Archive for 2002

Despite the scoreline making it look like a quick match, 9-3, 9-0, 9-0 – the match lasted for 34 minutes.

Tania made a good effort to respond to Sarah’s confident opening surge and pulled back from 5-1 to 5-3, but unfortunately she failed to win another point as the world number one dominated proceedings.

Fitz-Gerald said: “I am pleased to have got another British Open out of the way and I am looking forward to coming back to this magnificent venue for the Commonwealth Games in the summer. Tania is a very good young player and I am sure we will see much more of her at the final stages of main events in the future.”

Tania Bailey reached her first British Open final, beating Cassie Campion in a see-saw women’s semi-final. Tania began in positive fashion and Cassie looked a little nervous at the start. Tania took the first game 9-2 but Cassie turned the tables in the second, playing in a far more positive fashion to win the game 9-3.

We now had a battle on our hands and it was Tania who came out fighting in the third. She stepped up the pace again and made very few mistakes as she won it 9-4. Cassie took the fourth 9-3 but could not maintain her dominance as Tania raced to a 5-1 lead in the fifth. But Cassie hit back to lead 6-5 before again recovering to nick it 9-7. A very apt description, because at 7-7 she got a back-wall nick to move to match ball. She finished with a penalty stroke to enter her first British Open final.

“After the second game I tried to hit the ball cross-court,” explained Bailey, “Cassie was cutting off anything straight and I won a lot of points on cross-courts. I’ve only ever beaten Cassie when she was really injured, and I don’t think I believed I could beat her until yesterday’s match, which gave me lots of confidence.”

A philosophical Campion was “disappointed not to make the final, but I played as well as I could – I just felt a bit laboured. I can’t take anything away from Tania though, she played really well.”

Looking forward to the final, Bailey said ” I’m pretty much back to where I was before the lay-off, but I’m a better player in my head now. I don’t care who I play tomorrow. I am just delighted to be there.”

Tania blasted world number two Carol Owens off court for the best win of her career.

Tania dominated from the start, with Owens always struggling to keep up. “I think I played really well,” said Bailey to the crowd afterwards. “I hadn’t even thought about the next match because Carol is such a fantastic player, although she made a lot of errors today.

This is my best win, and now I’ve got to play another great player in Cassie. I’m really looking forward to it though, this is my first British Open semi-final.”

The match started off as a close affair. Tania started well to take the first game. Linda fought back to take the next two games.

Tania started very well in the fourth to go 3-0 up, when she then crashed into Linda causing her to limp a little. Linda then requested an injury break for a dead leg and had an off-court physio come to help.

Unfortunately for Linda, she had to retire injured after 55 minutes of play.

Tania now has a tough quarter final match, on Saturday, against Carol Owens the World Number 2. All the rest of the matches are now being played at the National Squash Centre in Manchester.

Tania won in 40 minutes, 9-4, 9-6, 9-6. She now has a tough match against Linda Charman-Smith tomorrow, who won very comfortably in 21 minutes (9-2, 9-0, 9-0) against a qualifier.

Having got through the qualifying round 3-0, it was to be a tough draw for Tania in the 1st Round.

So it proved, with Carol Owens, World Number 2, winning 9-1, 9-5, 9-6.

Click here to see the full draw of the Hurghada Open, Egypt.

Sunday, 24th March, was the date of the first final for the Daniel Lambert Squash Team. What an encounter. A run down on events is as follows.

Kim Cozens at String 5 looking forward to a game against Robin Soar wasn’t to be. A stronger team being put out by Town meant no place for Robin and down to String 5 came Monty. Previous meeting at String 4 had found him to be too strong against us. Battle commenced with Monty winning as expected 9-1, 9-2, 9-2.

Mark Lavers came in to battle with Simon King. A battle it was, going 2 games down 5-9, 1-9, and 6-0 down in the third, Simon was expecting to be off court soon. Not Mark, fighting back to win the third and fourth games 9-7, 9-7. Final game went all the way to 9-9 and after many on court debates by Simon and a few choice words by Mark, Mark went down 9-10. What a game!

A big decision had to made by the captain knowing the strength of their team. Mick Lewis at 3? John Fields at 2? Decision made Mick at 3.

Mick played Mark Philips and went down 6-9 in the first. Mick pulled it together and went on to win the next three. 9-2, 9-7, 9-7. Was this to be the turning point?

John played Bob Green, a player we knew from the past was going to be tough to beat. John got the message from the team above – go on we are still in it. True to form and like he has done on many occasions in the league this season and against Town II went on to win 3-0. 9-5, 9-3, 9-2.

Well it was all down Ian Burnham against young Dan Soar. What a start Ian made winning the first 9-5, winning the second 9-5. Expectations were raised. However, hopes were dashed with the young man’s fitness paying dividends in the end winning the next three 9-1, 9-4, 9-2.

Great time was had by all and further entertainment saw our first team, the Green Man, win the Cup.

Rachael from Australia beat Tania, 9-1, 5-9, 1-9, 9-1, 9-6 winning the match after playing for just over an hour.

Stamford arrived at Peterborough Town squash club with high hopes of doing the double having won Peterborough league division one by a staggering 50 points clear. Also the chance of revenge was anticipated as Oundle were the only team in the league to beat us and we were still smarting.

First on court was Mark (I need a couple of hours to sort myself out before I go on court) Smith against Neville Keir (No 2 string). This was always going to be a tough match for Smithy as he struggled against Neville last time and also, only had ten minutes preparation time! As expected Neville started strongly hitting a good length and width, stepping into the shots to volley which put Mark under a lot of pressure. Unable to settle into it the first game drifted away as Neville continued safe but consistent squash and Mark made the errors. First went to Neville 9-3. Time for a rethink from Mark and a pep talk from Yorkie, (unrepeatable for this audience)! The break though was not enough for Mark as the second followed on from the first with uncharacteristic errors from Mark allowing Neville a comfortable ride through, though continuing to play excellent squash and prevent Mark any chance of getting into the game. 9-3 again to Neville. Confidence now at rock bottom Mark was unable to recover his squash and went down 9-0 in the third for a comfortable victory for Oundle. 1-0

Next on was Richard Barker (playing for us in between skiing holidays) against the Oundle captain Phil Wallis (No 5 string). Richard was on a roll, after some outstanding victories in friendlies recently, notably the destruction of Jonathon Oakley, and went on court looking sharp. Richard immediately took control, playing good squash and retrieving well from Phil’s awkward shots. Few errors from Richard secured the first 9-5. The second went the same way with Richard looking comfortable as he moved Phil around the court, working him hard as he took the second 9-4. Disaster struck in the fourth as somebody flicked Richards off switch. A complete concentration failure allowed Phil back into the match as he stormed through the third with some good winners, errors from Richard as he was a couple of seconds off the pace. 9-5 to Phil as the tie stood at 2-1. A tense fourth ensued as the both players edged the score up to 8-8. Defeat for Stamford would surely cost them the match and this pressure sat heavily on Richards shoulders as he still struggled to regain his from. Excellent battling though gave him game ball at 9-8 and one rally was all he needed to take the tie 10-8. Stamford back in the match at 1-1.

Stamford captain, Simon Barker on court next against Peter Izod (No 4 string). The previous match saw Peter have a comfortable win over Simon and opportunity to overturn this result was not only a matter of pride for Simon it was a necessity to keep the match alive for Stamford. Some inspired squash from Simon, who picked the perfect match to start playing tight squash, and finally finding the elusive width that has been missing all season. Looking sharp and hungry Simon was onto everything early, rallying when needed and picking the shots to play winners off. 9-1 to Simon in the first. No pep talk from Yorkie so things were looking good. The second followed in the same vein, as Simon went on to a comfortable 9-4 win. Determined not to ease off, Simon came out for the third focused and still looking strong. The expected fight back from Peter came but Simon held him off to take the third 9-5. Stamford take the lead 2-1.

Yorkie on next against an old adversary in Chris Davey (No 1 string). The pressure was on Paul, a little short of match fitness after an injury, but well up for this match. Great rallying from both players was evident as the tie got under way with both of them having to work hard for every point. Outstanding shot after shot was played with both battling for everything. Chris though had the edge as he kept the errors to a minimum forcing Paul to make the mistakes. 9-4 to Chris. The second again was a hard battle but Chris kept the pressure on and more errors from Paul saw the game drift away for Chris to take it 9-2 and go 2-0 up. Needing the third to stay in the tie, Paul started strongly, playing better and cutting out the mistakes. Chris kept his head though and a titanic battle took them through to 8-8. Chris had just enough to make it count and took the next two points to win the game 10-8 and the tie 3-0.

2-2 in games, with the final game to play. Jon (fashion icon) Oakley against Nick Sims (No 3 string). This was set to be an excellent match. Both players very closely matched on fitness and skill and the final decider. It seemed though the occasion did much for Jon in the first as he blasted through the first. Hitting hard and to a good length, interspersed with a devastating short game, Nick was in trouble and went down in the first 9-0. The second saw a different player as Nick came out fighting. Some superb rallying followed. Excellent retrieving from both players returning tight shots with interest had the balcony spellbound. Nothing in it as the sores hit 6-6 then Jon put in a couple of outstanding winners to take him to game ball. As the serve changed hands a couple of times the tension was high before Jon finally took it 9-6. 2-0 now but no-one was willing to bet against Nick. The third again saw some fiery squash with both players driving the ball hard. Nothing in it again as they came up to 5-5 with the pain showing on both faces from hard rallying. Again though Jon turned it on for a couple of points hitting yet another couple of outstanding winners. This was enough to break Nick as Jon went on take the game 9-5 and the tie 3-0. 3-0 was not an accurate reflection on this tie as it was so close.

A fantastic result for Stamford to win the cup 3-2 on the night who end the season as league champions and cup winners.

Tania is due to play Senga MAcfie from Scotland on the 10th April. The 1st and 2nd rounds (10th/11th April) are being played at the Lambs Club in London and then the quarters, semis and final (13th-15th April) are being played at the National Squash Centre in Manchester.