England Home International 2011 - Teams
Mens 50
1) Chris Harland (Capt)
2) Ian Bradburn
3) Duleep Adihetty
4) James Ockwell
5) Dermot Hurford
6) Jeremy Goulding
| Mens 70
1) Andrew Beeston
2) Lance Kinder
3) John Woodliffe
4) Malcolm Gilham
5) Tony Seare
Reserve: Roger Middleton
| Womens 50
1) Karen Hume (Capt)
2) Helen Gould
3) Jacky Gardner
4) Tamsin Bennett
5) Kath Kemp
6) Carolyn Roylance
Reserve:
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ENGLAND - NOTTINGHAM
Nottingham Squash Rackets Club
Tattershall Drive
The Park
Nottingham
NG7 1BX
Tel 0115 9417022
FRI 6thMAY -SUN 8th MAY
WO50, MO50, MO70
Map
Rutland Square Hotel
St James’s Street
Nottingham
NG1 6FJ
Tel: 0115 941 1114
We have the hotel exclusively to our group.
Car park, next to hotel, £6/night, but cars can be left at club (400m). Rooms available after 2.00pm Fri, you may use other facilities earlier.
Map
Manager's Report - Please scroll down the page for the following reports
MO50 -
MO70 - see also Events - Home Internationals - 2011 - England - Reports
WO50
Pictures
MAGIC HOME INTERNATIONALS --O50/O70
As always the Park SC provided a superb venue, along with the nearby Rutland Square Hotel, for a wonderful weekend of squash.
Matches were keenly contested in all cases with Wales MO70, strengthened by the inclusion of the ever youthful Mike Thurgur at No1, causing the biggest upset with victory over England O70 to win the trophy. A last game 10/9 victory for Harry Barnard over Tony Seare clinching Wales the title for the first time.
In the MO50 section the game of the weekend from Alan Thomson who came back from the dead to beat Jon Evans in another 10/9 in the last sealed victory for Scotland over Wales, but a much changed England team just had enough fire power to see off both these teams and take the trophy.
In the WO50 a tough decider between England and Wales saw 3 matches go the full distance before England prevailed 5-0.
All retired to the hotel for an excellent meal and entertainment from magician David Fox, and celebrations into the night. Many thanks to all the staff, and members at the club who provided referees, and the hotel for a very enjoyable weekend, special thanks to webmaster Adrian Wright who did a sterling job recording results and providing instant print outs of proceedings
Dave Hardern
The evening was young, it was sultry, and Bradburn was thirsty…
So it started.
Friday 6th May 2011, our campaign to retain the Men’s Over 50s trophy with two key War Horses absent through injury, the Mercurial Richard Millman and War Horse Dermot Hurford. Such is the strength of the age group that ex-internationals could be summoned: the Cool and Debonair Jeremy Goulding, and the Small-Yet-Beautifully-Formed Genie, Steve Barlow. The backbone of the side remained strong with Chris Harland (The Flying Doctor), Ian Bradburn (The Silver Fox), Duleep Adihetty (The Magician), and James Ockwell (The-Man-who-likes-Skirts).
The first match on the lively glass court at Nottingham Park involved a fit and keen Irish team who lead by example; only one of their squad drinks alcohol (but he makes up for the rest). Our boys clinically dispatched their honourable opponents, but Adihetty was gentlemanly in dropping one game. Captain Harland was in no mood to repeat the humiliation suffered by two of his team a few years ago when England lost for the first time in history. To this end he kept Bradburn on a lead for the rest of the evening. Unfortunately this was an extendable one, by about a gallon.
Saturday was the Day of Reckoning. The number one was destined to meet two of the top players in the world-at least on current from, as Jon Evans of Wales had all but beaten the world finalist, Alan Thomson, the previous night, losing out 10-9 in the fifth after an enthralling and ultra-high quality match. Harland saw this as his big opportunity to topple the Scotsman. But after being 2-0 up he could not sustain the attack, and Thomson ground him down with merciless lobbing to win. By then both Barlow and Ockwell had given us a 2-0 lead, albeit with the irritation of having to overcome a barrage of high-class shot-playing from opponents twice their size, and dropping a game each. Goulding was in no mood for history lessons. The Lion rose to the occasion without ruffling his mane, winning comfortably. Then a potential disaster occurred. No one had anticipated anything but a machine-gun of winners by Bradburn against a lesser player. But The Young Jockey, Chris Holt, rose to the occasion and won 3-0. England 3, Scotland 2.
Wales were hungry, and quietly confident that, without British Closed Champion, Mlilman, and the brilliant Mark Woodliffe, England would be fodder. It was that barely three hours later that Adihetty and Ockwell showed their class and gave a prompt 2-0 lead. Harland, fatigued by a Thomson Special, struggled to contain an extraordinary athlete (John Evans at 52 runs a 23 second 200m, and is GB triple jump champion), losing 0-3. And so the pressure was on Goulding again. And again he delivered with a smooth victory. Bradburn readjusted his sights, and blasted the talented Mike Workman into eventual submission, but not without a few hand grenades in his and the marker’s direction.
After the sweet taste of champagne, and other things, we staggered off to the celebratory function. What fun we had with magician, food, drink and camaraderie. After photos were taken, and ithe immortal words of our Webmaster: ‘It’s a bit dark in the middle’', it was an opportunity to thank many. Thank you Rebecca (The Chosen One) and Asda (The Other Chosen One) for supporting us. Special thanks go to Dave Hardern (England Squash Maestro), and Adrian Wright (General Maestro), The magician made everyone disappear except for the recalcitrant few.
The evening was late, it was sultry, and Barlow and Hardern were thirsty…So it ended.
Report on England Masters Over 70 Home Internationals 2011 played at the Nottingham Squash Rackets Club, The Park, Nottingham on 6th and 7th May 2011.
On the Friday evening, 6th May, England played a strong team from Ireland. First on court was Tony Seare, playing at number 5 against the newly appointed Ireland captain Brian McNally. After 57 minutes of hard play Tony, having saved 2 match balls, went on to win 10/9 in the fifth game, the scores were 9/2 7/9 6/9 9/1 10/9. The first blood to England. Next on court was the England captain Lance Kinder, the number 3 string, who played his very accurate drop and lob game to confuse Tom Hannon, but still Tom came back and managed to take the 3rd game to give Lance a run for his money. The game scores now were 9/7 10/8 5/9. However, Lance drew upon his squash expertise and decisively won the fourth game 9/1 to win his match 3/1. Andrew Beeston, the recently crowned British Closed champion, and surprisingly playing his first match in an England shirt, beat John O’Brien the Irish number 1 player 8/10 9/6 9/4 9/4. It was a more comprehensive win than the score suggests. England was now 3/0 up so had won the match. Malcolm Gilham found Deryck Patterson, the Irish number 4 string too lively an opponent and, although taking him to 5 games, lost 9/5 5/9 4/9 9/0 4/9. Last on court was John Woodliffe who beat Alec Richardson 3/0, the score was 9/4 9/5 9/6. Alec was carrying an injury but John played his usual intelligent and accurate game giving Alec no chance for a come back. Match result – England 4 Ireland 1.
On the Saturday morning Wales beat Ireland 4/1. As Scotland had pulled out of the weekend at the last minute because of injury and other commitments England had no match in the morning. England then had to face a very strong team from Wales in the afternoon. Malcolm Gilham did not want to play and England had to readjust their team. The first match of the afternoon saw Roger Middleton, the England reserve, playing at number 5 but he did not appear comfortable against his opponent David Rees, losing 1/9 9/6 4/9 8/10. Lance, again playing 3rd string was next to follow on court against Gary Williams. Lance worked Gary about the court winning the first 2 games 9/2 and 10/8 but then Gary, who was nursing an existing calf injury, came back at Lance taking the next 2 games 10/8 and 9/5. So it was left to a deciding 5th game, which Lance won 9/7, winning his match 3/2. Andrew Beeston then played the Wales first string, the evergreen Mike Thurgur, who proved too agile and strong for Andrew, winning 9/3 9/0 9/1. Tony Seare was next on court, playing at 4th string against Harry Barnard, and a very exiting match, with some debatable refereeing decisions, finished 10/9 in the 5th game in favour of Wales, 9/7 8/10 9/5 5/9 9/10 Just the one point in it but sufficient to give Wales their first win over England. The final match saw John Woodliffe give Gary Greenhaigh no chance at all with an immaculate display, winning 9/1 9/1 9/3, so the final match result was Wales 3 England 2. Should Wales have had Brian Phillips, who was out after surgery to an Achilles injury, also playing in their side then Wales would have been even stronger.
An excellent dinner that evening at The Rutland Square Hotel followed the two days of matches and everyone who had the privilege to play and attend the weekend thoroughly enjoyed the occasion.
Great venue and great hospitality, together with some fiercely competitive squash made this weekend one of the best Home International experiences in a long time.
Our first match was against the Irish Team and as usual was an extremely sociable occasion with the English team managing a comfortable 5-0 win. The real drama of the evening was taking place on the court next door where Wales secured an unexpected 3-2 win over Scotland-the gauntlet for the next day’s matches was well and truly thrown down. Accordingly alcohol consumption was strictly controlled during the evening, although Tammy and Helen still managed to slide a few extra bevies past the captain’s eagle eye!
Saturday morning, following an early breakfast, the English girls were putting the finishing touches to their practice routines. Kath Kemp started on the right note with a 3/0 victory, followed by the captain, Tammy and Helen in a similar vein. Jackie, drawing the short straw of playing last against the highly experienced Pauline Douglas, fought an extremely strenuous match. Despite holding match ball in the fourth, an unfortunate back injury at that point, not only stopped her from recording a win, but also denied the team her presence in the next match which would decide the winner of the tournament.
Following a carefully controlled calorie intake at lunch and the inclusion of our sixth player, Sue Pynegar, the team prepared for battle with the Welsh -and what a titanic battle it was! First Kath Kemp, with lots of 8s and 10s secured a tough 3-2 win. If we thought that the next match might be more straightforward, we were wrong. Fighting back from 0-2 down, Tammy showed great fighting spirit, winning the third 10-8, finally gaining a semblance of control in the last two games to come out a 3-2 winner. Helen, with a slightly nervy start, settled the result with a tightly contested 3-0 victory over Sian Johnson, thus securing the title for England. Sue Pynegar’s local knowledge was too much for Annette Davies, as Sue carefully placed the ball in the other corner from her –another 3-0 victory. Three and a half hours had passed by and the captain was requested to dispatch her opponent in the shortest possible time so that the team could immediately retire to the bar. Unfortunately nobody had told Lynne Davies about this arrangement and despite a 2-0 lead for England, the match ended in a thrilling 9-6 victory in the fifth- for England. A 5-0 result that hides an extremely hard fought four and three quarter hour match.
Refreshed, glammed up and raring to go the team celebrated with a glass or two of champagne, before the evening festivities began.
A big thank you to Dave Harden and his team for managing a brilliantly organised event.
Thank you Nottingham SRC.
Karen Hume
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