MARSHALL AND JOHNSON STAGE DEFENSIVE STRUGGLE

THE MEANING OF LENGTH. I MEAN, THE REAL MEANING

Paul Johnson and Peter Marshall brought back memories of the dark attritional days of squash as they persisted in testing the back wall with every shot. You would think that the drop shot had never been invented. The match started at 9.35 pm and at 11.15 pm the score was 2/1 to Johnson. Johnson led 13-11 in the third, but Marshall's iron will kicked in and Johnson made the mistake of picking that time to go short.

I began to hallucinate that these two would take their own show on the road, building in two intermissions in each game and a four-course dinner break between the third and fourth games. It would be a five hour extravaganza and would sell to early Sunday morning television just before the evangelical shows come on.

It is now 11.27 and Marshall has taken the fourth game to tie the match 2/2. The game took only nine minutes and Johnson looked extremely tired, Marshall looked fresh. Grand Central station is almost empty and policemen are investigating the vagrants who are all connected to the squash tournament.

It is now 11.30 and the fifth game has just started. The first rally ended in a let and several people are losing the will to live.

It is now 11.35 pm and the match is now two hours old: Marshall leads 6-4. The referees will almost certainly be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for their unflagging concentration. Marshall's calf is bothering him but he is too steady now for Johnson. Johnson stages a valient rally at 4-7 in the fifth. But after that Marshall takes him short constantly and Johnson can't answer the call.

At 11.42 Marshall hit the winning shot from a Johnson who no longer had the will to fight on. Marshall had done what he has always done so well, hung in and shown iron hard determination, the determination I first saw as a kid of 14 and which took him to number two in the world before chronic fatigue syndrome knocked him out for two years.

He's back and I'm not sure whether to laugh or cry. Can he do the same thing against Nicol? Don?t bet against it.