Tournament of Champions: Monday evening, Great ending to a 12 hour day.

Martin Bronstein, Squashtalk reporter on the scene in New York City.

by Martin Bronstein, Grand Central Terminal, New York, 28 Jan 2002
All content © 2002 Squashtalk, photos: © 2002 Debra Tessier

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Martin Bronstein reporting after midnight

CLEAN, QUICK AND NEAT

Peter Nicol started off the evening session with a clean, clinical dismissal of Graham Ryding of Canada in three games in 40 minutes, a performance that will not please Jonathon Power who took nearly three times as long to get through his second round match. Power will face El Hindi, a qualifier who should be getting tired by now, in the quarters, while Nicol will have a much harder task with young Stewart Boswell. In fact I predict that their quarter final will be the best of the day. Certainly Boswell will not have to put up with the constant blocking that was such an unwelcome feature of his second round match against England's Mark Chaloner.

Australia's Stewart Boswell

BLOCK, BLOCK, BLOCK - APPEAL, APPEAL, APPEAL

It has become an accepted fact of life in a Chaloner match that there will be more appeals and referee's decisions than in any other three matches. Today the number of times the officials were called upon to pass judgement was 128. As there were only 98 points in the entire match - well you get the picture by now. I watched carefully to see why this happens and it is simply that Chaloner sends a lot of balls back to the area he is occupying and doesn't move. And Chaloner appeals 99% of all decisions. It is a Pavlovian response that finally makes the games not only less than exciting but downright irritating. Fortunately Boswell is an unflappable sort and took all this without getting annoyed. His movement around the court is effortless and his accuracy with his lightning reaction shots is quite remarkable. Although he claims to have a very good basic game with no fancy stuff, his reflexes are at times unbelievable and make him a very watchable player. He ploughed his furrow diligently and got his rewards with a 3/1 victory and a place in the quarter finals. He took a game from Nicol in Toronto in November and said then that he felt he was getting closer to the world champion, so tomorrow's meeting should be most interesting. I can forecast now there will be very few blocks and even fewer appeals.

CRASH- BASH -SMASH! IT'S THE WHITE AND HARRIS SHOW

Scotland's John White

John White and Del Harris put on a terrific show, hitting the ball hard enough to be heard in Poughkeepsie if not Leningrad. This was not meant to be thinking man's squash but the level of skill and the speed of these very large men was quite remarkable. Around the middle of the third game it occurred to me that they had their own private competition going: who could hit the ball hardest the most number of times. It was a draw. Perhaps it wasn't because after another of White's thunderbolt smashes in the nick, Harris walked over, took White's racket and gave him his. Which probably meant Harris was acknowledging defeat. The good humor with which the match was played suggested that Harris did not feel he could beat the tall, lanky Australian-cum-Scot and was there for the fun of it. It was welcome comic relief after the Chaloner/Boswell dirge and left the paying customers with smiles on their faces. Oh yes, White won 3/0 in 48 minutes.

SAVING THE BEST UNTIL LAST

Scotland's Martin Heath

The match between Martin Heath of Scotland and David Evans of Wales was easily the best of the evening. Pity that most of the people had left (it finished just after midnight) and was watched by about 30 spectators who were well rewarded for their patience. Heath was playing at his best, which is very good indeed, always attacking when half an opportunity rose. All through the entire 75 minutes he always appeared to be the winner, but Evans had the annoying (for Heath) habit of coming back from the dead to keep the match alive. When Heath won the third 15-7 to go 2/1 up it seemed a matter of course of cleaning up the fourth, because Evans did not appear to be interested in winning. Trailing 10-13 in the fourth Evans put together five superb rallies and won them all to win 15-13 and tie the match. Heath held his head in anguish distraught that he had let that lead slip away.

They continued to play terrific squash using the whole court and as many shots as there are in the book. Their speed in the fifth was as fast as in the first and they just kept on keeping on. Heath started the fifth in winning form (again!), lead 6-1 and once more we said, he's finally got it. Evans came back to 8-4, Heath forged ahead to 11-6 and surely he was too far ahead to lose now? That thought never entered Evans' head and he pushed back to get to 11-12 and Heath once again countered to finally get to match point. And lost it. It was agonising to watch his torment. "Fourteen all" called the referee. Heath held up one finger. Who wrote this script? One point, winner take all and Evans put in one of his beautiful drop and drive combinations which a diving Heath could not retrieve. Great match, great squash, great sportsmanship.

SECOND ROUND EVENING SESSION RESULTS:

Peter Nicol (Eng) bt Graham Ryding (Can) 15-5, 15-6, 15-7 (40mins)
Stewart Boswell (Aus) bt Mark Chaloner (Eng) 15-9, 15-9, 11-15, 15-9 (96 mins)
John White (Sco) bt Del Harris (Eng) 15-9, 15-11, 15-11 (48 mins)
David Evans (Wal) bt Martin Heath (Sco) 12-15, 15-11, 7-15, 15-13, 15-14 (75 mins)