Grove Park players will be gunning for an unprecedented three National titles tomorrow! Yawar Abbas, Rod Boswell and Laura Mylotte all make it to finals at the National Squash Championships at Eastlands.
No.1 seed, Yawar, has eased through the rounds without dropping a game to earn a chance at a third National Over 40 Title against Ulsterman, Graeme Stewart.
Rod Boswell’s progress hasn’t been quite so smooth. He let slip a two game lead in his opening match before reasserting his authority in the fifth. A slightly more comfortable second round win earned him a place in the Semi Final against the defending Champion, Adrian Wright. A 3-1 win (10/9, 5/9, 9/3, 9/5 (42m) ) earlier today sent him in to the final against David Scurlock from Blackburn who knocked out the top seed. Rod will be hoping to emulate five years ago when he won the National Over 60 title (against Adrian Wright).
Laura has also had a faultless route to the final of the Over 35 competition in her first ever masters event. She will be up against Scotland’s former World No. 16, Senga MacFie. Hopefully the seven years Laura has on the forty two year old top seed will make the difference.
Men’s Over 65 – Rod Boswell (2) vs David Scurlock (3/4) Lancs Sun 13 Feb @ 11.15am Court 2
Men’s Over 40 – Yawar Abbas (1) vs Graeme Stewart (2) Ireland Sun 13 Feb @ 12.00pm Showcourt
Women’s Over 35 – Laura Mylotte (2) vs Senga MacFie (1) Scotland Sun 13 Feb @ 12.45pm Showcourt
You can read the reviews of the masters competitions and see plenty of photos on squashsite-
http://www.nationalsquashchamps.co.uk/masters.htm
Earlier in the week Liam Foster found himself the main talking point of the Championships by making it all the way through qualifying into the main draw of the competition … without actually winning a game! His opponents in both the first two rounds withdrew before he lost 3-0 to James Earles in the final round of qualifying. However, because three players had also withdrawn from the main draw there were lucky loser spots available to three of the eight losers of the final qualifying round. This is always done on a random draw, so Liam found himself playing World 49, Scottish No.1 and former Prestbury No.1, Alan Clyne, in the first round proper. Liam defied his critics by really stepping up to the mark and earned four game points in the first but eventually just missed out. Clyne started to take control from that point to take the match in straight games. Clyne went all the way to the Quarter finals, beating World No.18 Adrian Grant along the way (who only managed four more points than Liam).
Kirsty West made it through the first round of qualifying in a tight five setter before just missing out to Zephanie Curgenven ranked World No. 136 in another five set match.
Alex Cutts went out in the second qualifying round to Bowdon’s Adam Murrills, a contempary of the Hibberds. Murrills went on to qualify for the main draw for the first time before causing the upset of the first round by beating veteran and former World No.3, Simon Parke. This earned him a shot at the World Champion, Nick Matthew.
Morgan Hibberd also made it through the first round of qualifying but lost 3-1 to Andrew Widdison.
In the main draw Grove Park new boy, Tom Pashley, looked to be getting over his illness by pushing Jonathan Kemp into two tie breaks but could quite convert either. Kemp (who did play a handful of matches for Grove Park about ten years ago) is now just one step away from the final after a spectacular win against the World No.4, James Wilstrop in the Quarter finals.
Laurence Delasaux was pushed all the way by Steve Siviter in the first round and must have fancied his chances at making his first ever Quarter Final appearance after being drawn against the eight seed Chris Simpson, who he beat 3-2 in the first team’s match last year against Lancs Health & Rackets. Unfortunately Chris was just playing too well, which he proved with a spirited performance against Nick Matthew.
In his first National Championships, Paul Vale made it all the way to the Quarter Finals of the Over 60 competition, which i think proves that Yawar is a coaching genius! Dudley Bostock lost out to masters legend, John Woodliffe, in the first round of the Over 70 competition but looked great in the photos.
There are loads of photos of Grove Park players in this gallery – http://www.nationalsquashchamps.co.uk/gallery.htm
3 National Champions?
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