Sun 20th, Finals: 
Claire Baker on the finals
 
[3/4] Marcus Berrett bt [1] Ong Beng Hee
         11/5, 11/4, 8/11, 11/7 (51m)

[1] Stephanie Brind bt Laura Lengthorn
         0/9, 5/9, 10/8, 9/2, 9/6 (59m)

Sat 19th, Semi-Finals: 
BACK TO WIMBLEDON for Framboise
 

WIMBLEDON CUP
DRAWS & RESULTS
BERRETT: TOO TIGHT

Marcus Berrett was too precise against Ong Beng Hee today, and didn’t give the Malaysian many chances to demonstrate his attacking talents.

Ong seems to still look for his previous magic, and as he is not that confident at the front, Marcus was able to win most of the drop/redrop battles they had at the front of the court.

If you add to that an impressive number of exquisite backhand straight drives that glued to the wall, preventing Ong from attacking, the Englishman was more or less in control of the rallies for most of the match…

A logical victory for the Yorkshire man, and just “little” hiccup in the recovery for the Malaysian…

[3/4] Marcus Berrett bt [1] Ong Beng Hee
         11/5, 11/4, 8/11, 11/7 (51m)

"Like I told you a few weeks ago, it’s all in my head… The last four matches I played, I really enjoyed myself, so I know I’m on the right track, but maybe sometimes, I get over competitive, and forget what it’s really all about, having fun, enjoying my squash…

"Even on a bad day, I’ve got to learn to win, and to remember to enjoy it!"

Ong Beng Hee
"Since Ong has moved up North, he quite often comes to Halifax, so we know each other’s game quite well, as we practice together sometimes.

"But I think that I played quite well today, and in particular I played very tight, which caused him a few problems.

"I had the feeling that we were playing a bit too much at the front. In the fourth, I was always ahead, I kept scraping everything back. During the whole match, I felt pretty confident, apart from that patch at the end of the third where I got a bit weary.

"When I came back in the fourth, I played extra length, and resisted the temptation to go for cheap winners, I was pleased to go back to my game…

"This week is murder: 5 matches this weekend, then Super League on Monday, Northern Counties on Tuesday, Yorkshire League on Wednesday, Super League on Thursday… and Saturday, skiing in Courchevel, France…"

Marcus Berrett

MARCUS MINI-PORTRAIT
  

STEPHANIE: SECOND TITLE

 Stephanie Brind was hoping to get her second Wimbledon Cup title today. But my goodness, after 30 minutes of play against 21 year old Laura-Jane Lengthorn, I wouldn’t have bet £1 on her chances, I must admit…

Come on, she was down 9/0 8/0, and didn’t seem that bothered about playing. But in fact, she was just starting… Traffic problems, not prepared enough mentally and physically for the match, she sort of woke up at that point.

On the other side, Laura was playing superbly, and seemed to be sailing to a certain victory. Good length, impressive hammering of the ball, precise drop shots… So easy. Too easy I guess. And the mind just went…

Once again, sorry for the analogy with Anthony Ricketts, but it reminded me of the final of Canary Wharf against John White on Friday. After a perfect start, it’s so difficult to stay concentrated, and the opponent gets a few points, gets a lot of confidence from it, and gets a momentum so hard to control…

From the third, Stephanie became much more offensive, stepped in front, while Laura seemed a bit overwhelmed with the change of mood of her opponent. But as her opponent equalised 2/2, Laura came right on top again in the fifth, and was leading comfortably 6/2, helped by five unforced errors from Stephanie.

But it was not to be for the English girl, who couldn’t score another point in the game. Stephanie strung the points one after the other, and a few minutes later, the two ladies were shaking hands, both stunned. One to have lost a sure game, the other to have won a lost cause…
 

"I feel like I lost the match, not as if she won it… I was up 9/0, 8/0, and it’s difficult to stay concentrated, I kept thinking any minute now, any minute now, I’m going to be up 2/0. And even in the third, where I didn’t have an actual game ball, I was still so close (I lost 10/8) to winning 3/0. But in the third, my movement went down, I could see her playing her boasts, but I couldn’t do anything about it. In the fourth, during the rallies, I kept on thinking “I can’t believe that a few minutes ago, I was up 2/0”, which is not the best mental attitude…

"In the fifth, it was like having to start all over again, and I did alright to start with, as I was up 6/2. And that’s what makes me say that she didn’t exactly win the match, I actually lost it. But at the end of the day, that’s what makes winning so special, because it’s so painful when you lose…"
    Laura Lengthorn
"I had an awful start, because I was not as warmed up as I wanted to be. I was stuck in traffic, I live in Bexley Heath, 22 miles away, and it took me 2 hours to arrive!

"So I wasn’t concentrated when I started the match, I couldn’t get my focus, and against Laura, that’s not good enough. She took the ball early, and she didn’t let me do anything. I was panicked, I thought I was going to lose 27/0, and I was like “please, let me get a point!”

"In the second, I came back from 8/0 to 5/8. I was playing well, and that gave me a lot of confidence. I started attacking, and started playing at her game. In the third, I dug in, after all, I had nothing to lose, so I stepped up the pace, and volleyed as much as I could, whereas before I was hanging so far back, you know, the “head wants to do it, but the body is not there” kind of feeling…And she helped me by starting to make mistakes, and helped me to get back in.

"In the fifth, she was up quite badly, so I thought to myself “you’ve worked hard enough, don’t let it all slip away that easily. So once again, I stepped up the pace, as I found that we both let it slow down, tried to put her under pressure. At that moment, she made a few unforced errors, which I’m not complaining about.

"I’m off to Texas, where I play Linda Elriani, so no pressure on me at all. Then back for the Irish, then off to Qatar, where I will be playing Vicky (I lost in 5 at the nationals…) and there again, no pressure on me at all..

"At the moment, I take it a day at a time, I’m not receiving any funding from the Lottery, so I don’t have anybody to answer to, so I’m enjoying myself…"

Stephanie Brind

[1] Stephanie Brind bt Laura Lengthorn
         0/9, 5/9, 10/8, 9/2, 9/6 (59m)
  
Sat 19th, Semi-Finals:

[1] Ong Beng Hee bt [3/4] Steve Meads             11/4, 11/5, 11/8 (25m)
[3/4] Marcus Berrett bt [5/8] Peter Genever      11/7, 11/4, 11/3 (30m)

[1] Stephanie Brind bt [3/4] Carla Khan            10/8, 9/2, 5/9, 9/2 (46m)
[3/4] Laura Lengthorn bt [2] Pamela Nimmo      3/9, 9/4, 9/3, 10/8 (54m) 
 
BACK TO WIMBLEDON

You may remember that when I had knees, I used to play squash in this wonderful club that is Wimbledon Racquet and Fitness Club. The only problem, as far as I am concerned, is that there is no swimming pool, and despite my repeated demands of drowning their badminton courts, I don’t think there’ll ever be one…

Joke apart, I love this club. The people, Claire and Rebecca in particular, not to mention the Peters family, my “surrogate family”, as I call them. So, despite a rather heavy schedule, I couldn't not come and see a bit of the action this weekend.

Yes, my intention was to see the quarters, but as we finished a bit late (well, I left the party at 2.30am) at Canary Wharf, I must say that I woke up too late to be at Wimbledon at 12.00. And yes, I missed the first semi, I misread the schedule, shoot me, but I still saw 3 out of four 4…

Framboise		 No Repeat For Meads ...
Summary from Steve Cubbins,

For once it was the women's matches that took the longest, as the Young's Wimbledon Cup reached the semi-final stage in London's SW19.

Top seed Ong Beng Hee defeated the defending champion Stephen Meads in straight games. In the earlier quarter-finals Ong quickly disposed of Jesse Engelbrecht while Meads won a hard-fought three games against Tim Vail.

Last season's Grand Prix champion Marcus Berrett made a third BSPA final of the season, winning in straight games against Peter Genever, who had put out second seed Dan Jenson in the lunchtime quarter-finals.

Women's top seed Stephanie Brind also made it safely into the final, dropping her first game of the tournament against Carla Khan in the semi-final. Her opponent will be Lancashire's Laura Lengthorn, who rallied after dropping the first game to put out Scotland's second seed Pamela Nimmo.

LAURA: TOO HARD TO BEAT

After a great start, Pam Nimmo seemed to be overwhelmed by Laura-Jane Lengthorn's determination. I’ve seen Laura beat top players in Kuwait like Isabelle Stoehr and Omneya Abdel Kawy, and she did it the same way that Anthony Ricketts does it. She keeps on returning everything, and puts her opponent under so much pressure that she ends up putting the last shot in the tin, or is physically unable to pick it up…

Pam fought back after losing the second and third games, and took a comfortable advantage 7/2, then game ball 8/4. Surely we were going for a five setter. But Laura saved it with a lovely cross court, and went on to equalise at 8/8. Pam got the serve only once, but the momentum was with the English girl, who needed only one match ball to win in 4, 10/8 in 54 minutes.

   [3/4] Laura Lengthorn bt [2] Pamela Nimmo
            3/9, 9/4, 9/3, 10/8 (54m) 

ONG ON FIRE

It’s always a pleasure to see Ong Beng Hee play, on whatever court or whatever event he is in. Today, against “old timer” Steve Meads, he displayed some great shots that thrilled a good audience.

Stephen, as usual, fought hard, and in particular in the third, threatened the Malaysian, sticking to the score, 6/8, and went on to save three match balls, cursing himself with a “Are you going to start playing soon???”

But Ong was just too determined today, and in a short 25 minutes, gets quite rightly into the final. It would be nice to see him getting a bit of his confidence back. That boy is a great talent, and I hope that in the next tournaments he takes part in, he will get the results his talents deserve…

[1] Ong Beng Hee bt [3/4] Steve Meads
      11/4, 11/5, 11/8 (25m)

MARCUS ALL THE WAY

Marcus Berrett and Peter Genever offered us an extremely high paced first game, where Peter I think probably lost a lot of energy. Good hitting from both men, good lengths, lots of crosscourts, and some exquisite drop shots.

But the pace was really high, and Peter never seemed able to take control of the rallies, and had to run more than his opponent, only too glad to distribute the game…Still, a very good quality match, where Peter did his best, and Marcus, after a good battle in the first, never looked threatened.

  [3/4] Marcus Berrett bt [5/8] Peter Genever
            11/7, 11/4, 11/3 (30m)

MARCUS BERRETT
MINI PORTRAIT

Why aren’t you on the circuit any longer?

Well, a combination of several factors really.

One, I have a great job, I’m the pro at Queen's Club in Halifax, I’ve been playing there since I’m 8 years old, that’s where I learned to play squash, all my friends are there, they supported me when I went on the circuit for about four or five years.

Two, I’m now married, and enjoy not to be separated from my wife. And also, although I did enjoy the travelling when I was on the circuit, I didn’t enjoy the waiting around, you are afraid to get tired, you can’t enjoy the cities you are staying in … there is so much dead time…

So, I prefer to be busy, playing squash around here, coaching at the club. I much prefer my life today to when I was on the circuit…

Any project?

I’m actually about to move to POLI Squash Club in Milan, Italy.

My wife Claire and I are moving in August. She is a financial director, but she is going to take a course to teach English as a second language, she is looking forward to a break. We are going to learn the language as well of course.

I’ve been going there quite regularly. But moving there is a big step. I’m going to miss Halifax, my friends, my club, but we’ve decided that it was the right time to do it, and who knows, once there, we may try to raise a family there…
  



Wimbledon - Club of the Month Feature

 
"I was very surprised by the pace Pam imposed in the first game, much higher than what she normally plays. So I thought that she probably wasn’t going to be able to keep it up for the whole game, and tried and hang on in there..

"In the second and the third, I was rather happy with my length. In the fourth, obviously, Pam didn’t want to lose, and I got really tired (because I stopped playing my length). But then I realised I really didn’t want to play a fifth game, and dug in.

The BSPA tournaments are good to get some match practice before WISPA tournaments. Two matches per day make a match-a-day tournament seem easy… But it’s still hard to play against Pam in a non-WISPA event. We've just shared a room on the last two tournaments we’ve played, and it’s not easy to get into the match… "

Laura Lengthorn
 
"The Brain was elsewhere today… No, I had a good match with Tim, but Ong played extremely well, and didn’t give me much opportunity… "

Steve Meads

"It was old legs against young legs today…"

Steve's Dad
 
"I think that Stephen was a bit tired from his previous match against Tim. As I won the first two games a bit too easily, I was a bit relaxed in the third, started to make mistakes as Stephen stepped up a gear, and I was a bit too keen I guess…

"I didn’t really have a game plan, I just turned up and played the best I could, trying to create and seize opportunities as soon as they arose…

"In Bermuda, I’m playing Mohammed Abbas. It would be nice to beat him. Just as it would be nice to put my name on the Wimbledon Trophy for the second time (I won it the first time in 2000), especially after the poor season I just had… "

Ong Beng Hee
 
"In the quarter this afternoon, I played quite well, taking advantage of the fact that Dan had problems arriving here, he was in the “still in the car” kind of state…

"But against Marcus, it was very different. It’s difficult you know, I’m not fit enough to keep up with the pace that he imposes, and not skilled enough to slow the rallies. And he doesn’t waste shots…

"Marcus seems to be comfortable at a certain rhythm, and to win against him, you’ve got to be able to take him out of his comfort zone, which I wasn’t able to do today.

"It’s funny, you can play very well, but the margin between your brain making you play well, and your brain preventing you from playing well is so slim. And it’s enough that somebody takes you out of your comfort zone, and your game suddenly goes out of the window…

"But as Marcus is one of the nicest guys on the circuit, it’s ok to be beaten by him…

Peter Genever
 
"It was a nice match. I like to work my opponent a bit, and at the end of the first, he had to work a lot, and I managed to win that one.

"In the second, he slowed the pace a bit, and the rallies became quite long, and I succeeded to stay on top of that one."

Marcus Berrett
 
"I had absolutely no fitness. I was ill in America with a viral chest infection, and I have been in bed for the past two and a half weeks. So, I just wanted to get rid of the ball as quick as possible…"

Carle Khan
"Come on Framboise, what are you doing here? Don’t you have better things to do than to watch squash all day????"
 Steve Meads