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| Report: | On a sweltering night with the Euro semi between France and Germany on the box most would have preferred to have their feet up with a beer in hand but a squash match needed to be played.
Up first were Olly v Will and this is usually frantic with both players full of running. Olly started off well racing off to 5-0 lead but once Will got going he had Olly in trouble and he swiftly turned it round to forge to a 7-5 lead. Olly leveled at 7-7 but could not stop Will from taking the 1st. The 2nd saw Will racing ahead as Olly struggled to keep up with the pace. The heat was taking it out of both players but just as Will looked to be heading for 2 up Olly grabbed a few quick points to make it interesting only to see Will swiftly finish things. The 3rd had Olly ahead in the early stages but Will was dealing better with the heat and once he leveled at 3-3 Olly had no answer and a surprising 3-0 to Will was the result.
Next it was Dave and Matt and it was Dave who started off the better only to see an early lead wiped out as Matt worked well to recover from 1-3 to lead 6-3. The heat meant it was very topsy turvey stuff but Dave managed to control it better and stole into a lead and took the 1st game. The 2nd saw Dave struggling to compete whilst Matt was hitting some nice drives and very quickly it was 1-1. The 3rd was much more competitive and it seemed that this could be the key game. At 5-5 it was hard to pick a winner as both players were at times playing both brilliant and awful squash but Dave managed to pick up the points to get to game point but it took 5 more goes to finish it off. The 4th saw Dave leading again but Matt was working hard and making it difficult for Dave to turn serves into points and eventually Matt began to move closer and then ahead and then level it up for a 5th set decider. Both players were feeling it but Matt came out fighting in the 5th and stormed off to a clear lead but at 7-2 down Dave fought back to 5-7 then 6-8 at which point a couple of decisions where queried by Matt (extremely vigorously) and although this usually means Matt's game suffers he seemed to deal with this well and fought off a resurgence by Dave to win a crucial 5 setter.
Next up were Greg and Paul with Greg returning after a couple of weeks off so it was no surprise to see Paul take the lead in the early stages. At 6-0 up Paul looked on course for a quick win in the first game but Greg got going and gradually pulled it back and swept through to grab the 1st. The 2nd saw Greg in charge from the start and a 5-0 lead was always going to be hard for Paul to recover from but he did well to get back to 5-7 down before and he almost stopped Greg's march but not quite. The 3rd was all Greg and he quickly wrapped it up 3-0
France were 1 up at this stage with a penalty dispatched like a German!
Next up were Steve and Nick with Steve was slow to get going as Nick took an early lead but Steve soon had Nick running to all 4 corners retrieving the ball only for Steve to send him off to another corner of the court. Steve was collecting 2 or 3 points at a time between hand outs and it was soon 1 up to Steve although both players where feeling the heat. The 2nd saw Steve in control and Nick had no answer to Steve's game and very quickly it was 9-1 to Steve. The 3rd saw a more concerted effort from Nick to get into the match as Steve struggled a little in the heat. After a few hand outs Steve built a lead only to see it wiped out by Nick but at 4-3 to Steve he took control and raced off to win the match 3-0.
Finally it was Ben and Dave in a clash of styles. Dave began well as Ben struggled to find the front wall and Dave moved quickly to a commanding lead. Ben pulled a couple back but Dave finished it off although he came off court claiming to be done for with the heat. The 2nd surprisingly saw Ben race into an early lead so we thought the exclamation by Dave might have had some merit but once Dave recovered the serve he won point after point as Ben could not get his game going sufficiently well enough to make it hard for Dave. The 3rd saw Dave get off to a solid start as Ben continued to miss fire but at 5-1 down Ben began to raise his game as Dave suffered in the heat. Ben got back to 4-7 down then 5-8 with some hard fought rallies and that paid off as Dave began to falter after his match point and Ben took full advantage and ran through to win the game and look like he was relishing the fight. The 4th however saw Dave in a more determined mood as if he just did not want to play a 5th set and the much more focused play had Ben struggling to keep in the rallies and very quickly Dave raced away to take it for the loss of just one point.
The Germans had been beaten by this point and so were Dulwich in another 3-2 match.
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| Author: | Ian Armstrong |
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