Posts Tagged ‘Michael Ferreira’
Stamford Squash Club No.1 Spencer ‘Bez’ Beresford also plays for the RAF squash team, and on a recent tour to Hong Kong bumped into none other than the legendary ex-Stamford player Mike Ferriera, now moved on from New York and living and working in Honkers.
Mike Ferriera (Left) and Spencer 'Bez' Beresford meet in Hong Kong.
The RAF Team (which also included yet another ex-Stamford player, now moved to Anglesey, Glynn Williams) played against local clubs including the Hong Kong Football Club, Hong Kong Cricket Club, Kowloon Cricket Club, Hong Kong Squash Centre and the Ladies Recreational Club (LRC) where Bez played Mike (losing 3-0).
To mark the fixture, Bez bravely asked for, and received, dispensation to play in the Stamford strip pictured here, rather than the RAF Team strip, for that match. It may not have helped him win, but he would certainly have looked good.
report from www.collegesquash.com
Michael played Julian Illingworth, Yale’s number one male player and seeded to reach the final. Michael immediately showed he has the game to put immense pressure on the talented Yale sophomore. Illingworth, who was not sharp at the outset, ran into a focused buzz saw in Ferreira, whose accuracy was totally on target, allowing him to jump on every Illingworth loose ball.
Ferreira ran to a fast 9-5 first game lead, and then an almost unbelieveable 9-0 second game against Illingworth. Ferreira continued to take advantage of Illingworth mistakes, steadily moving to a 2-0 7-2 lead; at which point his game plan tragically changed — he began looking to close out the points too quickly, and began clipping the top of the tin. In the third, it wasn’t that Illingworth really became inspired, though he did become steady as a rock and determined. It was a series of Ferreira mistakes that brought Julian steadily back into the game.
Once Ferreira had let Illingworth back in, at 7-7 in the third, Illingworth took charge. He closed out the third and gained more and more advantage throughout the fourth, as he closed out his near escape, 5-9, 0-9, 9-7, 9-7, 9-1.
Michael played at No.1 for Trinity against Gilly Lane (Freshman from Penn) and won 9-2,9-3,9-4. Trinity beat Penn comfortably 8-1.
However, a few days before Trinity were playing Yale and Michael lost at No.1 against Julian Illingworth (ranked one place below him at beginning of the season) – though Trinity won 6-3 overall.
Michael won the first two games of this semi-final against the No.1 seed El-Halaby from Priceton, 6-9, 7-9. However his best opportunity came when he served in the fourth game at 7-all. However, El-Halaby ran out that game when he hit a good ball that clung too tightly to the right wall to be returned by Michael. The Egypt-born Princeton freshman then won the fifth game 9-1 to take the match 3-2.
Last week, whilst the rest of the Trinity players won, Michael lost. So he is human after all – Michael won the first game 9-7 but then lost the next three games – 9-7,9-3,9-1.
For the full team match report CLICK HERE
Mike against Will Evans of Princeton
Meanwhile, Trinity College are National Champions for the 5th year running.
We are led to believe that before Christmas Michael was in Australia training with some of the best from times gone by. However, with all those beaches, glorious sunshine, plenty of bars and other distractions, is it true? Well, if his match last week was anything to go by – yes! He had a convincing win against Anschul Manchanda from Yale, 9-3, 9-1, 9-1.
However, most of the Trinity team had a convincing win so I’m sure there’ll be some tougher matches to come!
Richard Barker (pictured right, though this picture was taken before the crushing defeat – he hasn’t been seen smiling since!) is not the first person at Stamford Squash Club to be beaten convincingly by Michael and will, no doubt, not be the last. Michael didn’t let Rich get a point – yes, to you and me that’s 27-0! Annihilated indeed. A term described in the dictionary rather well:
a)To destroy completely
b)To reduce to nonexistence
c)To defeat decisively.
The question is, who will be next?