England Scrapes Past Holland
Sept 30, 2004, Martin Bronstein; SquashTalk Independent News Service © 2004;

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

Thursday Quarterfinals    [Medal rounds draw/results ]

Vanessa Atkinson scores strong win over Cassie Jackman but Holland falls short. photo © 2004 Fritz Borchert

ENGLAND’S OLD GIRLS SURVIVE ATKINSON AND REFEREE

Today could have been Liz Irving’s finest day. Her three top pupils, who comprise the Netherlands team almost toppled mighty England. As the Dutch national coach she can still be incredibly proud of her team’s effort despite losing 2/1. But there was a point when the score was 1/1 and Annelize Naude was two games up against Linda Elriani when Irving could well have seen the winning post.

But to start at the beginning: It may be that Vanessa Atkinson’s unexpected loss yesterday in the final pool round worked in her favour today when she faced world number two Cassie Jackman. In their 15 previous meetings Atkinson has won just four times. Today however she came out full of determination, precision and invention while Jackman, unsettled after being stuck in traffic on the way to the stadium, was unfocussed, loose and at times almost static. The first game had the full galleries cheering from the word go as Atkinson ran through Jackman like stick through jelly, winning 9-0 in under five minutes. Jackman was hitting tin, and being left flat-footed by Atkinson’s cross courts and boasts. It was a shocking display by the world number two.

But this sort of start has been seen before and I am sure Irving was telling Atkinson not to get over confident. She didn’t have to be as she played her solid game to lead 6-0 with Jackman unable to do anything right. Finally she scored her first point and with that giving her much needed confidence she proceeded to real off four more points, looking more like the ex-world champion and world number one. But another error allowed Atkinson back in she pushed home her superiority to take the second game 9-6.

The third game became more of a squash game than a walkover and from 1-3 down Jackman started to cut out her errors and put pressure on Atkinson who made three errors in a row to put Jackman on the way to the winning post. The tide had turned and it was now Jackman in full charge and her dropshots were now working and her tightness kept Atkinson in check for the rest of the game, which Jackman won 9-6.

The fourth game started with more errors from Atkinson in trying to go for easy winners and suddenly Jackman was 6-2 up and cruising. Finally one of Atkinson’s awful forehand boasts didn’t hit the tin. This was the turning point and from 2-6 Atkinson ran through to 9-6 with the help of some more outlandish Jackman shots that hit the tin.

For Jackman it was a bad day at the office reminiscent of the time she lost the final of the British Open to Leleini Rorani, the same internal combustion and panic-ridden shots.

For Atkinson it was a fine victory, showing that she deserves to be in the top three.

The number threes played next and even with optimism at max level, there was no way the home fans could expect the young Karen Kronmeyer to beat the very experienced Fiona Geaves and so it was: Geavs winning in 30 minutes for the loss of just four points.

LINDA ELRIANI VERSUS ANNELIZE NAUDE AND ADELINE CLEMENTS
The number two now had to settle the results and on paper England’s Linda Elriani, still holding the world number six spot, should have run over Annelize Naude ranked a dozen or so places below her. But enter Adeline Clements, a referee from Calgary in Canada; she made decisions that I shall be kind and describe as inexplicable. They were decisions that had Elriani screaming in rage and almost cost her the match and England a chance at the title.

Annelize Nauda Couldn't Hold on to get a potentially mamouth win over Linda Elriani photo © 2004 Fritz Borchert

Now it has to be said that this was not tidy squash and there was an awful lot of body contact between the two player as they both failed to clear their shots. But even a level one referee should have been able to tell the difference between blocking and not making enough effort. Strokes were given as No Lets and Lets were given as stroke….let’s just say that the decisions surprised most of the people present. Some of whom knew the rules.

Naude played very well, keeping her composure and constructing rallies well and punishing a weak return with a winner. She won the first game of nearly 20 minutes of pushing, shoving, screaming and arguing. It was not a pretty sight.

Elriani has been around long enough not to let bad decisions affect her game, but sadly she must blame herself for losing the second game as she constantly fed Naude’s lethal forehand and found the ball going down the nick. It took just ten minutes for Naude to win 9-2 to go two up and force England to look defeat squarely in the face.

In the rest period both David Pearson, the English National coach and Paul Carter his assistant got up to talk to Elriani, trying to cool her down and get her back to her normal level of play.

Obviously they succeeded and Elriana now expected the worst of every decision and stopped arguing. Naude, who has not had half the experience of her opponent, was now feeling the effects and was noticeably slower as Elriani led 3-1 and then from 4-4 cruised away to 9-4 and then do the same in the four to even the match 2/2.

The question was whether Naude was holding something back for the fifth or whether she could summon up hidden reserves.

The answer to both was no and she was clearly exhausted able to put up a token fight against Elriani’s final attack. The fifth ended 9-1 for England and Elriani collapsed in tears into her team-mates arms, a welcome outlet for the pressure, anger and frustration that the match had heaped on her.

EIGHT WILL BE JUST FINE, THANKS

Latasha misfired at critical junctures. photo © 2004 Fritz Borchert

After New Zealand beat the USA 3/0 Demer Holleran, the American manager said she felt encouraged and that they had proved they were worthy of being in the top eight.

I don’t know if this was just PR speak, but my view is that two of her players simply were not hard-headed enough and not prepared to put in the work in the rallies.

For whole periods Latasha Khan showed just how accomplished a player she is and led Shelley Kitchen 7-6 with a mixture of length, width and finely cut winners. But there were other times when she played a weak shot when not forced to do so. And she forgot to play the big points – when they were tied at 7-7 – well. As the ninth point approaches, the top players go up a notch and Khan was not able to do this.

It was an interesting 16 minute game suggesting the Khan could get a victory, but she was not prepared to put that effort into the second and the match ran away from her as Kitchen kept up her pressure to win the next two games 9-2 and 9-1 in just 13 minutes.

Michelle Quibel, who had yet to see action, went on as the USA’s number three and like Khan showed that she can play very good squash. Against Jaclyn Hawkes she raised American hopes high by coming back from 2-5 down to win 9-5 and then from 1-6 down to win 9-7. She had a habit of starting badly, going for winners from the serve and simply not getting down to business with determination.

She started the third game with an error, but then took a 3-0 lead, giving every hope that she would run through Hawkes the way she had done in the first two games. But Hawkes, who had trouble sighting the ball in the first two games because of her contact lenses, was told to volley the ball more to put on pressure on Quibel and obviously it worked and Hawkes soon had the game 9-3 in under nine minutes.

The fourth game saw Quibel’s head drop and determination flow away from her game allowing Hawke to win 9-3 in six minutes and then run through the fifth 9-0.

The problem was, according to Holleran, that Quibel had not had too much competitive squash lately (the university season has yet to start) and she had a bit of a hamstring problem. So the third dead rubber was played to best of three and Louisa Hall lost 2/1 to Tamsyn Leevey and she can be forgiven if she did not put too much effort into the game.

New Zealand will now face England in the semifinals with Australia to meet Egypt .

Madeline Perry the Irish Number one picked up a very good result beating Egypt’s Omneya Abdel Kawy after being 1-6 down in the fifth game. But Ireland’s second and third strings were simply no match for the magical Egyptian women who both won in three.

Scotland who were seeded eight, fall even further down the rankings after being beaten 3/0 by Belgium, while Canada keep their hopes of finishing ninth alive after beating France 3/0. The French number one Isabelle Stoehr is out of action for two weeks after injuring her ankles on the stairs.

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