Sat 19th, Finals:
Women: Pontefract 2-1 All Stars Wien Energie
   Lauren Siddall 3-0  Kylie Lindsay             11/6, 11/4, 11/7
   Vanessa Atkinson 3-1 Emma Beddoes      11/7, 11/5, 11/13, 11/4
   Deon Saffery 2-3 Birgit Coufal                 11/8, 8/11, 12/10, 7/11, 8/11

Men: Aberdeen 3-1 B&W Worms
   Simon Parke 3-1 Jens Schoor
   Daryl Selby 3-2 Davide Bianchetti           2-2, 6-6 rtd
   Alistair Gorrie 3-2 Carsten Schoor
   Alan Clyne 0-2 Marcus Berrett

Dodson's Finals Notes
Tired, disappointed and so proud of the effort Davide put in and Marcus was just unbelievable.
Jens lost 1/3 to Simon Parke, then Davide after being 0/2 behind came back to 2/2 6/6 then had to retire as he injured his already sore ankle - sad, he looked like winning at the end. Carsten needed to win but also went down against a fully pumped up Alister, then Marcus continued his fabulous form and in the dead rubber beat Alan 2/0.

Top seeds make the finals

After a long day on the glass court in Gothenburg, the top seeds and one of the defending champions came through to the finals.

For the men the top seeds are new boys Aberdeen dethroned serial champions Paderborn, and will face Black & White Worms, who edged past Colets on points countback, for the title - sorry, Cup.

Defending women's champions Pontefract ended Scandinavian hopes in beating Odense, and meet multinational Wien for the women's trophy.

Fri 18th, Semis:

MEN:
Aberdeen 3-1 Paderborn
   Simon Parke 3-0 Stefan Liefels            11/2, 11/3, 11/7
   Daryl Selby 3-1 Simon Rosner    11/3, 11/9, 9/11, 11/6
   Alistair Gorrie 0-3 Lennart Osthoff      10/12, 6/11, 9/11
   Alan Clyne 2-0 Tim Garner                          11/6, 11/6



Worms 2-2 Colets   Worms win on points 127-119
   Jens Schoor 2-3 Lee Drew   11/7, 11/6, 10/12, 9/11, 8/11
   Davide Bianchetti 3-0 Scott Handley       11/5, 11/5, 11/8
   Daniel Hoffman 0-3 Mark Cairns             1/11, 5/11, 6/11
   Marcus Berrett 3-0 Jesse Engelbrecht     11/7, 11/6, 11/8

WOMEN:
Pontefract 2-1 Odense
Vanessa Atkinson 3-1 Line Hansen   11/6, 9/11, 11/9, 11/7
Lauren Siddall 3-0 Marie-Louise Feddern   11/4, 11/1, 11/4
Kirsty McPhee 0-2 Anna-Carin Forstadius          10/12, 6/11

Wien 3-0 Edgbaston
Emma Beddoes 3-1 Victoria Lust  12/10, 9/11, 11/6, 11/5
Kylie Lindsay 3-2 Leonie Holt 11/4, 4/11, 7/11, 11/8, 11/4
Birgit Coufal 2-1 Julianne Courtice         11/7, 4/11, 13/11

We've brought you what we can, but the information flow from Gothenburg is a tad slow ...

The winners of the various European Leagues head to Sweden for the annual Club Championships, always one of the most enjoyable events of the year, and now rename the "European Champions' Cup".

Germany's Paderborn and England's Pontefract defend their men's and women's titles, with the finals set for Sunday afternoon after four days of Pool and Knockout action.

We know for a fact that Pontefract and B&W Worms have arrived, and we're looking forward to updates as the event progresses - well let's face it, at six pounds a pint our spies Terry Dudley and Barry Dodson  will be spending more time on their computers than at the bar ... probably.

What about the Refs ???
Martin Wren reports

The ESF Referees Committee were delighted to accept the very generous invitation from the hosts, Sweden, to nominate 6 referees to officiate during the ECC in Goteborg.

We saw this as an excellent opportunity for referees on the ESF development programme to gain more experience at international level and to progress towards the newly instituted WSF Regional Referee grade.

Those nominated by ESF were…

Ron van Alphen, Netherlands
Jean-Marc Fraipont, Belgium
David Loite, Norway
Marko Podgorsek, Slovenia
Michal Prikryl, Czech Republic
David Walker, England

A vital factor in the development programme is referee assessment and Wendy Danzey, WSF Assessor, from England has been appointed to carry out this important role.

Wendy, and Championships Referee, David McAlpine are working together to organise and schedule the programme of matching the referees to the matches that will provide the necessary challenge. 

Dodson on Day One

The newly named European Champions' Cup started today at midday at the Landala Squash Centre in Sweden with the official “Opening Ceremony”, so that the first matches could then take to the courts at 13:00. Both Black and White Worms and Paderborn Squash Club are here trying to take the title and the trophy back to Germany.

Today’s group matches should be relatively light warm-ups for the German Clubs and Worms, seeded at two in group B and Paderborn, seeded five in group D, then have the rest of the day free.

Playing today for the Black and White team at the main Landala centre are Davide Bianchetti, Marcus Berrett, Jens Schoor and Carsten Schoor.

In the second match tomorrow morning at 10:00 O’clock our fifth member of the team Daniel Hoffmann will get his turn to play and this match takes place on the Glass show court at Nordstan Shopping Centre.

Michael Zehe is also here to cheer his team on and has become our official photographer for this event.

Dodson's Tweets

German Photos by Michael Zehe ... GALLERY