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• TODAY • Day D4 • Day D3 • Day D2 • Day D1 • FINALS • SEMIS • QUARTERS • Day 2 • Day 1 • Update •
TODAY AT THE GAMES
Fri 24th, Doubles Day Three:
Match reports from Framboise
Men's Quarters:
Boswell/Ricketts (Aus) bt
Durbach/Hansen (Rsa) 9/7,6/9,7/9,9/7,9/5 (99m)
Grayson/Knight (Nzl) bt Matthew/Willstrop (Eng) 9/4, 5/9, 9/5,
9/6 (123m)
Palmer/Jenson (Aus) bt Gough/Evans (Wal)
9/6, 9/2, 7/9, 9/7 (102m)
Beachill/Nicol (Eng) bt White/Leitch (Sco)
8/10, 9/2, 9/2, 3/9, 9/6 (89m)
Mixed Quarters:
Grinham/Palmer (Aus) bt Waters/Grant (Eng)
9/1, 9/6, 11/9 (47m)
Grinham/Kneipp (Aus) bt Malik/Jones (Wal)
9/7, 7/9, 9/5, 9/5 (57m)
Botwright/Willstrop (Eng) bt Petera/O'Brien (Nzl) 6/9,
9/5, 9/7, 9/6 (70m)
Kitchen/Wilson (Nzl) bt Argyle/Van der Wath (Rsa) 9/4, 9/3, 9/5 (37m)
Women's Doubles, Pool B final match:
Kitchen/Leevey (Nzl) bt Bailey/Botwright (Eng)
6/9,9/6,9/6,5/9,9/5 (76m)
Three Countries line up for Doubles
Medals
Update from Howard Harding ...
Men's Last 16:
Durbach/Hansen (Rsa) bt Kyme/Stout (Ber)
9/7, 9/3, 9/2 (28m)
Grayson/Knight (Nzl) bt Khan/Khan (Pak)
9/7, 9/3, 9/6 (72m)
Gough/Evans (Wal) bt Giuffre/DeLierre (Can)
9/4, 8/10, 9/2, 9/6 (56m)
White/Leitch (Sco) bt Bains/Heel (Ken)
9/3, 9/5, 9/3 (30m)
Mixed Last 16:
Waters/Grant (Eng) bt Reta/Giuffre (Can)
9/2, 9/4, 9/6 (23m)
Malik/Jones (Wal) bt David/Ong (Mas)
9/7, 5/9, 9/7, 10/8 (93m)
Petera/O'Brien (Nzl) bt Perry/Richardson (Nir)
10/8, 9/7, 9/7 (35m)
Argyle/Van Der Wath (Rsa) bt Leeuw/Swartz (Rsa) 9/7, 10/8, 9/3 (36m)
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Framboise in Melbourne
EN BREF #7
PORTRAIT:
RSA Coach, Richard Castle
Results from Melbourne
BBC coverage
from Howard Harding |
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TRYING TO SEE
THE MATCHES BUT…
 This afternoon, my game plan was to watch the Scots White/Leitch against
NZ Grayson/Knight, then come back on the central to watch Eng Bailey/Botwright
against the Scots Gillen Buchert/ Philip.
As I was on the outside courts, watching the Scots against the Kiwis,
Irish Madeline and Steve took 9m34s to defeat the NFI Adams and Duncan, then
Rachael and David took 14m 16s to beat SRI Guruge and Samarsinghe.
Needless to say that I never saw Vicky and Tania, and by the time I
finished with the interviews (I didn’t have to wait that long for once, as
a lovely press officer made sure they were aware press was waiting for
them, may she be thanked), I arrived at 9/8 game ball for the second match
of the afternoon, Canada Guiffre Delierre (son of Jean, yes) and Egland
James and Nick.
No time to exhale, let me tell you…
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Mixed Quarter:
Grinham/Kneipp (Aus) bt Malik/Jones
(Wal)
9/7, 7/9, 9/5, 9/5 (57m) |
DUEL AT MELBOURNE
OK-UATIC CENTRE…
What a beautiful match that was, and in particular between Natalie
Grinham and Tegwen Malik who both displayed some great 'I drop you you
drop me let’s do it all over again aren’t we having fun' kind of
rallies…
Joe Kneipp was not that picked on, but still placed some stunning
winners, and Gavin Jones played his part beautifully, in particular
some perfect backhand cross courts..
A varied paced game, both teams playing very well, and a very
entertaining match indeed… But at the end of the fourth, the Welsh had
quite a natural drop in energy, as they already had a very heavy match
in the morning, and couldn’t force a decider…
 "It
was a bit too much for a day, a bit too much for a week…!
"Not too bad for a seeding of 9… We got a difficult draw, and if
we had played tomorrow, it would have been an entirely different
story, whereas here, we had played in the morning, and just a
couple of hours later, we were back on court, whereas they were
fresh…"
Gavin Jones
 "I’ve
been playing some good squash in my singles, and I’m glad to see
it’s coming through in my doubles.
"Our aim this week was to enjoy it, and that we did, and I think
it showed today…"
Tegwen Malik |
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 "Tegwen
kept playing on my drop shot, and she was doing very well. She was
standing there!
"Today is the first day I had a good run on the doubles court,
first a hard women’s match this morning, then this match this
evening. I feel comfortable on the court at last…"
Natalie Grinham
 "We played very well I thought, Natalie had obviously so much more
shots to play than me, and she was superb. We were doing good in
patches, and then did pretty well getting ourselves out of
trouble…
"I’ve been playing like a blind yak for the past 18 months, but
when I get on court with Natalie, I don’t want to let her down,
don’t want to let the team down, don’t want to let my country
down…"
Joe Kneipp |
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COULD SOMEBODY EXPLAIN????
 I
know I may not be the cleverest of all living creatures, but I would
like to understand how on earth we get six pools in the men, and only
four of the winners of their group get a bye????
So Anthony-Stewart don’t play the last 16 (and as they had only three
in their group, minus one withdraw makes two, they will be fresh…),
neither Lee-Peter, Dan-David, nor Nick-James.
But the New-Zealander pair, Campbell-Knight have to, and so will the
Welsh Alex and David (both teams who also were the only ones to be in
pool of four).
And the same goes for the mixed with Nicol/Bengy and O’Brien-Petera
from New Zealand having played not only in a pool of four, but also
having to qualify for the quarters.
Sorry, but I’m slightly confused…
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Men's Quarter:
Palmer/Jenson (Aus) bt Gough/Evans (Wal)
9/6, 9/2, 7/9, 9/7 (102m) Dan/David E on
the left |
FIRED UP WELSH, CONTROLLING AUSTRALIANS…
A long start of the second session… The Welsh had nothing to lose, and
put the Australians under a lot of pressure.
After Australia went up 2/0 rather easily (if we can call a 45 minute
run for only two games an easy ride), the Welsh found a good rhythm in
the third, controlling the pace and imposing their unorthodox game to
set up a game point at 8/5. Feeling the danger, the Australians tried
to close up, but although they saved two game balls, David Evans
played one of the many superb backhand drop shots that fooled Dan
Jenson…
In the fourth, there was nothing between the two teams, 2/2, 4/4, 7/7,
with so many lets, so many long rallies, and suddenly, Australia just
stepped on it, and in a few seconds, they had pocketed the match…
Overall, Dan Jenson made a few unforced errors in the first, but
redeemed himself by finding some lovely winners later on… Also, some
astonishing duels between Dan and David Evans on the left of the
court, and David Palmer and Alex Gough on the other side.
Impressive really, and that game suits both Alex and David P so well,
David because he loves to volley, and Alex because he is so good in
the front with his funny counter attacking shots… One last thing, the
Australians were often trying to play the ball together in the middle.
Maybe something they need to look at…
A very long, but very interesting game that could have very easily
gone to 5…
"It was too bouncy…. Also, we had
too many lapses in concentration, we had good spells, but so many
unforced errors… Didn’t enjoy this match…
"And with the way we played, the ball didn’t soften before the end
of the second, beginning of the third, so that when we were able
to start playing our game. Before that, it was a bit of a lottery…
"I think we were trying to do too much too soon…"
Gough/Evans |
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 "We were controlling most of the
rallies, even if the score and the length of the match seems to
suggest it was close, but we were both patient and attacking..
"We took a very good start in the first two games, and were all
the time 2/3 points ahead. After that, it was point for point, and
even if we had the edge, you had to be patient, put your head
down, and work hard to try and finishing it off.
"Obviously, 60% or more of the shots were played on the backhand,
so David and Dan played a lot, I tried to stay in there and play a
good shot when I could. And Dan played a lot of winners….
"Tonight was the hardest quarters that we could possibly have, it
was a tricky match, and it puts us in a good position for the rest
of the competition…"
David Palmer
"Last week was pretty good, I was trying to keep myself ticking
over.. This match was probably the first good run I had all
tournament, I’m sure tomorrow will be better (!).
"And while we were trying to finish it off in the fourth, I kept
on saying to myself, hopefully, Dave will play a winner…!"
Dan Jenson |
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Men's Quarter:
Beachill/Nicol (Eng) bt White/Leach (Sco)
8/10, 9/2, 9/2, 3/9, 9/6 (89m) |
HARRYTASTIC…
You knew that the English Team was going to pick on the young Harry
Leitch, but boy did the Scot get up to the challenge…
He hold his place perfectly well, placed a good few amounts of
crosscourt nicks that took the Boss by surprise, and I bet that if a
year ago, somebody would have told Harry that he would be crossing
swords with Peter Nicol for a place in the Semis of the Commonwealth
Games, he would have probably found that hilarious…
But that’s exactly what happened today. A John White on his best
behaviour, about one unforced error per game, a Harry Leitch coming of
age, both playing at the best of their abilities, a error free
squash... Superbly beautiful.
And facing them, an English pair that maybe didn’t take the Scots
seriously enough, relaxed slightly in the fourth, and are very lucky
indeed to get to the semis…. Oh yes, it was THAT close....
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 "We
haven’t played a really competitive match together for four years.
When we played well we played very well, but in the fourth game we
were like zombies and didn’t communicate at all.
"The last game was hard, and if we didn’t know each other so well,
we definitely wouldn’t have won. We get the best out of each
other."
Peter Nicol |
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Women's Doubles:
Kitchen/Leevey (Nzl) bt Bailey/Botwright (Eng)
6/9, 9/6, 9/6, 5/9, 9/5 (76m) |
New Zealand power into semis
from the Melbourne press office
The New Zealand pair of Shelley Kitchen and Tamsyn Leevey powered into
the semi finals in an epic encounter against England's Tania Bailey
and Vicky Botwright.
The two top teams in Pool B of the Women’s doubles didn’t disappoint
and Kitchen and Leevey needed five games before winning 9/5 in the
fifth.
The English pair made the early running, winning the first point and
eventually the first game. Bailey and Botwright were also ahead in the
second game, but Kitchen and Leevey steadied to take the second and
third games.
The fourth proved to be desperately close until England pulled away,
leaving the match 2/2.
Despite looking comfortable at 8/3 in the final game, Kitchen and
Leevey were not able to take immediate advantage of their match ball,
dropping two points but still wining the final game 9/5.
The result will see an all NZ semi final as Kitchen and Leevey take on
Louise Crome and Lara Petera.
 "It
was a good game, good pace, my partner played really well
"I try and get as much rest as I can, when I have an hour between
games, I have a quick sleep. When playing singles this week, I
didn’t play any double at all.
"Lots of family and friends have popped up everywhere, it really
helps."
Shelley Kitchen
"The game was really good, I felt I did a lot of work and had to
really keep the ball up, it was really intense…"
Tamsyn Leevey |
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Men's Last 16:
Grayson/Knight (Nzl) bt Khan/Khan (Pak)
9/7, 9/3, 9/6 (68m)
Left, Martin/Khayal |
 "We
started to feel a bit more comfortable after the second game, and
lengthen it better. At the end of the second game, they got a bit
lethargic maybe, but came out blazing again in the 3rd….
"We were quite surprised to see them so strong in the 3rd, because at
the end of the previous game, they started to go for shots, and we
were expecting the same for the following game. But they came back
very patient….
"But then again, you come to the Commonwealth only once every four
years, and I’m sure they came here to do their best, and that’s why
they didn’t give up in the 3rd, and just went on fighting…
"Now we are going to get a bit of a rest. We’ve managed to equal our
seeding, so we’ll try and have a shot at the next step…"
Martin Knight
(NZL)
 "It’s the
first time ever we play doubles, we have no experience, and we find it
a bit boring…. But we want to learn, get better at it, and that way,
we’ll enjoy it more…
"It’s strange, these are two players I think I can beat in singles,
but in doubles, they have so much experience, they know when to
attack, and when to be patient and defend. And they take advantage of
all the loose shots..
"We are determined, I hope we have a good future in doubles, we just
need a bit more experience, and a bit more patience…"
Aamir Atlas / Jamshed Gul
(PAK) |
Men's Last 16:
Gough/Evans (Wal) bt Giuffre/DeLierre
(Can)
9/4, 8/10, 9/2, 9/6 (50m) |
 "I
thought that Matt Giuffre was very good, he didn’t give me any change!
"It’s very easy to lose the ball on that court, in particular on
backhand cross courts, and if you are not really concentrating, you
can make a few silly mistakes…
"In the fourth, we were cruising, then a bit of drop in concentration,
they came back at 6/6, but we pushed and got two points in… But I
thought that they have a solid pair, they played very well…
"It’s going to be good to play the Australians. They will have a lot
of support, so it should be fun. There will be a lot of hitting this
afternoon, so we’ll have to get in there, and see how the game
develops…"
Alex Gough
(WAL)
 "But
it could also turn against them, putting them a lot of pressure… I
just love the city of Melbourne, it’s a good city…"
David Evans
(WAL)
 "We
are still learning, it’s a learning process… They have about 5 years
of doubles in, we have about 4 days! We’ll need a couple of years to
get better, and to work on the specificity of doubles. At the moment,
we play singles shots, and we forget there is somebody else on the
other side, we chase too many balls, we hesitate with shots in the
middle…
"Next for us is the Canadian Nationals, and it’s going to feel very
lonely without Jonathan. But we are the next in line, it’s up to us…"
Shawn DeLierre
(CAN) |
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This afternoon, my game plan was to watch the Scots White/Leitch against
NZ Grayson/Knight, then come back on the central to watch Eng Bailey/Botwright
against the Scots Gillen Buchert/ Philip.