Under 19 European Team Championships – Lisboa Portugal
Click here for the link to the video from the event.
Israel
Boy 2: Al Prott v Ido Burstein
Al came flying out the traps playing some of his best squash to completely dominate the first game. He controlled the pace extremely well and stopped any attempts to create chances. He won this game 11-0 a deserving score line for the tremendous performance.
The next game the Israeli started to get a foothold in the match and showed some of his own class to level up the match.
The next 2 were a roller coaster with both players taking turns playing extremely well but not at the same time which meant for some short rallies and plenty of winners. In the 5th the condition didn’t change with the 2 players trading winners and both trying to hold on to the T. It was tight all the way through with Al showing great maturity to close out the match with consistent and controlled squash.
Boy 1: Patrick O’sullivan v yali shass
Patrick went on next and straight away the type of match to follow was clear. Lots of lengthy gut wrenching rally’s with both players testing the others physical abilities. The Israeli was managing to come up with a few more winners then Patrick which gave him the lead.
It became apparent that both players felt comfortable rallying from the back and began trading shots on the backhand side with play being constantly switched to that side regardless of where the ball was. This suited the Israeli more than the scot as he began to pick off loose balls and dominate the play.
This pattern of play followed for the rest of the match. Patrick lost out 3-2.
Girl: Georgia Adderley v Maya Birenishtock
Georgia was on next in the deciding match. Feeling good after extremely well done warm up she started off with a high intensity which gave her many opportunity to take the ball in at will and use effective holds to keep her opponent off balance and under pressure.
Georgia maintained this pressure and tidied up this match 3-0 in a matter of minutes.
SCOTLAND WIN 2-1
Denmark-
Boy 2: Al Prott v Mikkel Kongisfeldt
Al continued the form that he showed earlier in the day and again reproduced the well-controlled volleying display that mirrored his efforts earlier.
He continued to show his dominance and this caused his opponent to get frustrated and forced a lot of errors from the racket of the Dane. Once he had his opponent in his net he never let him loose and continually moved him from corner to corner either hitting a winner and with occasional taxi which the crowd enjoyed. This was a relatively straight forward match for Al and he was happy to get through this one unscathed.
Boy 1: Patrick O’sullivan v Kasper Pedersen
Patrick was certainly feeling the tough 5 setter he had earlier on as he was looking a little stiff in the first few point and he started off very defensively with lots of elongated rallies using more height to avoid any heavy movement. This wasn’t as successful as Patrick had hoped as his opponent began to pick him off and slotted away a few nicks. He lost the first game as a result.
After a quick break Patrick came back on looking much more pumped and ready to go. With an alteration in tactic to go for the ball a bit more. Which paid off at first but a few errors began to creep in which kept his Danish opponent in the game. The players found themselves at 10-10 but Patrick’s earlier more offensive play had proven effective. As his opponent was looking to slow the pace now as he had run out of energy. Patrick took full advantage and put a couple of hard rallies into his legs and took the game.
Patrick continued with this style and exclaimed between games that life is so much easier when I actually take the ball in to the front of the court. He continually pressed the Dane testing his legs and as the game went on Patrick pressed on again showing his ability to maintain a higher intensity than his counterpart. This continued all the way to the finale and Patrick closed out the match 3-1.
Girl: Georgia Adderley v Caroline Christiansen
Georgia asserted her dominance early on with powerful hitting and buried her opponent in to the back corners. Which worked well as any time her opponent got onto the volley she put the ball away into the straight nick. This meant that Georgia made sure his drives where getting right through the court taking no chances. Georgia got a large early lead and managed to hold onto it even though there were plenty of points trading at the climax of the game.
The Dane came out flying in the 2nd using the forehand and volley to hit a few spectacular winners and stayed all the way in the game till the end where the scots variations at the front proved too much.
Georgia came out in the 3rd looking much more confident in what she had to do. Taking the Danes volley out the game and dispatched the opponent 3-0
SCOTLAND WIN 3-0
France
Boy 1: Patrick O’sullivan v Victor Crouin
Patrick was due on court against the Individual U19 Euro champ and after 2 tough matches the previous day he had a clear plan in mind. He started well using lots of height variations and pace changes which took the French player by surprise. Pat was right there with him till 6-6 then a few unforced errors out him out the game.
The Frenchman came out in the 2nd and put on a display of precision hitting and well controlled squash and gave Patrick absolutely nothing. From the 1st to the last point the Frenchman showed his class and why he picked up last week title.
Pat relaxed more in the 3rd and began to use the variation that gave him much success in the 1st again which in turn caused the French problem. He was having to out hit the scot as Patrick was changing the pace and cutting the ball in very well which normally wasn’t Patrick style but was really working. Victor again began to tighten up the reins and started the move Patrick into all the corners which opened up winning opportunities for the Frenchman. He closed out the match from there.
Girl: Georgia Adderley v Fanny Segers
Georgia was due on next Against Fanny who she had a very tight battle with at the last represented event. Georgia was confident in here tactics and knew exactly what she needed to do to because of this. Straight from the get go the Scot had the French girl stretching and moving for every ball. She was hitting like there was no floorboards in the middle of the court. This worked tremendously well as she won runs of points and only dropped 5 points in the first 2 games putting the French under tremendous amounts of pressure and forcing errors and the opportunity to hit volley winners.
Georgia’s confidence grew as she went on and she started using the holds very well at the front sending fanny the wrong way on several occasions. Georgia was delighted to close this one out 3-0 and level the tie.
Boy 2: Al Prott v Rohan Mandill
The next match was a clash in styles with the Frenchman a more attrition and hard length hitter and Al a shot marker. This proved for some exciting opening rallies with the French man using his fast pace and hard hitting to try and contain AL. The scot was trying to create angles to attack from. This trading of point happened for the first half of the game with Al using his attacking play to pull ahead to a 9-6 lead. From this point the Scotsman looked to try and get over the finish line as quickly as possible which resulted in a couple of errors levelling the game back up. Rohan then managed to play 2 perfect lengths to close out the first.
Al came back on and again asserted his presence on the T. Holding it well and controlling the movement of the Frenchman. This resulted in most of the rally’s either ending with a Scottish winner or a Scottish error. The French got every ball back into play that wasn’t an outright winner and this meant that the error count began to rise and the French managed to peg another game.
This pattern of play followed suit for the rest of the match, the resilience of the Frenchman won out with Rohan showing his discipline and patience.
The scots fought valiantly and on a different day this could have easily been a victory. However this was still a win for the scots as they had gained enough points to merit a quarter finals spot against the Czech Rep.
SCOTLAND LOSE 2-1
Quarter-Finals and 5-8 Playoff
Czech rep
B1 Patrick O’sullivan v Viktor Brytus
Patrick went on first against the Czech player Viktor. Patrick had a very nervy start hitting a few interesting width up the middle of the court around the door but shortly after this managed to get himself into a rhythm.
He managed to get a few runs of points but the Czech seemed to up his game anytime Patrick looked to take the lead.
As the match went on it was very evident that the Czech was not going to make many if any errors and Paddy had to start looking for more winning opportunities as he was beginning to feel the long rallies.
The rest of the match followed suit with highly competitive rallies but a lack of errors from the opponent made it difficult for Patrick to convert hard work into games.
Girl Georgia Adderley v Krystina Fialova
Georgia went on next against the girl. Georgia knew what to expect here as she had done her homework by watching the Czech play the previous day. It was clear that the opponent was very strong down her Backhand and looked to create play form there.
Georgia dominated all the other corners of the court and made the Czech work had for any point she won.
The second was looking to be going the same way when a tough low lunge meant that G clip her hand on the floor and get to take a blood injury. This broke Georgia momentum and she proceeded to lose the next 5 rallies which put her down in the score line. After slight refocus she was able to get back on track and close the game out in a tiebreaker.
From this point G was too strong for the Czech and made her see all the corners of the court in the 3rd and closed out the match 3-0
B2 Al Prott V David Zeeman
The match up was sitting at a draw and it was down to AL to try and get us over the line. Both players started well and were clearly up for it as the first rally was about 40 shots of front to back and back to front squash with both players moving and hitting well. This pace continued for the rest of the game with the Czech just finding a couple of extra winners to close it out.
Al showed some ridiculous movement to get back the shots of the Czech. Time and time again everyone though he was out the rally but somehow got the ball back and generally with interest.
The two players traded shots in all 4 corners for the first 2 games and as the games came to a close the scots error count crept up. He lost out in a lengthy and high intensity battle.
SCOTLAND LOSE 2-1
Wales
B1 Patrick O’Sullivan v Elliot Morris
Paddy started off with lots of confidence and was moving extremely well but the Welshman was a little more solid making less errors than paddy which resulted in the welsh sneaking the 1st in a tiebreak. Paddy put everything into the 2nd game and chased down every ball trying to convert any point he could as the Welshman had tightened up his shots and made it very difficult to convert any points. This made for a lot of tough rallies where it either ended in an outrageous winner or error.
The intensity and previous tough matches had taken its toll on Patrick and by the third the legs were gone. The Welshman tidied off the match 3-0.
Girl Georgia Adderley v Ciara Richards
Georgia was really up for this match and it was shown in the first by taking the first 11-0. She dominated the whole game from start to finish. She looked very confident in her driving and was turning her opponent left and right and she couldn’t keep up.
Ciara then started to attack more throwing in drops randomly which challenge Georgia more as she need to do a few big movement to retrieve the ball but still managed to maintain and control the tempo of the match and close out another straight forward match.
B2 Al Prott v Dan Christopher
This tie came down to Al for the second time today. With the match being 1-1 and AL to play the Big Welshman Dan Christopher. Straight from the get go Dan was hitting the ball at a ridiculous pace. With the ball flying all over the place and getting tough to see.
Al was struggling to adjust to the pace and began make a lot more errors than previous matches. He began to try and mix the paces and used a variety of heights. Which began to even the playing field.
Al then began to deliberately target the Backhand of the big Welshman as it was considerably weaker than his forehand and converted the 3rd in relative ease.
The 4th became a battle of sides with the Welshman switching play to the forehand and the Scotsman to the backhand. This turning made of a lot of loose balls which meant the court had opened up significantly more and this benefited the bigger player as he took the ball straight and hard when loose and Al had to scramble round him to get onto the ball.
SCOTLAND LOSE 2-1
7/8 Playoff France (again)
B1 Al Prott v Victor Crouin
Patrick was rested for this match as the battles at 1 all week had taken its toll on his body and he was “pretty done in”. Al stepped up to the plate on this occasion to see if he could test Victor. The match started as expected with both players hitting great length and width toying with the occasional drop and boast to test each other. It made for some entertaining but lengthy rallies. This favoured the Frenchman and Al had tough matches the previous day.
Al then turned on the attacking side of his game and began trying to end the rally sooner as these length battles weren’t going to get him the desired result. Time and time again we had both hands up ready to clap a winner when the Frenchman got onto the ball (somehow) and then switch the pressure back on the AL. Both players took turns to dominate the rallies but the points all seemed to be going one way. Al lost 3-0 but gained valuable experience of what it takes to play at 1 in the Europeans.
B2 Ross Henderson v Rohan Mandill
Next on was Ross. He was delighted to get on court to play the Frenchman and looked raring to go. The Frenchman started the same way he left off again Al with a high intensity and fast paced length game. Only taking in the ball when it was in the perfect position. This clearly took its toll on Ross as 2 rallies in as he turned to the Scotland bench and put his hands on his knee and grinned. The game followed this similar pattern of fast squash and this was differently favouring the French.
Ross came out firing in the next game and looked to shorten the rally’s and find winners, which worked beautifully, and he was on fire hitting great drops and low kills. However as game went on the rally’s settled in to the legs and those quality short shots became tins.
Ross put in a great effort and left everything on the court. A great level of effort.
SCOTLAND LOSE 2-0
As a team we were very happy with the overall performance and will take away plenty of great experience to further our squash. There were so many close matches that went down to the last tie and on another day the scots could have potentially finished higher but a valiant effort from all and we are all very proud of the effort and performances.
Click here for the link to the video from the event.
