It all started with Jonathon Power, whose lower back has had more affect on the PSA rankings than most six-star tournaments. He came out of his quarter-final match with Thierry Lincou with a strained back and spent the last 24 hours having physio, acupuncture and massage. He tried everything except a Oklahoma fundamentalist Christian healer. Perhaps he should have tried that healer because within five minutes of starting his semi-final against Peter Nicol - in front of a full, bubbling house - he was doing hoopla gyrations with his hips and within no time he was off the court followed by physio, coach Mike Way and promoter John Nimick. The physio was dragging Power's legs across his body in an attempt to free the nerve and loosen things up and then Power was lying on his front while the physio dug the butt of his rackets into the offending vertebrae. He managed to get back on court within the allotted three minutes but the handwriting was on the wall. The only hope was that the painkillers that he swallowed would kick in, but there wasn't time.

A Power that can't move freely, can't play Power squash and while he and Nicol went through the motions for the rest of this game, it was a sad sight with a totally predictable outcome.

The real question is how did Power manage to amass so many points in his condition and the answer is because Nicol played so poorly. Indeed, in the second game, I began to get visions of the British Open when a totally exhausted Nicol managed to beat Power. Could a disabled Power hang in to beat Nicol? No. It was a sad evening for all those fans who came to see a North American victory.

So now they have met 37 times and Nicol leads 20 -17 and unless Power can pull his game and health together in the coming year, Nicol will keep that lead and the laurels for all time.

WONDERFUL WHITE AND LETHARGIC LEE

It should have been closer: White is ranked three and Beachill four; they have both had some very good results and their confidence is high. Beachill simply did not play tight enough in the first game and although he kept in touch to 8-10 this is when White smacked in three of his patented winners to lead 13-9 and then take the game 15-9.

The battle was all in the second game; Beachill tightened up and led 7-3, looking very comfortable, and controlling the T for long periods. White showed he was prepared to do the work to stay in the game and it was this determination that turned the fortunes. White prevailed 15-13 to end probably the longest game of the tournament at nearly 29 minutes.

It is possible that it was too long for Beachill who was also constantly frustrated by White's insistence on keeping the pace up and and robbing Beachill of time on the ball to use his shots and delay. The result was that Beachill folded in the third and White took the game 15-7 in nine minutes.

If White loses tomorrow night in the final I shall be very surprised. If he keeps his confidence and his game going Nicol will be hard pressed to stay the course.

SEMI FINALS RESULTS
Peter Nicol (Eng) bt Jonathon Power (Can) 15-5, 15-11, 15-8
John White (Sco) bt Lee Beachill (Eng) 15-9, 15-13, 15-7.