Ian McKenzie reports
from Boblingen on a dramatic final
Match #1 -
Arcucci
comeback
In scenes of near
bedlam the French No.4 Jean Michel Arcucci came back from
a 2/0 deficit to defeat England's Del
Harris in the first match of the final of the
European Team Championships in Boblingen, Germany.
On a hot court
with a bouncy ball Harris powered his way to a convincing lead 9-2,
9-3 with Arcucci defensive to the point of being negative. The
Frenchman however kept in touch to sneak ahead in
the third as Harris became exasperated with the
referee. The racket was knocked out of his hand on the
final point and he ran to show he could have got the ball, only to be
rewarded with a no let as his opponent got a game back 9-5.
In the fourth Harris established a 3-0 lead,
tinned, received a no let and had a little off-court
interchange with the referee in which he asked the
crowd if anyone had glasses for the referee and suggested that he was a
'donut'.
It didn't do him any good. He received a
conduct stroke and subsequently lost the plot. In
erratic play he tinned and was stroked three times
for Arcucci to level the game 9-5 in much excitement.
A chat with England coach Paul Carter between games, a change into fresh
kit, and a positive start saw him looking good at 2-0 in the fifth
but it was a mirage. A tin, a questionable attempt
at the nick off service and a
slide started from which he was never able to recover.
Harris never regained
service and after 2 hours 12 minutes Arcucci was bouncing and
punching his fists in the air as pandemonium broke
out in the French corner and the crowd stood in a
standing ovation. You would have thought they had won the whole
thing.
There was a long way to go yet. But this
was a match they needed to challenge
England ...
Match #2 -
Beachill levels it
It was an edgy start by Lee Beachill in the third
string match against Gregory Gaultier following he
fall of Del Harris. He tinned seven times in the
first losing it 9-2 as the Frenchman kept him at the back.
"I had to try to get back in front. He got
me behind him at the start," said Beachill. "He is
a good player. I was slow to start and he was very good."
It took time but Beachill worked his way back into the match taking the
second 9-2 and going 4-1 ahead in the third. Gaultier surged to go
ahead briefly 5-4 with some sharp kills, Beachill
responded with two winners and in the deciding
phase of the match Gaultier lapsed into error and
lost it in a hand 9-5.
He was not to get it back. At 3-6 in the
fourth he was in touch but Beachill was by now
clinical and tactically sound against the erratic
flare of his opponent. A hand of winners from 4-6 gave it to Beachill 9-4.
It was not easy, took 1 hour 28 minutes but England were back in the
match 3-9, 9-2, 9-5, 9-4.
"I needed to win," said Beachill. "It's all to play for now."
"We still don't know," said Gaultier on the result.
The matches are tied at one all but as No.1 player's Chris Walker and
Thierry Lincou fight it out England are ahead on games and that could
be important.
Match #3 -
Lincou puts France ahead
In emotional and dramatic scenes at the Dome in
Boblingen French No.1 Thierry Lincou survived a
brilliant last ditch comeback form Chris Walker to
win a valuable 3/0 victory and put the French 2/1 up in this finals
clash. The pressure is now on Mark Chaloner
at No.2. He has to win 3/0 to guarantee an England
victory.
If the Frenchman Renan
Lavigne gets a game it will be down to a points
count back and my calculations are that the French
are ahead there, 80 points to 78 points.
At the end of this match every point was cheered as Walker came back. He
had been a little error prone, lacked any consistent length and
seemed certain to fall to a very focused Lincou.
The first two games had gone
9-4, 9-5 and at 7-2 the end was in sight for
Walker but as he admitted afterwards he was able
to pull out "a few of my
old tricks", finally found some length
and time on the T, allowing him to
intercept and we were able to witness a brilliant
corner to corner display of shots, deception and
unbelievable recoveries. Every rally there was an
incident. Walker pressured the referee. Twice
Lincou was drilled off the back wall. Every point was cheered and the
chants of the French - Allez, Allez rang around the Dome.
Anything could
have happened at the end as Walker came back to save three match
balls amongst countless lets, level 8 all, win
game ball himself 9-8 before Lincou's winning
clinger forced a mistake and he was rightly denied a let
on the final French winner. There was pandemonium as Lincou,
euphoric, bounced in the air and Walker's racket
disappeared down the court into pieces.
The crowd were standing again, cheering as the players hugged on court and
even the referee had his hand shaken.
Match #4 -
Chaloner clinches it for England
It all came down to
the final match and England had the right man to send on
in a tight situation and they had used him before Mark Chaloner.
Charged
up and focused he came on and and blew away an understandably edgy
Lavigne 9-0. That seems to be that. It was not
over but the pendulum had swung dramatically
England's way. The second game however was different. Lavigne
got into his game, Chaloner made a few errors and the Frenchman was
suddenly ahead 5-1.
It took a long time then but
at 7-5 Lavigne smashed a volley back
at Chaloner, clenched his fist at his
baying supporters, received a stroke to be on
gameball 8-5, and it seemed deservedly his. But
Chaloner was having none of it. He fought back,
levelled in a hand, and then when he had the
chance himself slammed in a unplayable backhand straight nick to take the
game 10-8.
That levelled the games in
the tie but effectively the French challenge,
brave challenge, was over. The supporters were muted,
Lavigne was muted in his play as Chaloner busied himself with his work,
rattled off a 9-0 game and retained the European title for England.
"We knew we were in for a hell of a match today. The French team have come
on a lot in the last few years," said England coach David Pearson.
"It was an example of what will and friendship can achieve," said the French
coach Andre Delhoste. |
