News from the World of Squash

Inter County Championship Finals Nottingham
08-09 March 2008

March 2008 World Rankings

A Unique Double Treble For The Willstrops

World's Top Twenty Men & Women

James Willstrop Clinches English Grand Prix Crown

European Team Championships 2007

Inter County Championship Finals Nottingham
8-9 March 2008

The Kent Over 50s Ladies, including our own Sue Giles, reached the finals of the Inter County Championship Finals 2008 held in Nottingham over the weekend of the 8th and 9th March. Well done, Sue!

Right-click and "Save as" here to download the Women’s Over 50 Results.
Read the report of the Championships here.

March 2008 World Rankings

Right-click and "Save as" here to download the March 2008 world squash rankings in .doc format.

A Unique Double Treble For The Willstrops
18 December 2007

James Willstrop, already the British National Champion and the English Grand Prix winner, completed a unique domestic treble winning the 2007 English Open Championship at the English Institute of Sport in Sheffield, beating Nick Matthew 9-11 11-9 11-6 11-6 in a 75 minute final.

With Vanessa Atkinson, the Dutch National Champion and Willstrop’s live-in girlfriend, taking the women’s title earlier with a 27 minute 11-7 11-9 11-9 win over England’s Lauren Briggs.

With James' father Malcolm Willstrop working as MC, there was something of a second domestic treble, if not a complete Willstrop benefit event, in play. With the end of the Monte Carlo Classic crossing with the start of the English Open, the Sheffield women’s field was not as strong as it might have been, but it was interesting to see young women players happily settling to the American scoring format favoured by the PSA.
 
“A nice way to finish what has not been a really great year for me,” the 31-year-old Vanessa Atkinson, former World Champion admitted. “I would have stayed for the finals day anyway, to see James play but it helps to have a final of your own to aim at.”

“WISPA still plays to traditional nine points scoring,” Atkinson explained. “Personally I like the American system. We played a good three game final here and it worked quite well, I thought. Not too long but not too short with plenty of play along the way.”
 
Willstrop was elated to take a national title on home county turf. He was born and brought up in Pontefract and now lives in Leeds with Atkinson when they are not travelling their respective tours. Matthew was sufficiently unelated to punch an advertising board on his way out of court. He had missed the chance of adding the English title to his US Open win earlier in the year, and in front of his home town crowd.
 
For both players, though, it was a fine conclusion to a long compressed schedule through Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Hong Kong, Bermuda and Chennai during which they led the England squad that retained the World Team Championship.
 
Offered the prospect of a long well earned drink, 24-year-old Willstrop responded: “We are not supposed to really, but we might have to. It is great to have won this here in front of a Yorkshire crowd and to have played Nick in what turned out to be a fair sort of final. Nick has had me on toast the last few times we have met, so it is good to get one back on him at last.”

"We both had to push - and we knew that - but I just managed to produce the win. I was very pleased with way I played."
 
Matthew denied that it was better to lose to a friend: "I like him a lot, but I'd rather lose to anyone else, to be honest! There is a massive, if respectful, rivalry between us. We both want to be Yorkshire number one, England number one - and world number one!" said Matthew, now runner-up in his home town for the second time, after being beaten in the 2005 final. Their tour head-to-head record was poised at 7-7. Matthew, the Sheffield hero had come out on top on the last three occasions - including at the US Open final in October and the World Open quarter-finals earlier this month in Bermuda.

Finals:

Men
[1] James Willstrop (ENG) bt [2] Nick Matthew (ENG)
9-11 11-9 11-6 11-6 (75m)

Women
Vanessa Atkinson (Neth) bt Lauren Briggs (Eng)
11-7 11-9 11-9 (27m)

World's Top Twenty Men & Women

James Willstrop Clinches English Grand Prix Crown

James Willstrop

In a dream outcome for event sponsors Prince, new signing James Willstrop clinched the Prince English Grand Prix – Birmingham 2007 title in the Great Hall at the University of Birmingham - upsetting higher-seeded Thierry Lincou in a dramatic climax of the inaugural 5-star PSA Tour championship in the West Midlands city. Just 24 hours after being hailed as the new global face of the racquet brand, fourth-seeded Englishman Willstrop secured an unexpected place in the English Grand Prix final after battling to a five-game victory in 95 minutes over world champion David Palmer, the top seed from Australia.
 
And at two games and 6-0 up over third seed Lincou in the final, it looked as if the 24-year-old Yorkshireman had the title in the bag. But the wily Frenchman, who had also prevailed in a marathon five-game semi-final, had other ideas - and reclaimed the advantage to force the match into a fifth game decider. However, Willstrop was not to be outdone:  The former world junior champion quickly raced to a 7-1 lead - and after 77 minutes secured his fairytale 11-8, 11-8, 9-11, 7-11, 11-3 triumph.
 
"It's a real honour to win this one, especially as it's my first Prince tournament, absolutely brilliant," Willstrop said.  "Thierry is a fantastic squash player - I've been watching him for so long, and he is the king for three things: one, king of starting slow, then, at getting better as the matches go on, and three, at coming back! And when I was 2/0 and 7/1 up, I treated it differently as I would have with anybody else, because I've seen him coming back from that position so many times.  But he was so accurate, I was scraping balls off the wall and I just couldn't do anything.  It's nothing fancy, nothing complicated, simple squash but so efficient.  I came through just by sticking at it, and giving it everything I had," added the new champion, after claiming the 7th PSA Tour title of his career.
 
A disappointed Lincou explained:  "I lacked patience in particular in the first two games.  I did train and work into a more offensive game, but I would say that I used it wrongly tonight, and that I didn't find the right tempo."

Both players will now be focussing their attention on the forthcoming Dunlop British Open, which takes place at the National Squash Centre in Manchester from 20-24 September.  Incredibly, Willstrop is scheduled to meet Palmer in the quarterfinals, with the winner likely to face Lincou in the following round!

European Team Championships 2007

england score euro double in riccione

James Willstrop Laurens Jan Anjema

Already men's and women's champions of the world, England maintained its status as the leading squash nation in the region by retaining both titles in the European Team Championships in the Italian resort of Riccione - beating Netherlands in both the men's and women's finals without dropping a single match.

Yorkshireman James Willstrop, the England number one ranked seven in the world, put the favourites ahead with a powerful 9-7, 9-6, 7-9, 9-5 victory over Dutchman Laurens Jan Anjema in 95 minutes - fittingly, the longest match of the tournament. Team-mates Adrian Grant, Lee Beachill and Nick Matthew wrapped up the comprehensive 4/0 victory without conceding further games to give England its 15th successive men's win.

England faced second seeds Netherlands in the women's final for the fifth year in a row. But after Londoner Alison Waters beat Margriet Huisman 9-0, 9-4, 9-0 in just 25 minutes, England No1 Tania Bailey overpowered former world champion Vanessa Atkinson 9-2, 9-2, 9-2 to clinch the title for the top seeds. In the dead rubber, Vicky Botwright beat Annelize Naude 9-0, 10-8 to deny the Dutch a consolation point.

The triumph marked England's 30th title in a row - extending the nation's remarkable unbeaten run in the history of the tournament.

Notable achievements in the men's event include Wales finishing in fourth place behind France, thereby maintaining a presence in the top four since 1997; Germany recording their best finish since 2002, in 5th place; hosts Italy completing the championship in 13th position to mark its best finish since 2002; and Latvia and Croatia marking their debuts in the event with impressive 23rd and 25th place finishes.