"Laurence opened the hostilities with a good match against Kirsty
McPhee. She fought hard in the first two games, countering Kirsty
quite well at the front.
"Annelize played two super games, with one only unforced error,
leaving no chance to Rebecca Botwright. In the third, Becky came
right back in, gave Annelize, who was a little less precise a hell
of a game. Still, experience prevailed, score, 9/7.
"As for myself, I got on court a bit tense, even with experience,
it's still difficult to handle that kind of match. Lauren played
remarkably well, and I had to work very hard to win the encounter.
"We are proud to have represented the French colours, and thanks to
all who have supported us."
We would love to have
some more and photos from the teams ...
ecc@squashsite.co.uk
15-sep, Finals:
Second time lucky
for L'Hermine ...
It was a repeat of last year's women's final in Malmo, but this time
around it was the turn of L'Hermine Rennes to claim the European
Club Championship title.
Defending champions Pontefract got off to a perfect start when
Kirsty McPhee beat Laurence Bois, but in the top string Annelize
Naude wasted no time in levelling the match as she beat Becky
Botwright - just as she did when taking Bordeshelm to the title in
2005.
L'Hermine were favourites for the decider, and although Isabelle
Stoehr dropped the second game to Lauren Siddall, there was no
stopping the French number one as she took the next two games to
give France its third women's title, but a first for L'Hermine ...
... and a Fourth for
title Paderborn The men's final was a reprise
too, but of the 2005 final. That time it was the hosts Paderborn who
won, to make it a hat-trick of titles, and they repeated the feat
tonight to disappoint the Hungarian fans.
Simon Roesner and James Willstrop put the German outfit into a 2-0
lead, and although Nick Taylor pulled one back for Rozsadombi, once
Stefan Leifels went 2-1 up against Lucas Buit it was all over.
Men's Final:
Paberborn 3-1 Rozsadombi Simon Rosner 3-1 David Evans10/8, 9/2, 5/9, 9/3 James Willstrop 3-0 Laurens Jan
Anjema9/4, 9/0, 9/3 Tim Garner 0-3 Nick Taylor0/9, 2/9, 4/9 Stefan Leifels 2-1 Lucas
Buit10/9, 6/9, 9/2
After the pool stages it was down to the playoffs in Budapest, with
men's top seeds Colets and Rouen receiving byes into
the semi-finals.
Hosts Rozsadombi put out defending champions Stuttgart
in the quarterfinal as the match went to countback, to set up a
meeting with English champions Colets, while 2005 champions
Paderborn beat Sweden's Intersquash to move into a
semi-final with the French champions.
Top two ousted in semis
Both semifinals were lengthy affairs, and it took five hours for the
hosts to overcome English champions Colets with Lucas Buit's opening
3/2 win over Danny Meddings proving crucial.
Nick Matthew levelled the tie for Colets, but Nick Taylor put the
Hungarians back into the leads as he beat fellow-English 'veteran'
Mark Cairns, before David Evans put the result beyond doubt as he
went 2/1 up on fellow Welshman Alex Gough.
A second upset was to follow as Germany's Paderborn, led by English
Grand Prix champion James Willstrop, recorded a similar 3/1
scoreline against Rouen. Willstrop beat Daryl Selby, and Simon
Roesner put the Germans further ahead when Jan Koukal was forced to
retire after one game.
Marcus Berrett pulled one back for Rouen as he beat Tim Garner in
another clash between 'retired' English stars, but there was no
stopping Paderborn as Stefan Liefels delivered the final blow with a
straight-games win over Laurence Delasaux.
So the final will be a repeat of 2005 when Paderborn claimed a third
successive title at the expense of first-time finalists Rozsadombi.
But this time it's the Hungarians who are at home ...
Pontefract still on track
In the women's final top seeds L'Hermine, from Rennes in France,
take on defending champions Pontefract, the Yorkshire outfit who
beat Bordesholm 2-1 in their semi-final - gaining revenge for their
defeat by the Germans in the 2005 final.
Some
news from the EEC.. We won our pool matches with not too much
trouble, first one against Danish Champions Copenhagen squash club
3/0 and the second against Spanish ladies of Can Melich.
Then we played the semis against Dublin, with Annelize winning 9/6
9/7 9/7 against Aisling Blake in a long and close match as the two
girls know each other quite well (they train together in Amsterdam).
As for myself, I played Laura Mylotte, another close encounter as we
also do know each other very well, a match I won 9/4 9/1 9/7...
Charlotte ended the evening winning the dead rubber 9/4 10/8.
We are playing the final against Pontefract, Laurence is opening the
match, then Annelize, and myself. Going to be tough, as the English
girls came with around 30 supporters, and we, three (Philippe, Magic
and Loïc!). So we hope our "bretons" are going to use their voice!
A litte thought for our "squash legend" Sonia Pasteris who couldn't
make it this weekend...
Men's Playoffs
Quarters, Fri
14th
Semis, Fri 14th
Final, Sat 15th
Colets (Eng) bye
Colets
3/1 Rozsadombi
Rozsadombi
3/1
Paderborn
Rozsadombi (Hun)
2-2
Stuttgart (Ger)
Paderborn (Ger)
3-1
Intersquash (Swe)
Paderborn
3/1
Rouen
bye Rouen (Fra)
Final:
Paberborn 3-1 Rozsadombi Simon Rosner 3-1 David Evans10/8, 9/2, 5/9, 9/3 James Willstrop 3-0 Laurens
Jan Anjema9/4, 9/0, 9/3 Tim Garner 0-3 Nick Taylor0/9, 2/9, 4/9 Stefan Leifels 2-1
Lucas Buit10/9, 6/9, 9/2
Semi-Finals:
Rózsadombi Sport Egyesület 3-1 Colets Health & Fitness
Lucas Buit 3-2 Danny Meddings
9/2, 9/2, 8/9, 4/9, 9/4
Laurens Jan Anjema 0-3 Nick Matthew 8/10, 4/9, 2/9
Nick Taylor 3-0 Mark Cairns
9/2, 9/2, 9/1
David Evans 2-1 Alex Gough
9/8, 3/9, 9/3
Paderborn Squash Club
3-1 Rouen Squash Equipe James Willstrop 3-0 Daryl Selby
9/7, 9/6, 9/5
Simon Roesner 1-0 Jan Koukal
9/5
Tim Garner 0-3 Marcus Berrett
3/9, 4/9, 8/9
Stefan Leifels 3-0 Laurence Delasaux 9/4,
10/8, 9/3
Squash is mostly an individual sport, and even if we are talking
about World Team events, we don’t think about good atmosphere, local
budget, supporters, fanatics, sponsors. But not in the championship
of clubs!
This is what it is all about. Which squash workshop is the most
reputed in Europe 2007. We can see players from European Junior
Champions, through top ten Pro stars, to senior names well above
their 30s.
But who has the budget to pay for the best fighters while running a
club successfully for mainly amateurs, and earn the honourable
mention of the title The Best Club in Europe?
The tournament is under way to decide. There are two very busy
venues, packed with players, coaches and supporters. I could arrive
quite late into the 5 court Rozsadombi club, only for the evening
ties between Colets and Impuls on the semi-glass court, and
Intersquash-Langnau, Rozsadombi-Copenhagen on 2-2 traditional
courts.
Sorry for being a bit confused, but there were so many matches and
players around, that I can only share my general impressions. Colets
has the best supporters, with fantastic atmosphere! Danish and Swiss
supporters were mostly beautiful women. You could see some top ten
world-class players around with semi-pro others. Surprisingly, you
don’t feel any stress or pressure on their moves, as if it was just
a preparation for the season, and a very high level training
session, a fiesta.
Preview
from Daniel Szabo
The organizers are prepared and the most beautiful hillside
neighbourhood of Budapest (Rózsadomb) is ready to host the best 32
men’s and women’s teams from 17 European countries, with the
draw is due to be presented by tomorrow evening.
This year we will see the best clubs of England, France, the
Netherlands, two teams from Germany and Hungary (with title holders’
and hosts’ privileges) competing for the trophy.
Thanks to the enthusiastic organizers, some of the matches will be
covered via live video and audio streaming through the
internet similar to the 2006 European Individual Champs.
Some of the big names participating: the recently crowned EGP winner
James Willstrop (Paderborn Squash Club) in the men’s event,
and former world number one Vanessa Atkinson in the ladies
event.
It seems that the only non-European player will be Amr Mansi
from Egypt playing for the Swedish champions Intersquash Club.
