World Master South Africa October 2006

  

See also http://www.squashplayer.co.uk/resultspage.asp?Key=995

and Initial Info

 The Eighth World Masters were held in Cape Town, South Africa, a lovely venue for anyone at any time. 670, give or take a few, squash players of all shapes and sizes from 40+ Nationalities arrived circa the 12/13 October to sign in at the recently built Western Province Sports Club, about a mile away from the original club at Newlands, home of South African cricket and Rugby. There were 5 venues provided, WPCC, Varsity Old Boys (100 yards away), Bishops School, (the Eton of South Africa – at a fraction of the cost!) plus Villagers and Kelvin Grove, the prestigious club next door to Newlands.

One thing that has to be spoken about in print was the WSF seedings. Despite England Squash

Masters putting  in the British and European seedings, these were not taken note of and WSF instead asked a couple of elder players, for advice, which in cold light was not a sensible option as there were some major mistakes. However, ESM will be asked to help with the seedings for the next World Masters in New Zealand 2008. Overall, English players headed the medal tables with 5 victors (Peter Alexander, Jonny Leslie, Adrian Wright, John Woodliffe, Anne Manley) and 5 finalists (Stuart Hardy, Martin Pearse, Chris Stahl, Johnathan Clark, Bett Dryhurst).

 The Women’s events did not go too well for the English players that entered. The competition was in the main too strong. Former World Champion Sarah Fitzgerald blitzed the O35 event smashing the very voluable self opinionated Australian Cindy Meintze in the final. However, the latter had similarly dealt with Isabelle Tweedle in the Semi, our only representative to the final stages. A small draw here. Isabelle Tyrell from Leicestershire, earlier, had victories over Ilse Van Buynder before losing to Sharon Wakeford and No 2 seed Isabelle Tweedle beat Del Jongh and Anne Bourne before her Semi defeat.

 The O40 also had a guaranteed winner in local girl Angie Clifton Parks wife of Craig Van Der Wath. She took out Viv Doeg in the final. Mandy Akin, the English No 1 lost 2-3 in the quarters to Sharon Le Roux after travelling all the way to play - Clair Baker! Fran Wallis, who should have been seeded well above Zoe Durbach, now resident in Africa, lost 1-3 to Bea de Dreu Spitze. In the end Angie was far too good for all the rest.

 The O45 again saw South African’s contest the final, the winner of whom Janet Van Der Westhuisen                had beaten No 1 seed Karen Hume.'The latter had a very hard game with Sally Jee, who led 4/1 in the fifth, but Karen stuck at her task and showed her mental strength by winning 9/7 to clinch the match.  Karen had earlier beaten Mariet Smal 3-1 and Susan Farquharson 3-0 whilst Sally got her monies worth with a brace of 3-2 victories before losing to Karen. Tamsin Bennett won twice as well but also came up against Van Westhuisen going down 0-3. Hume beat O’Grady in the play off to record third place.

 The O50’s also saw foreign domination. Anne Richards from SA and now Australia’s, beating Pauline Douglas from SA and Scotland 3-1. Carolyn Roylance attained the highest position for an English player, winning twice against Melanie Knibbs (RSA) 10-8 in the fifth and 3-0 against England’s Jan Ellis who herself had beaten Mary Hackett 3-0.

The O55’s saw two Australians fighting it out in the Final, Kathy Paterson and Sue Volkze. Paterson had beaten No 1 seed Averil Murphy 9-7 in the fifth in the Semi and Faith Sinclair 3-1 in the Quarters. Murphy took third place over Maggie Hunt Kemp.

The O60’s bright light was Anne Manley winning her first World title over former 55 runner up Bett Dryhurst who had match ball in Helsinki in 2004. Dryhurst had earlier beaten Maeve Spotswood 3-1 and former World Champion Jean Grainger 3-1, whilst Manley took out Nette Morris 3-0 and Liz Pratten 3-1. She would be very pleased to beat Bett, score 10/9  9/4  9/6.

Finally, Joan Witton was the only representative in the O65’s which was won by Barbara Sanderson of Ireland in a very small draw of 8.

The Men’s events were a different story however, with considerable success. Your Committee contributed:

Adrian Wright – Winner

Chris Stahl – Finalist

Martin Pearse – Finalist

Peter Alexander – Winner

Stuart Hardy – Finalist

Mike Clemson – Quarters

Mandy Akin – Quarters

Karen Hume - Semi

No mean feat for such an august bunch!

In the O35’s English representation was Mark Allen (No 1 seed), Gary Clarke, Stuart Summers, Jez Westwell and Guy Olby. Olby won two matches before unluckily meeting the winner Mike Toothill (3/4 seed) whilst Summers lost to Allen in the Quarters who in turn lost to Franklin. But Toothill came through as most peoples favourite beating cockney Scotsman Neil Frankland in the final. On the whole, court behaviour in the events was very good. However, one seeded Englishman (I had never heard of him before) was lucky he wasn’t sent off or struck off by a very lenient referee for some seemingly very volatile language. The noise factor was enormous from the crowd and may be most of the large gallery didn’t hear correctly. If he does that in England, he certainly won’t last long.

The O40’s saw Craig Van Der Wath outright favourite but a large contingent vying for the right to be a Finalist. Ray Burke sporting his army tattoos, won twice before opening the door to go on court with CVWD knowing only a broken leg would see him a victor! Peter Gunter beat Broussard 3-0 then Pitt 3-0 before damaging his hamstring against Steve McLoughlin. The latter, recently 40 won 3 times but lost to Jon Leeb 3-0 in the Quarters. Mark Hildred won twice before losing to Johnathan Clark, Clark beating Hannes Nel 3-0, Gavin Ramsay 3-0, Hildred 3-0 and Peters 3-0 before going down to Van Der Wath in the Final a bridge too far for the English player. Earlier Martin Greenslade beat Cook 3-2, Thomson 3-0, Piggott 3-2 before going down to old adversary Frank Ellis 0-3.

The O45’s had very little English representation with only one of the National team present this being Keith Hinds and a newcomer Michael Martin. The latter beat Linklater 3-0, Smith (RSA) 3-1 and Dale Robbins (Australia) 3-1 before crashing out to Simon Gogolin (Australia) 9/3  9/0  9/0. Hinds took out Coetzee (RSA), Harrison (RSA) 3-1 before going down to honeymooner and Scotsman Alan Thomson 3-0.

The O50’s however, was where the English domination started. Mark Cowley, unfortunately had to drop out due to work commitments and this left the door open for Chief Inspector Hardy (5/8). Stewart took the offering with open arms, gratefully, beating some very tough opposition en route, especially former South African No1, Johnny Orsmond, before he took out Peter Stephen of  SA in the Semi 3-0 to enter the Final. Unfortunately though, his opponent was friend and room mate, the latest entrant out of 670, at 11.58am, Peter Alexander. There was no way anyone was going to get even close to Peter, including the tough German Volker Hauke in the Semi Final and he just cruised through the draw as if they were practise matches to record his first World title at the third attempt. Earlier Duleep Adihetty had won three of his previous rounds before losing a tight and tough 3-0 to Volke Hauke in the Quarter Finals.

The O55 was probably the toughest group with some very good players unseeded. There were at least six seeds who had no right to be where they were and Gordon Daniel, the British Open Champion who was unseeded took out a couple easily. Unfortunately, he met the ultra talented Brian Cook of Australia, the 2004 Champion, whose forehand top spin volley is the best I have ever seen on a squash court. From any height and from anywhere. Plus he can do it on the backhand. Chris Wilson gave Cook a good workout, or maybe the other way round.

Jonny Leslie entering a tournament only means one thing, he intends to win it and his athleticism and experience proved too much for everyone including Cook in the Semi.Watching Leslie was like going back thirty years when he appeared in the British Open Final at Wembley and lost having gone on a suicidal training run before the match, thereby giving himself a severe oxygen debt at the end of the fifth. Common sense now prevails and Jonny‘s advantage of living 6.000 ft above sea level in Johannesburg made him very strong. At the other end, 3-4 Alan Colburn, the 2004 O50’s World Champion, lost an incredibly tight match with the very stately Trevor Colyer looking like a front row refugee on the squash court. Both are former Senior Internationals and the quality of shot from both players was incredible. The Final was a bridge too far for Colyer as his efforts of the day before were too big a handicap against Leslie who claimed his first Masters title. The legendary Roy Plumstead, former O45 and O50’s World Champion and a great favourite with the English players, had , earlier, given Leslie a demonstration of his incredible drops and lobs for two games until the Englishman took control. This was the group where in most peoples opinion, were the best Master’s players of all time and certainly the best quality squash.

The O60’s had a badly made up draw according to Galal Allam, former world top 10 (and my coach at Leicester in the 70’s). As president of Egyptian Squash he was definitely not amused by his lack of seeding, was very abrupt with the organisers, had his demand for a personal car refused and then got taken out 3-0 by the South African Dessie Schultz in a preliminary round. So he went home the same day no doubt to train furiously for the next World Masters. Schultz steamed through the draw but should have lost in the quarters to Ken Johnson who led 7/2 in the fifth despite trailing throughout. However, Schultz, a big rangy left hander with an enormous swing, gritted his teeth and took the match to Johnson’s utter horror. Quietly and efficiently Hugh Colburn took out everyone at the bottom of the draw including Mike Clemson (5/8) who had earlier beaten former Warwickshire No 1 in the seventies Chris Morgan who is now the Swaziland National Champion 3-0. The top half had a very strong section, Nick Topman, unhappy with his draw, having to retire against former England top 6 player in the seventies Dickie Carter of Middlesex. Trickie now lives in Cyprus, Cape Town and Maidenhead (!) and last year had a major health scare after catching a serious virus in the Wexham Hospital, Bucks but was back in action and looking to do well. Topman took the first two but Carter fought back before Topman retired ill with low sugar levels and was packed off for tests. Hopefully he will recover with rest. Martin Pearse 5/8, first met one of the top Australian’s Jeff Stone winning 3-0 and then took out Carter 3-0 in what had been predicted to be a tight match. The talented volleyer Okkie Venter certainly wasn’t on form for Pearse’s Quarter  and the next day in the Semi Finals the Norfolk player came back from an early deficit to beat long time adversary and friend and fellow Masters Chairman Nick Penstone to enter the Final. Colburn, however, was in no mood to let Pearse dictate and the former, after winning a crucially tight second game closed the match despite missing five match balls, to win his first title.

 The O65’s was a four horse race. Unfortunately the seedings were totally wrong with Len Froggitt having been seeded below Chris Stahl who he beat in the Jesters last season. This meant Len had to play Adrian Wright in the Quarters and one had to go. Len took it well but was not happy when he should have been seeded to play Stahl in the Semi Final. The latter took out Alban Brinders 3-0, David Rees 3-0 and Neil Thomson of Scotland 3-1 before squeaking through 10/9 in the fifth against Barry Gardiner of New Zealand who served down at 8/8 and out at 9/9. In the other half, Mighty White or Silver Fox, whichever he responds to, was alternately either murdering the opposition or giving them every chance to succeed! A slight blip was the Quarter Final against Kevin Redmayne of Australia before thrashing Brian Phillips of Wales, the No1 seed in the Semi Final. The Final was a fluctuating affair with Stahl replicating his British Open start. Wright then took the second and third extremely easily, but lost the fourth giving his corner palpitations. A good early lead in the fifth relaxed him enough to claim his first World title. Having known Adrian for 25 years, it is amazing how much he has improved at squash, in a very similar vein to John Perrott and it is living proof that any player, if they so wish, can make themselves a lot better, irrespective of age. Mind you, it does help that Wrighty has amazing power and agility for someone so compact. Or, as The Times said in 1999 in its column ‘Barrington beaten in comeback at World Masters in Sheffield by the portly Adrian Wright of Leicestershire.’ As Barrington has never been seen since in a competitive match on a squash court, you know who to blame!

The O70’s saw some tight matches. Lance Kinder seeded No 1 first of all took out probably one of the oldest and long servants of English squash, former Warwickshire No 1 Tony Breakwell. Chris Wilson, at 57, actually played a drop shot during the Open, but we are still all waiting for Tony to do the same! Kinder then saw his nemesis and great friend John Woodliffe take him out 10/8  9/7  10/8 to overturn the seedings. The latter had beaten Kuhn 3-0 and Thompson 3-0 before taking his place in the Semi. In the other half Malcolm Gilham took out Irving and Williams before going down to Brian Heath of South Africa, the No2 seed and 2004 O65 World Champion. Heath had also taken out Tony Seare.

The Final was a nail biter. Nip and tuck with Heath looking the most likely. But Army life has conditioned Mr Woodliffe never to give up and from a gallery point of view he must have been to church before the match. A trickle boast took Heath to match ball and then a touch volley winner nicked the tin! With both players having a couple of World Master’s  match balls, it was nail biting for all the supporters of both sides, but eventually Dad went one up on Son and claimed his first World title! Dad collected his trophy at the presentation in his England tracksuit and Army brogues!

 The O75’s looked fantastic for their age, no English entrants, the winner for the third time being Peter Fahrenheim of South Africa. Alex Hamilton of Scotland came third.

 As Chairman of England Squash Masters, on behalf of a number of players who travelled, the following pointers should be addressed to the WSF for New Zealand 2008.

Finally, on behalf of England Squash Masters, we would like to thank all the Committee of South African Squash who ran the Masters for all their unpaid efforts, the Referees who always have a thankless task, but in my personal opinion did very well and all the Clubs and Bishops which hosted us. We all look forward to New Zealand 2008 and Germany in 2010.