specializes in teaching English and their week long submersion course works wonders with the obstinately monolingual. Irving in a Nunnery? I couldn’t make that up.

Her charges did her proud with a 2/1 victory over Belgium, managed by Shawn Moxham, David Palmer’s coach. Karen Kronemeyer, the Dutch number three, addressed the referee in pure Aussie tones, giving the impression that Irving’s accent had rubbed off on her, but in fact she hails from Melbourne. She went down to Annabel Romedenne in four, but displayed a nice feeling for the lob and plays an unhurried sort of squash. Vanessa Atkinson, the Dutch number one and world number three, was sublime in movement and almost error-free in racket work as she simply took the beautiful Katline Cauwels apart. I sat next to Irving during this match and when I commented on Atkinson’s great form she said: “She’s improved enormously but the great thing is there is still room for improvement.”

The flame-haired Annelize Naude looked lethal in beating 17 year-old Charlie de Ryke, the reigning European junior champion, who displayed a fine deft touch with the racket. With a bit of toughening up and a couple of more years of top grade squash, de Ryke could certainly be a contender.

LIMEYS 3 YANKS 0
The USA are in the same group as England and they played each other with predictable results. Latasha Khan, the US number one, said she was glad that the tough match was out of the way.

“After England the other teams in the group (Japan, Scotland and Hong Kong) look much easier,” Khan told me after England’s quick victory: 3/0, nine game to nil , 81 points to 21. Khan was backed by Meredith Quick and Louisa Hall, Michelle Quibel being rested for tomorrow’s match against Japan.

If they play to form USA should come second, they certainly have the depth to now beat Scotland who are without Pamela Nimmo who is feeling rotten with a cyst on her tonsil, a complaint that arose in Bahrain. This is really said news because Nimmo was finally getting some good results after being stopped in her tracks two years ago with DVT.

RESULTS: Women's World Team Squash Championships, Frans Otten Stadion, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Qualifying rounds - Pool A:
[1] AUSTRALIA bt [9] IRELAND 3-0 (Rachael Grinham bt Madeline Perry 9-1, 9-4, 9-5; Natalie Grinham bt Aisling Blake 9-2, 9-1, 9-1; Amelia Pittock bt Laura Mylotte 9-0, 9-1, 9-1)
[8] CANADA bt [17] SWITZERLAND 3-0 (Melanie Jans Burke bt Manuela Zehnder 9-5, 9-4, 9-3; Alana Miller bt Gaby Schmohl 9-3, 9-2, 9-7; Marnie Baizley bt Olivia Hauser 9-5, 9-5, 3-9, 9-0)
Pool B:
[2] ENGLAND bt [10] USA 3-0 (Cassie Jackman bt Latasha Khan 9-1, 9-4, 9-2; Linda Elriani bt Meredeth Quick 9-4, 9-2, 9-2; Jenny Duncalf bt Louisa Hall 9-1, 9-5, 9-0)
[7] SCOTLAND bt [18] JAPAN 2-1 (Wendy Maitland bt Chinatsu Matsui 6-9, 5-9, 9-6, 9-6, 9-4; Susan Dalrymple lost to Kozue Onizawa 9-2, 4-9, 9-0, 5-9, 0-9; Frania Gillen-Buchert bt Sachiko Shinta 0-9, 9-7, 9-0, 9-0)
Pool C:
[3] NETHERLANDS bt [11] BELGIUM 2-1 (Vanessa Atkinson bt Katline Cauwels 9-3, 9-0, 9-3; Annelize Naude bt Charlie de Rycke 9-0, 9-1, 9-1; Karen Kronemeyer lost to Annabel Romedenne 7-9, 9-3, 4-9, 8-10)
[6] NEW ZEALAND bt [19] AUSTRIA 3-0 (Shelley Kitchen bt Pamela Pancis 9-4, 9-4, 9-6; Louise Crome bt Birgit Coufal 9-1, 9-0, 9-0; Jaclyn Hawkes bt Ines Gradnitzer 9-0, 9-4, 9-0)
Pool D:
[4] EGYPT bt [13] SOUTH AFRICA 3-0 (Omneya Abdel Kawy bt Claire Nitch 2-9, 9-5, 9-4, 9-5; Eman El Amir bt Farrah Sterne 9-0, 9-7, 2-9, 9-10, 9-2; Raneem El Weleily bt Tenille Swartz 8-10, 9-1, 9-7, 9-7)
[5] MALAYSIA bt [12] FRANCE 2-1 (Nicol David lost to Isabelle Stoehr 0-9, 10-9, 0-9, 9-10; Sharon Wee bt Maud Duplomb 9-0, 9-2, 9-2; Tricia Chuah bt Soraya Renai 9-3, 9-3, 9-0)

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