Locals bow out in Northumbria Open Qualifiers
The PSA $5k Northumbria Open got underway at the Northumberland Club in the Jesmond suburb of Newcastle with eight qualifying matches, three of which featured local players experiencing their first PSA matches.
Juniors Jamie Todd, Dan Wareing and Cai Younger all came up against older and more experienced opponents, and although none managed to take a game, they will surely be better prepared for their next PSA ventures.
”That was a bit hard,” admitted Dan after his match with Winchester’s Phil Bull, “he just had too many shots, much better than any I have, and he seemed to know where I was going to put the ball every time!”
”But I enjoyed it, and it gave me a few pointers about how much I need to improve and what areas I need to work on,” sentiments no doubt shared by his fellow juniors. As they lost out to Christophe Andre and Lance Beddoes.
There was a local winner though in Dan Hockburn, who made the draw by virtue of his ranking and turned in a fine performance to beat Robbie Downer, ranked over 100 places above the Durham lad, in straight games.
”I’d never played Robbie before,” admitted Dan, “so I just tried to keep it short and straight and it seemed to work although he might have been a bit tired after his birthday yesterday!
In other matches there were wins for Kiwi Ben Grindrod, England’s James Earles and Nick Mulvey, and in the last and longest match of the night (of course), Spain’s Carlos Cornes.
Qualifying finals start at 18.30 on Wednesday, and will be streamed live here.
25-Mar, Qualifying Round One:
Lance Beddoes (Nzl) 3-0 Jamie Todd (Eng) 11/3, 11/3, 11/7 (19m)
Nick Mulvey (Eng) 3-0 Jonathan Geekie (Sco) 11/1, 11/8, 11/7 (22m)
Phil Bull (Eng) 3-0 Dan Wareing (Eng) 11/5, 11/4, 11/6 (19m)
Dan Hockburn (Eng) 3-0 Robert Downer (Eng) 11/6, 11/6, 11/9 (30m)
Carlos Cornes (Esp) 3-1 Chris Van Den Salm (Nzl) 10/12, 11/5, 11/7, 11/8 (45m)
Ben Grindod (Nzl) 3-0 Courtney West (Aus) 11/6, 11/8, 11/6 (31m)
Christophe Andre (Fra) 3-0 Cai Younger (Eng) 11/4, 11/4, 11/8 (22m)
James Earles (Eng) 3-0 Matt Hardy (Eng) 11/7, 11/2, 11/9 (23m)
Full coverage: www.squashsite.co.uk/2009/northumbria2014.htm
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