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17-Apr, Final:
[2] Alister Walker (Eng) bt [1] Tommy Berden (Ned)
      8/11, 11/5, 8/11, 11/1, 11/7

Walker takes out Tommy
in Hellendoorn Final

England's second seed Alister Walker collected the title in the Netherlands, beating local favourite and top seed Tommy Berden in a five-game final.

Andy Whipp's diary ... #2

Firstly I'd like to say what a great tournament this was. The organiser and owner of the squash club, Mark, really made sure we were well looked after.

Free drinks were provided all day every day (which included beer, which was fully taken advantage of on Sunday), sandwiches and fruit were always available, a chinese on saturday night (including banana fritters, mmmm) and the three of us that were left on sunday night got treated to a lovely meal at the local italian, they really know the best way to a squash players heart, well my heart at least.

The club itself was great, good courts and all the locals were so nice and outgoing, so considering everything and the fact there were 4 or 5 lovely older women I think all the players will be booking their flight for next year asap!

Onto the final, Ali against Tommy. This final certainly attracted the spectators, the club was completely packed, I think the entire population of Hellendoorn must have been there, and with no disrespect to Ali I don't think anyone was there to watch him with Tommy being the local hero.

From the very start the rallies were long and close but with Tommy usually coming out on top with errors from Mr Walker. Ali was lucky to have me in his corner (as anyone would be!) as I could see where he was getting success. As soon as I told him to take it in short and straight on the backhand whenever he had a loose ball and then be ready to cover Tommy's straight lobs, get across and volley them deep with pace, putting huge pressure on Tommy to get back and recover, he was getting obvious rewards. Ali was an excellent pupil, heeded my advice and stuck to it, and won the second and forth games very comfortably indeed, with Tommy playing excellent error-free squash in the third.

The fifth was obviously a tense affair, but Ali stuck to his game plan 100% and didn't let the match get scrappy. He got a good start going 3-1 up, then stayed two points up till 5-3, then a couple of tins, and Tommy clawed it back and got ahead 7-6, the only time he lead in the fifth. I was now beginning to think Tommy might win, but Ali played great, and a few uncharacteristic tins from Tommy due to the pressure gave Ali match ball which he converted with the aid of another Berden tin.

Maybe in the end Tommy's difficult, dreaded no.1 seeds draw played a part, as it has to be hard to play myself, Drew Boy and Ali all in a day and a half, but absolutely no credit can be taken away from Ali who really picked up his game in the final. I personally think it was mainly due to coach Whipp, I was his Apollo Creed to Rocky, his Mourinho to Joe Cole, his Dre to Eminem, or his Sonny to Cher!?

In Hellendoorn a good time was had by all (especially the egyptian boys who ended up in the Jacuzzi at 4am sunday morning with some of the aforementioned ladies!). OK, enough drivel for today, I'll be in touch again next week from Italy. Grrrr

Andy Whipp

Lee Drew

8/11, 11/5, 8/11, 11/1, 11/7

Alister Walker

Alister Walker

Qualifying:

Finals:
Simon Rösner bt James Stout  3/1
Amr Swelim bt Karamatullah Khan  3/0
Mark Reus bt Tom Hoevenaars  3/0
Badr Abdel Azis bt Bader Al Hussaini  3/0

Round One:
James Stout - bye
Simon Rösner bt Niels Hovenaars  3/0
Amr Swelim bt Gabor Marges  3/0
Badr Abdel Aziz bt ???
Karamatullah Khan bt Rene Mijs  3/1
Bader Al Hussaini bt Dennis Drenjovski  3/0
Mark Reus bt Luca Mastrostefano  3/0
Tom Hoevenaars - bye

Andy Whipp's diary ... #1

So now I'm in Hellendoorn in Holland, literally in the middle of nowhere. We all had a two hour journey from Amsterdam airport to get here, and the first thing you see on your way to the squash club, a windmill of course. I haven't yet seen a field full of tulips or anyone wearing a fashionable pair of clogs but lets not rule out the possibility, there's still time.

Our hotel is a very strange place. It's like a band camp offering a wide range of activities from wall climbing, army assault courses, standing on beer crates, to fake costume sumo wrestling! Also the whole place is made entirely of wood which prompted Ali Walker to say "If you wanted to break in you'd just need a saw", he was very proud of this joke, poor lad!

My squash has offered a fairly frustrating experience on several levels. Firstly I was given the hardest possible draw. I was drawn to play the qualifier Amr Swelim from egypt who was definitely the hardest first round, and my reward would be to play Tommy Berden the no.1 seed.

I went on court against Swelim and for the majority of the match played well. A great first game which I won 11-4, then a long, hard second game which I had to grind out 14-12. All I had to do now was to make a good start in the third to dishearten him, which I did and sped to a healthy 8-1 lead, then pulled through 11-6. This was quite a pleasing result, especially as it's two matches a day.

Now onto my match with Tommy. Tommy's a strange person to play, not just because he gets the reddest face in the world and his hair stays bone dry (what's all that about?) but because he puts no pace on the ball and does little more than hit it accurately to the back. This means I had to generate all the pace. I made a poor start after several 500 shot rallies, but then got a bit better. It was a tough match which I eventually lost 3-1, but for large parts I felt well in control. This was frustrating obviously because I lost but also because I played an awful fourth game when I wasn't even tired, hmmmm!

Ok, I've just watched Ali win 3-0 against Dylan Bennet to get to the final, he's had a rather nice draw, again frustrating for poor little-legged me.

I'll let you know how the final goes tomorrow. Adios ...

Andy Whipp