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East of England Masters 2012-13

Friday 28 September - Sunday 30 September 2012

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Results & Draws
Chairman's Report
Chairman's Report

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Amazing that every year we come to Suffolk, Peter Alexander arranges glorious weather so the terrace outside the bar is always occupied! Newcomers were in abundance as the Tournament started with some incredible matches.
In the WO50/O55, the Women’s 55 Final was actually contested on the Friday night as a preliminary for the combined event and Welsh import, Lynn Davies, triumphed over Jan Ellis. Mandy Akin was too clinical for both Davies and Sally Jee, whilst in the other half Tammy Bennett beat newcomer Julie Anne Pegram, 10/8, 9/2, 9/4 and then fell, in a tight match, to hard hitting Helen Gould, 8/10, 6/9, 8/10. The Final was keenly contested as Helen took the first, 9/6, but Mandy replied with interest and finished the match 2/9, 6/9, 6/9.

Women's O34/40/45, first surprise was Bev Mackay, much improved, striking the ball beautifully and she was in control (albeit slightly) when her opponent Katie Lawrence suffered a re-occurance of a back injury. Bev also beat a resurgent Julia Dolman 6/9, 9/0, 9/2, 9/3 and Isabelle Tweedle 6/9, 9/4, 9/6, 9/0. Tweedle beat Rina Einy 9/3, 9/1, 9/4 and Gay 9/7, 9/0, 9/7 but went down to Owens 9/6, 4/9, 6/9, 0/9 who in turn lost to the bouncy,effervescent Belgium champion Einy 9/4, 4/9, 3/9, 7/9. So, confused or what!? Conclusion, 35 Owens beat Lawrence 40 Mackay (overall winner) beat Tweedle and 45 Einy beat Dolman 9/3, 8/10, 9/4, 9/2.

Men's O70/75 – Superb early matches with newcomer to the age group Brian Hardcastle finding wily (and ultra experienced) former World O70 Champion John Woodliffe in fine touch, some amazing retrieving and back wall defence from Mark’s dad saw him sneak a 9/6 in the fifth in front of an admiring crowd. No doubt some of the youngsters would be wishing they could play like that in 40 years time! Anyway, this completely buggered up the positions, as the Play-Off 75 was scheduled for Sunday am between (I can say this now) the two elderstatesmen, wrongfully presumed to have ended up at Nos 5 + 6.

In Group 1, Nigel Belle beat Lance Kinder 9/3, 9/6, 9/2 and the latter suffered at the hands of the World 70 Champion Adrian Wright 0-3, who in turn beat Belle 3-0.

In the other group, Mike Clemson beat Brian Hardcastle 9/2 9/3 9/2 and John Woodliffe9/1 7/9 9/0 9/3. So the Final positionswere, after a pulsating comeback, Adrian Wright, 8/10 3/9 9/4 9/4 9/7 against Mike Clemson 3/4 place in 70 Group Brian Hardcastle beat Nigel Belle 7/9 3/9 1/9 whilst the 75 Final Woodliffe3, Kinder 1 – 6/9 9/6 9/3 9/6.

The Men's O65 was by far the strongest section with 4 of the World's top 8 on display, all except Messrs Ayton and Boswell. It saw Dave Hardern reduced to a shell as he looked down and out to a trained up new to the group --hoping to do well Tony Wheeler. Unfortunately for the latter he was winning so easily and suffered a big attack of the heebie jeebies when BFD got his brain into gear. The final game was nip and tuck, but Wheeler made three direct tin shots to hand the lager sponsored Midlander the match.

Next day Hardern, after a restricted evening – only 5 pints – found unsullied Chris Goodbourn fresh and fit and after a second game scare, won 3-0.

Martin Pearse was looking down the barrel as the extremely unorthodox David Garrett, no swing and racket in front pulled off an amazing number of direct nicks and intercepts to lead 7/9, 8/9, against all the predictions. Pearse was in for the long haul and managed to drag the sting out of the Londoner and eventually survived reasonably clear at the end, 9/4, 9/5, 9/3 in an hour and six minutes.

Cue next day against Open Finalist and 2012 World Champion, Chris Ansell and Pearse leading 2/0 and 7/3 replicated the Open by losing the third 7/9 and an amazing come back by Ansell.   Pearse, however, upped the pace and led 8/0 before a mini fight back saw the Chairman win 9/3.

Famous author, Aubrey Waddy, back after a year's absence, was far too clinical for our returning Mike Taylor and won 9/3, 9/6, 9/4 and then in the Semi with no 1 seed Barry Featherstone, varied the pace intelligently, especially with his ‘whipped’ fastcross courts and won 10/3, 3/9, 9/4, 9/0 in a seeding upset. However, Waddy did beat Barry in the Closed within the last couple of years. In the other Semi, after a bright start, Martin Pearse found two hours of squash versus 20 minutes (all that Chris Goodbourn had to endure as he had a first round bye) too much, and Goodbourn won 8/10, 9/3, 9/1, 9/4.

The Final was a similar score line, with Waddy taking the first 9/3, but Goodbourn’s athleticism is something else and his stretches and speed would be too much for most 60+ and even 55+. He was in control with only his slight nerves likely to upset the applecart, and won the last three 9/2, 9/1, 9/6.

Men's O60 was missing a number of the top players with only Ronnie Bell, a recent International on display. He easily found his way to the Final after a first game 5/5 with newcomer Jim Hagan who, unfortunately, ruptured an Achilles and then a 9/3, 9/0, 9/3 with Geoff Walton. The latter, however, was banjaxed by an early lengthy win over Mike Tidy 9/2, 1/9, 10/8, 2/9, 6/9, not the best preparation against aplayer of Bell’s quality. In the bottom half, Neil Nightingale progressed to the Final beating Paul Newbury 9/10, 9/6, 9/4, 9/3.

Geoff Howes, fresh from another walking marathon, this time in Morocco. Geoff, by the way, has only 12 ‘Wainwright Lakeland Peaks’ left to conquer having done 150 or so. Energising and good for the body but not necessarily good for Geoff’s squash. Paul Reader was 60 last week, as I found out on Facebook. I think squash must be one of the only times people actually want to be older! Reader took out Yorkshire combo John Alderson 9/5, 9/3, 3/9, 9/1 and Ed Winter 3/9, 10/8, 7/9, 9/5, 6/9 before going down to Nightingale 9/4, 9/0, 7/9, 9/1. Bell was in complete control of the Final 9/7, 9/0, 9/2 and will be again at Pontefract.

Men's O55– a similar situation with only Messrs Johnson and Hardy established current Internationals on show. Missing were Alexander (on show all weekend running his Empire with a succession of very smart business shirts on display, he rivals Chris Ansell in this department -----Cowley (moving home) Adihetty (jetting around the World probably) and a host of other quality products elsewhere. Colin Shields, keen as mustard, took out the ‘elderly’ Ian Holmes (60 before Pontefract) 9/7, 9/2, 9/6 and another near 60+ Hanging Judge Goodrich removed Paul Harris 9/0, 9/1, 9/7. Stuart Hardy was far too clinical for both Simon Evenden 9/6, 9/3, 9/7 and Goodrich 9/5, 9/1, 9/7, but Johnson, even after a night out with the Lancashire combo The Swift/Ragou Duo, was too sharp in the Final, 9/5, 9/2, 9/6.

Men's O50– hard to believe Adrian Jaski is 50, certainly some of the Ladies would have lost a lot of money. No wonder Betfred records massive profits! Jaskis way to the Final was David Box 9/1, 9/4, 9/0, a talented newcomer who was unlucky with the draw, Nick Englert 9/0, 9/2, 6/9, 9/1, whilst down below ‘Dad’ didn’t recognise his ‘son’ who had to grab him to introduce himself a changed James Ockwell!! Surprised to say the least,but he is just the same on court! He beat newcomer Gary Marshall 3/9, 9/7, 9/1, 9/7, but went out to one of my real sons training partner, John Cordeaux, 9/6, 9/0, 9/7. The latter, always 110%, found Jaski just a bit too sharp in most departments, but tight at the end as Cordeaux came back – to no avail, 9/1, 9/4, 2/9, 9/7.

Men's O45 -A quality draw, just missing a couple including Murray Scott. Eamonn Pricefound a non-smoking Paul Clark a different proposition as the latter led 9/2, 4/0, but Price is made of stern stuff and can be guaranteed to change his game accordingly. As he makes few mistakes, a lifetime of the now gone ciggies was going to catch up with Paul and so it proved. A year down the line though, when the system is cleaned out and who knows? Price then removed Andrew Eilfield 9/4, 9/0, 9/6, before coming up against the non stop, ants in the pants, 9 stoneflying Scotsman, wee Frankie Ellis, full of fresh vegetables and grilled chicken and pasta. If ever anyone has put in shed loads of hard work, it must be our Frankie, just a pity for us he is a Scotsman through and through. His match with Price was pure quality. Personally I have no real interest watching ultrafit Touring Professionals plying their trade, with a few exceptions – when one can watch (for free) a match like this. Incredible to see two of the World’s best for an hour or so, in the end Ellis still at 100% (he started at 200) was just too sharp for Eamonn, 9/3, 9/2, 6/9, 9/6. In the bottom half, the ultra talented David Youngs beat Nick Sheppard and Mark Hildred, before a tight Semi with the difficult to beat Steve McLoughlin. Youngs, however, has the game to break up Steve and so it proved 7/9, 3/9, 9/7, 5/9 McLoughlin had beaten England no 4 Peter Lonsdale 9/0, 9/3, 9/5, after the latter, coming off his inevitable night shift, had just beaten my old team mate Rob Vivian, a newcomer and partner of Sally Jee, 9/4, 4/9, 5/9, 9/4, 3/9.   Unlucky draw for Rob straight up, but he will be a handful. The Final was worth watching. All I can say is a score line of 9/1, 9/3, 9/1 against David Youngs showed the speed, dexterity and power of Ellis in a very, very fast paced match. Roll on Pontefract!

Men's O40– A smallish draw missing some main contenders still saw some great games. Damien Gray finally sneaked Nick Lavery 8/11, 11/9, 5/11, 11/9, 11/9 and Stuart Summers edged Mark Steeden 11/7, 4/11, 11/9, 11/8. At the bottom, John Hansen beat both Bruce St Leger, 11/5, 11/8, 12/14, 12/10 and then Darren Gray 11/3, 11/7, 11/0.

Ragou entered yet another Final after keeping the gallery amused with his incredible retrieving, but Hansen in the Final wasn’t quite so generous and in a tight and entertaining match, took the 40 Trophy 7/11, 11/4, 11/7, 11/9.

Men's O35– Very small draw, Nick Hargreaves, an accomplished newcomer, beat Christian Donelan 12/14, 11/9, 11/3, 11/2 but then fell to ultra quick 40 year old Jamie Goodrich 11/8, 10/12, 11/7, 11/9.

Bottom section saw Ian Cox and Richard Green, son of Harry, a cricketing rival back in Leicestershire,11/2, 9/11, 3/11, 11/6, 11/4, whilst another pair of new comers did battle, Tim Burrell and Marc Woodhead, the latter winning11/6, 7/11, 11/13, 3/11. He then took out Cox 11/5, 11/6, 11/7 before winning the 35Trophy in his first Tournament 11/3, 11/5, 13/11 – no doubt very pleasing!

Conclusion

Many thanks to the markers and Peter Alexander and Anne for all the hard work and hospitality. Also to Brian Brock for running the Tournament front of desk.

One thing that did evolve was the anti-PAR feeling for all competitors in all age groups over 45 and a comparison done on many score sheets saw nearly 40% less time on court with PAR scoring cross referenced against normal.

Martin Pearse

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