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THE PLACE TO BE…
 Here
I was, in Wimbledon once again, to see a match between Goliath Esporta
and David Christophers, and who walks in????
Nobody other than
the official BBC squash commentator for the last British Open, star of
tennis court and passionate about squash (which proves how clever he is…),
Mr Andrew Castle, who is a member of Christopher's and playing for
their third team.
Well, thanks to Nick Staunton's sudden desire to fly to warmer climates
(he replaced a friend who couldn’t make a trip to India at the last
minute, and between a great Surrey League match and India, he chose India,
go figure…), Andrew was asked to step in, which he gladly did…
“It’s a late call! So, tonight, I’m just going to concentrate and get one
point”… said the Tennis Star with a big smile.
We went on talking a bit
about the British Open Finals. Andrew was extremely impressed by Amr
Shabana. But tell me why, when I told him that Amr was now happily engaged
with a French native language lady, he said “Oh, poor man, I feel for
him…”
I’m hurt, I’m really hurt…
GARNER HITS HARD
 Like
I told you a few weeks back, when I take notes, I use symbols to describe
shots, rallies, pace, etc. And for John White, I created a symbol, H, as
in Hit. Well, I don’t use that symbol often, but I used it last night for
Ben Garner, who was facing Still-Standing Steve Meads.
We were offered a very good 45 minute show, with Garner controlling most
of the rallies, with some extremely hard yet precise and tight hitting,
not to mention good deep length.
The only two little weaknesses in his
game would be, in my opinion, some irregularity in the quality of his drop
shots, and a certain lack of height in his defensive lob while under
pressure.
Meads was as good as he always is, retrieved Garner’s attacks, used his
own very dangerous defensive lob to get himself out of trouble more than
once, and got some cheap points with a remarkable return of serve nick
that surprised Ben every time…
The first game lasted 13 minutes and went to Garner 9/4. The second was
the closest, and should have been won by Meads, who was ahead for most of
it, leading 3/0 then 5/3. We stayed stuck there for 8 serves, then Garner
took off, never looking back, taking the game 9/5 in 23 long minutes, and
the last one 9/1 in 6 minutes…
Overall, Young Garner was too strong tonight for the nearly 35 years young
Steve Meads…
THE OTHER MATCHES…
 I
didn’t see Rob Staunton (Christophers) against James Robbins,
but I heard that Rob pulled a leg muscle in the first two points of the
match (well, that’s Jesters for you…), and wasn’t able to really do
himself justice. I unfortunately didn’t see Eric McAlpine against
Stuart Cowie either, sorry.
But I saw Guy Alby, who I’ve known for quite a while now, and who
hasn’t changed an inch for years. Same figure, same fitness, same precise
game. But Del Harris, although retired, still knows how to “whack it
low and hard”, as he says with a big smile, and was never under threat…
 The
nice surprise came from Andrew Castle, who is really a very good
fighter, I must say. Yes, the outcome of his match against Ricky Davis
was never nail biting, of course. But it was a real pleasure to see a man
who doesn’t give up that easily…
Beautiful drop shots, excellent volleys, perfect fitness, Castle just
needs two things: first, to look at his opponent when he is receiving the
serve, and two, to come back to the T as, at the moment, he stays a bit
too far back, which allows his opponent to play short balls too easily.
But Andrew served us with some good rallies, good entertainment, and a
great Hewitt style “Come On” when he saved his first match ball ...
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ESPORTA:
DISCREET PETER
The least that one can say about
Peter Smith, the Team Manager for Esporta, is that he doesn’t like to
show off. Always there, in the background, discreet, attentive and caring,
always with the good of his club in mind…
 “We are doing very well, very well indeed this season. Yes, we are proud
to have the name of Peter Nicol associated with the club, although a heavy
schedule hasn’t permitted Peter to play more than three matches for us so
far…
This year, we have succeeded to have a more regular squad than the
previous years, and I’m happy with that. The end of the season is going to
be very close indeed, and although we still have an important match
against Lakeside, all could depend on the last match between St Georges
and Esporta on 2nd March.”
Well, I should be back from
New York, and not gone to Kuwait yet, so I
should be there reporting to you on that one… |
“It’s
no excuse, but I just had three weeks where I played a lot of very
hard matches. And that's the reason why I stopped PSA, because I
just couldn’t play week after week, and my coaching is also taking a
lot out of me, not that I’ m complaining… But at the end of the day,
Ben was just too strong tonight. We’ve played each other in the
past, he has improved, I’ve probably got worse. 
