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Nicol takes another title in Baltimore
Former
World No. 1 Peter Nicol continued his dominance of the
new Legends of Squash Tour by edging past long time rival
John White 11/13, 14/12, 11/9, 12/10 in the final of the
Maryland Club Gold Legends event over the weekend in Baltimore,
Maryland.
Playing in front of a packed audience surrounding the two-sided
glass court at the club, it was White who set the pace early
with furious, slashing blasts for the nick that connected more
often than not and pulled him in to the early lead.
Nicol, however, has added offense to his traditional tireless
all-court retrieval skills and used of mix of both to climb back
in to the match in the second.
Whether it is the sheer fun of returning to court against old
friends and opponents or a renewed athletic enthusiasm borne
from realizing that they both “still have it”, White and Nicol
traded exhausting, delightful, magical rallies for more than 50
minutes before the Aberdeen based Nicol put away the
Pennsylvania based Scot White 3-1.
In earlier round robin play Nicol defeated David Evans
11/13, 11/7, 11/5 before firming up his game to top long time
nemesis Jonathon Power 13/11, 11/9 in another packed-out
crowd pleaser.
In the other pool, White defeated Simon Parke 13-11,
12-10 and overcame a stellar Martin Heath 6/11, 11/6,
11/9 to reach the final.
Rounding out the pool matches, Power beat Evans 11/3, 11/4 and
Heath beat Parke 11/4, 11/9. Heath earned Third Place honours
with a 2/0 win over Power.
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After Baltimore,
the current Legends of Squash rankings are:
1. Peter Nicol
1,500
2. Jonathon Power 800
3. John White
800
4. Simon Parke
560
5. Martin Heath
400
6. David Evans
280
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