The December News Review from Prince

This news digest is drawn from the News Pages of SquashNow, the leading internet squash information website, sponsored by Prince. The full versions of each story can be found by linking direct to:

www.squashnow.com

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Jackman Early Retirement    Atkinson Is First Dutch World Champion    Lincou Is First French World Champion    Australia Scoop The World Doubles     Atkinson "Player of Year"     Wilstrop wins Pakistan Open     Nicol Wins 40th against Power        Gamal Awad Bows Out      Aussies Keep British Open Titles

Jackman Shattered By Enforced Retirement

Cassie Jackman, the British National Champion, World No2, former World Open Champion, and leading Prince player on the women’s international circuit, has been forced to retire from competitive squash by a recurrence of the spinal disc problems for which she twice undertook surgery to stay the game.

     “I am completely shattered by the situation,” Jackman told SquashNow. Now married for a second time, to Australian Matt Thomas, celebrated her 32nd birthday on Wednesday. “I always thought I would retire at a time of my own choosing and was planning it would be in Melbourne, Matt’s home town, after the Commonwealth Games. Now it has been forced on me by circumstances over which I have no control. I am not too sure where I go from here.”

    Squash has been the central feature of Cassie Jackman’s life since she first won a Norfolk junior title at the age of 10. She was selected for the England Junior squad at the age of 14, won all her British age group titles, took the World Junior Championship in  1991 and moved into the senior game with such authority that she was widely regarded as the natural long term replacement for New Zealand’s Susan Devoy as leader of the women’s international game.

     In fact two Australians, Michelle Martin and Sarah Fitz-Gerald, and another New Zealander, Carol Owens, rose to compete for that role. Although Jackman played on at the top of the game, winning 28 WIPSA World Tour titles, and reaching a natural peak in the year 2000 when she took the World Open title in Seattle and was promoted  for the first time to World No1, it was their presence amid a series of physical setbacks, first ankle injuries then back problems, that blocked her from the one title most coveted by all squash players; the British Open Championship.

    She was honoured with an MBE during the last British Open in October, but seemed to lose focus afterwards and went down to Natalie Grainger in the semi-finals.

     “I won just about everything else over the years, and I am proud to have won a record six British National titles, but I have to admit that being forced to stop in a year when I was playing well enough to lead the game again without adding a British Open to my collection is a bitter pill.”

     In 2002 she established a unique record when she won a silver and bronze medal in the Commonwealth Games in Manchester to become the only woman to win a pair of Commonwealth squash medals in successive Games.

    She suffered a major setback in September 2002 when forced to undergo a second career-threatening back operation.  Remarkably, Jackman clambered back up the WISPA world rankings to regain her World No1 spot in February this year; the same month that she established the new record in the British National Championships by winning the women's title for the sixth time.

    She had enjoyed one of her best years on the WISPA World Tour in 2004, with appearances in six finals and first time success in the World Grand Prix Finals in Qatar. But she lost disastrously to Rachael Grinham in the World Team Final in Amsterdam in September after twice leading in a 75 minute first string encounter.

    A natural striker of the ball with fearsome forehand kill shot, Jackman won the Shanghai Championship last month with some authority to become the first professional to take a squash title on mainland China. But she broke down with breathing problems and chest pains in the subsequent Qatar Classic and finished in the World Open quarter-finals in Kuala Lumpur with her left leg completely dead.

   Hospital tests in Doha showed nothing of significance, but examination back in England after fleeing distraught from Kuala Lumpur showed that there were problems with the location of the same spinal disc on which she had twice received surgery and new fissures  in the disc above.

     “All the advice is that to continue with the daily wear and tear of top level squash would certainly need more surgery and probably lead to more serious damage,” Jackman told SquashNow. “I have to face it. My playing career is finally over. I will probably want to stay in the game in some way, perhaps working with some of the younger players, but I won’t be playing again.

    "It'll feel really strange just not playing at all any more - not even matches in the local men's leagues - and I will really miss all my friends."

Atkinson Is First Dutch World Champion

Vanessa Atkinson, the English-born World No3 from the Netherlands, beat Australia's Natalie Grinham in the final of the KL Women's World Open Championship in Malaysia to become the first Dutch world champion in devastating style.
    The third seed, who earlier crushed Natalie's sister Rachael Grinham, the world No1, in just 23 minutes, brushed aside the fourth seed 9-1 9-1 9-5 in 34 minutes on the all-glass court at the National Squash Centre in Kuala Lumpur to win the sport's biggest prize.
    It rounded off a glittering year for the 28-year-old from The Hague who has appeared in eight WISPA World Tour finals since February - and triumphed in each one!
    "I love this court.  I wish I could wrap it up and take it with me to every tournament," the tall redheaded world champion told SquashNow.  "My head feels like cotton wool.  I have no way of judging how I feel about becoming world champion.  It is not something I ever really expected to happen.
    "When people ask about ambitions and targets, it is easy to say you want to be world champion.  Dealing with it actually happening is something else."
    Unlike Atkinson, Natalie Grinham had endured a marathon semi-final encounter - an 87-minute five-game battle against local star Nicol David, which she later described as "the most gruelling match I have played in my career".
    Ironically, the Netherlands-based 26-year-old from Toowoomba in Queensland, is the last player to have beaten Atkinson in a WISPA final - in the Dutch Open in November 2003.
    "Actually my game plan had nothing to do with the fact that Natalie would have to be tired," Atkinson added after her KL triumph.  "You have to keep Natalie out of the front court to stop her attacking and you have to finish rallies cleanly to stop her using her speed against you.
    "Last time we played, she beat me in the semi-finals of the Dutch Open, so this is not a bad revenge.  Given the choice at the time, I would probably have chosen the World Open title."
    Atkinson continued:  "I think the hardest part might have been knowing Jahangir Khan was watching from behind the court.  It is a bit intimidating with him watching everything you do," admitted the world champion.  "But this tournament went perfectly for me and I hope this is just the first of many world titles for me.  Next I want World No1. Then I want the British Open. Then I want the Grand Prix Finals.  Then another World Open."

Lincou Is First French World Champion

Thierry Lincou, a 28-year-old Franco-Chinese from the Indian Ocean island of Reunion, became the first French player to win a World Squash Championship when he defeated the top seeded Lee Beachill of England  5-11 11-2 2-11 11-10 (2-0) 11-8 in the 83 minute final of the Qatar Men’s World Squash Open in Doha.

     The first man to shake his hand outside the court was Jahangir Khan, the President of the World Squash Federation who was six times a world champion and ten times a British Open Champion for Pakistan in the 1980s. Beachill was the first Englishman to be top seeded for the title but Peter Nicol’s 1999 win for Scotland was the closest the title has ever come to England.

     There were moments in the fourth game, when Beachill led 6-4 and then 10-9 that it seemed he could become the first English winner of the title, but the strong and accurate French second seed produced a supremely measured forehand delivery from midcourt into space on the lefthand side of the court to save the matchball and then  took the tiebreak with a forehand drop shot directly into the top righthand nick and a backhand drive into the deep lefthand corner.

    In the fifth it was Lincou, the most frequent winner on the PSA World Tour since the men’s professional game changed to a new 11 point scoring system in August, who commanded the court, driving Beachill down from the center of a glass showcourt that notoriously demands command of the front and dictating the shape of the play while the top seed ran with gradually increasing desperation in search of another winning edge.

    Beachill took an early initiative but it was Lincou who increasingly looked the more balanced as he moved up court to launch an early ball attack that carried him from 4-5 to 9-6, with four Beachill errors in the count, and then to 10-7 with another of the precision backhand drives perfectly into the deep left corner that are fast becoming his hallmark. It was almost inevitable that the last point of a magnificent final would come from a tinned error, backhand straight into the middle of sounding board, from the frustrated Englishman.

    “In the vital parts of the match we were rarely more than a couple of points apart,” Beachill told SquashNow. “I thought we both played well, but Thierry played the big points just a bit better that me.”

    Lincou, who came close to the game’s greatest title last year when he narrowly lost the final in Lahore to Egypt’s Amr Shabana, said he was determined that he would not repeat that disappointment. “I had the same trouble in the final as in the semi-final with Graham Ryding,” Lincou told SquashNow. “I could not take the front court enough in the early part of the match so I had to return to basics of line and length to the deep court until the opportunities began to return later to mix front court attack in with the deeper approach.”

Australia Scoop The World Doubles Pool

Australia swept to triple gold success in the World Doubles Squash Championships in Chennai, India, and Rachael Grinham, the World No1 from Queensland, became the first player to claim two gold medals in the history of the championships.
    Grinham arrived in the former city of Madras as favourite for two of the titles - the Women's Doubles with her younger sister Natalie Grinham, ranked five in the world, and in the Mixed Doubles with fellow British Open Champion David Palmer, the World No4 from Lithgow in New South Wales.
   The 27-year-old from Toowoomba did not disappoint.  In the first final of the day with Palmer, the pair was fully extended by the second-seeded New Zealand duo Shelley Kitchen and Glen Wilson before winning 11-8 9-8 9-8 in 45 minutes.  The Australians' joy was contrasted by the disappointment of the Kiwi pair, whose Glen Wilson was a gold medallist (with the now-retired Leilani Rorani) in the same event in the 2002 Commonwealth Games in England.
     Rachael, based in Cairo, next took to the court with her Netherlands-based sister to face surprise opponents Louise Crome and Lara Petera, the 5/8 seeds, also from New Zealand, in the Women's final.  It took just 29 minutes for Rachael to taste gold for the second time in the day when she and Natalie triumphed 9-7 9-4 9-2 - maintaining a 'clean sheet' of no games lost throughout the tournament.
    A surprise was inevitable in the Men's Doubles final where 5/8 seed Byron Davis and Cameron White, the unfancied Australian pair who yesterday overturned top-seeded compatriots David Palmer and Anthony Ricketts, took on fellow 5/8 seeds Ritwik Bhattacharya and Saurav Ghosal, the pair who raised local hopes by becoming the first Indians ever to reach a world squash final.
    The final befitted the climax to the five-day festival of squash at the new ICL-TNSRA centre in Chennai.  The battle lasted 73 minutes - the longest of the day - but much to the dismay of the packed and partisan crowd, there was no fairytale ending as Davis and White, from Adelaide and Melbourne respectively, clinched a 9-4 9-3 8-9 9-7 victory to secure an Australian hat-trick.

Atkinson Is WISPA Player  Of The Year

After crowning a sensational year on court by winning the KL Women's World Open title last week in Malaysia, Netherlands squash star Vanessa Atkinson has  been voted the first 'WISPA Player of the Year' in a poll amongst members of the Women's International Squash Players' Association.
    The 28-year-old world No3 from The Hague was celebrating the eighth appearance in a WISPA World Tour final this year when she crushed Australia's world No1 Rachael Grinham in 22 minutes for the loss of only four points in the semi-finals in Kuala Lumpur. 
    But she maintained her 100% record by going on to claim her eighth - and biggest - title of the year in grand style when she despatched Rachael's sister Natalie Grinham, the world No5, in straight games in the final.
    Egypt's Raneem El Weleily, the 15-year-old from Alexandria who is already 37 in the women's world rankings, is voted 'WISPA Young Player of the Year', and England's Alison Waters received the WISPA membership accolade as 'Most Improved Player of the Year'.  Waters, 20, from London, was outside the world top 100 at the beginning of 2002 - but reached a career-high 23 position this year after a series of excellent results on the World Tour which included a victory over ninth seed Omneya Abdel Kawy in this month's World Open.
    All three players will receive prizes of a return flight between two points on the Qatar Airways network during next year.

Willstrop Wins Pakistan Open

England's James Willstrop claimed the biggest squash title of his career  when he beat Australia's Anthony Ricketts in the final of the Bank Alfalah Pakistan Open Championship at the Mushaf Squash Complex in Islamabad.
    It was the 21-year-old Yorkshireman's first appearance in a PSA Super Series event final.  After dropping the first game against the former world No6 from Sydney, eighth seed Willstrop powered to a 6-11 11-9 11-10 11-3 victory in 58 minutes.

Nicol Wins 40^th Against Power

Peter Nicol, the leading Prince player of the men’s international circuit, outclassed Jonathon Power  in the 40th rerun of their lifetime confrontation to win a 62 minute quarter-final 7-11 11-8 11-5 11-4 (62m) in the Qatar Mens's World Open Championship.

Wallbutton Moves On To The PSA

Ted Wallbutton, who retires as chief executive of the World Squash Federation at the end of 2004, will join the Professional Squash Association as its first ever marketing man.

    The PSA has announced that it will be hiring  Ted Wallbutton from 1st February 2005,  as Event Marketing Executive with the special brief of exploring new avenues for bringing in further tournaments to the expanding PSA World Tour calendar.
    A career-long marketing professional, Ted Wallbutton enjoyed a highly successful period as Marketing Manager of the English Squash Rackets Association (SRA) from the early 1980s, thereafter becoming Chief Executive of the English Table Tennis Association.  He returned to squash 14 years ago when appointed to the position of Chief Executive of the WSF, during which time the membership of the federation more than doubled and the organisation was completely restructured. 

 The Grasshopper Leaves The Court

Gamal Awad, the Egyptian Grasshopper, the man who with Jahangir Khan in 1983 played the longest first class match on record, two hours and 46 minutes, at the Chichester Squash Festival, has died unexpectedly at his home in Alexandria.

    Sameh Hussain of the Egyptian Squash Association, reports that the little man also known as Rubber Man for his extraordinary flexibility and speed on the squash court died in his sleep at 3am on the morning of November 6. He was 49 years old.

    His untimely death coincided with the appearance in last Saturday's final of the British Open in Nottingham of reigning world champion Amr Shabana : the first appearance of an Egyptian in the famous event's final since Awad's in 1983.

    Runner-up in both the 1982 World Masters and 1983 British Open - in both cases to Jahangir Khan - Awad is perhaps best remembered for participating with Khan in that longest-recorded match in the Chichester. 
    Awad recovered from 1-8 down in the first game then to win it 10-9 in 71 minutes - itself the longest game on record - before Khan ultimately claimed match victory.
    Still playing squash up to the time of his passing, married for a second time with new young family in Alexandria, Gamal Awad will be long remembered and greatly missed by those who enjoyed and valued his courageous approach to the game.

    "This sad news was a great shock to receive," said Professional Squash Association (PSA) Chief Executive Gawain Briars.
     "I had the pleasure of being on the receiving end of many of Gamal's rallies and he was an iconic founder of professional squash in the great years of Hunt and Jahangir," added Briars.
     "Gamal has been and will be sadly missed by us all."

Aussies Keep British Open Titles

David Palmer and Rachael Grinham  successfully defended their Australian domination of the Harris British Open Squash Championships, respectively defeating Egypt’s Amr Shabana and the USA based Natalie Grainger in two fascinating finals at the Albert Hall in Nottingham

    Palmer’s 89 minute 10-11 (4-6), 11-7, 11-10(3-1), 11-7 win over the World Open Champion was a triumph for powerful hard-running squash that eventually left his speedy and gifted opponent exhausted, while Grinham’s 39minute 3-9 9-5 9-0 9-3 victory was reward for carefully crafted tactics that completely undermined the strong rallying style with which Grainger had dominated the bottom half of the draw.It was a third win for Palmer, who previously defeated Chris Walker in  the 2001 final and Peter Nicol in the 2003 final, and his first tournament win under the new PSA 11 point scoring that came into play at the start of this season.

    Grinham’s win was her second, having beaten Cassie Jackman in last year’s final, but became unique when she defeated Palmer in a special five hand poker challenge after the finals in which she doubled her $6,000 prizemoney thanks to the sponsorship of PartyPoker.com and became the first woman in history to leave the British Open Championship with a bigger winner’s purse than the men’s champion.

Merry Xmas !