Diamonds sparkle at Guildford

UniSport Guildford 2 lost to Exeter Diamonds 3

Gilly Lane 1 Jonathon Kemp 2 retired
6 - 11, 7 - 11, 11 - 7, retired

Stacey Ross 0 lost to Mohamed El Shorbagy 3
10 - 12, 9 - 11, 7 - 11

Steve Meads 1 lost to Rob Sutherland 3
14 - 12, 6 - 11, 6 - 11, 4 - 11

Jamie Mathews 0 lost to Peter Creed 3
3 - 11, 8 - 11, 4 - 11

Alison Waters 3 beat Tory Temple-Murray 0
11 - 0, 11 - 2, 11 - 3

UniSport Guildford 2 lost to Exeter Diamonds 3 - Ian Robinson reports

In an eventful but strangely disrupted match UniSport GUildford lost to highflying Exeter Diamonds by 2 ties to 3. Both teams were without first choice players away at International tournaments, but the squash on show was nevertheless of the highest quality. UniSport handed a debut to American Gilly Lane, who is well-known to local fans as a regular attender for training purposes at the Varsity Centre. Exeter Diamonds put on show squash's hottest property right now in the shape of Mohamed El Shorbagy, whose recent achievements include a fine giant killing run to the Quarter Finals of the World Open in Manchester where he was finally turned over by no lesser player than the World Number 1 himself, Amr Shabana.

Alison Waters was quick to give UniSport the points start needed when she handily disposed of Junior opposition from Exeter, Tory Temple-Murray. The match was on the outside court and unsurprisingly did not trouble the marker for too long. Temple-Murray fought gamely but this was expecting too much of such a promising youngster when matched against the World number 6 who is at the top of her game as well. Temple-Murray fought gamely and genuinely earned her points. No doubt she will reflect whimsically on this experience in years to come. UniSport move into a 1 - 0 lead.

This was quickly followed by World Deaf Champion Jamie Mathews, making his second home appearance for UniSport against Peter Creed for Exter Diamond. After the promising start by Mathews on his debut, all was set for another top notch performance. Peter Creed had other ideas and charging around the court like a demented gnat Creed seemed to hit the ball twice to every shot that Mathews played. The speed was palpable and unsettling for the UniSport player to the extent that the first game quickly became a lost cause. Mathews managed to settle a little in the second and started to gain more control over what was going on. Honours were even until the business end of the game when Creed went into overdrive and killed off the resistance. Mathews was finding it very difficult to deal with the onslaught and in the third game effectively ran out of ideas as Creed charged off into the distance to claim a quick victory. Hitting the ball fiercely Creed had played it tactically absolutely right and was a deserving winner on the night. The match score was now level at 1 - 1.

Steve Meads was promoted back to the main viewing court for the night and found himself confronted by one of the new generation of players, Rob Sutherland. Meads was keen to show that he is stilling playing at his best but found that the ball was flying around the court and was not easy to control, which rather helped the Exeter player and reduced the play to something of a 'slogfest'. It was not pretty and was also punctuated by untimely interference by the referee who was keen to show his skills. Meads made a good start, then lost his way but somehow clung on to win the first game. Sutherland had made a few too many errors early on, which then disappeared and helped by a very effective drop volley on the backhand side turned the match around. Sutherland levelled the scores and quickly built on that to take a 2 - 1 lead winning the third in just as convincing a style. Meads is nothing if not a fighter and the faithful were expecting that Meads would mount one of his now famous comebacks, but Sutherland entertained none of it, applied more pressure and put the match to bed comfortably in the fourth with errors unusually coming from Meads' racket. The speed of youth will have left Meads reflecting that the game is getting harder for him and not any easier. Exeter Diamonds were now in front 2 - 1.

The match that all Guildford had been looking forward to was now in front of their very eyes. The star of the moment, Mohamed El Shorbagy took on local favourite Stacey Ross. Ross loves this sort of challenge, mixing it with the very best players in the world on his favourite Varsity Centre courts. Shorbagy was full of confidence. What was intriging was that immediately the match started, the referee wanted a piece of the action as well. So now we had three 'players' where two would have been quite sufficient. In fact so good are the two contestants that they could and probably should have refereed the game themselves. There were few difficult decisions to make but the frustration of the two players spoilt what should have been a thoroughly absorbing and highly competitive game of squash. There was clear tension in the air as Ross worked his magic and for a while derailed the Shorbagy bandwagon. What would have been more interesting is whether Ross on a better night might have been able to steal a game and cause sufficient doubt in the mind of Shorbagy to turn this into serious upset potential - unlikely, but that was not going to stop the local supporters willing their hero on and hoping that somehow Ross could cause that major upset. It was not to be. Shorbagy now has too much experience for that and all at the tender age of 17. He is World Junior Champion among other things and showed clearly what an exciting talent he is. He has furious pace around the court and hits lines and angles before others have had time to work them out. One can only imagine what a nightmare he must be to play against, but Ross with clever adjustment of pace and line and length fiddled enough openings for himself to give a chance. After building a 2 - 0 lead Shorbagy put distance between him and Ross and in the end the home favourite lost the will to play with the referee now playing better than ever and showing a full range of skills that took some believing, even by Shorbagy standards! This was a very entertaining game of squash which could have been so much better.... Exeter Diamonds had now won the match with an unassailable 3 - 1 lead.

Last on court making his debut for UniSport Guildford was Gilly Lane. The itinerant American Lane was fog bound at his new home airport in Amsterdam earlier in the day, but arrived in time to take his place in the team and face up to the higher world ranked Jonathon Kemp. Left-handed Kemp got off to a flier as Lane struggled to find his way through the fog. Lane was hitting just too loose and offered Kemp too many opportunities to hit winners, which he did with great relish. After the settling down process, the fog appeared to lift a little and Lane endeared himself to the Guildford crowd as he started to peg Kemp back and halt the procession of winners, tightening up his control and making the ball more difficult to hit. This delayed Kemp's progress rather than earned Lane the second game. But the American was now beginning to get into the contest and found that he was more able to control some rallies rather than defending. The third game was much more even and Lane started to control rallies and win points but towards the end Kemp reluctantly had to slow down and it became apparent there was a problem. Lane banked the third game 11 - 7, and then was stunned to find himself shaking hands with his opponent who was forced to concede with a hamstring problem. An unsatisfactory way to win the points for Guildford but nonetheless after the trials and tribulations of earlier in the day Lane was happy to stay overnight in the area with his first win in PSL for UniSport Guildford and at the same time give some respectability to the scoreline ending with a 2 - 3 loss rather than a heavier 1 - 4 defeat.

The PSL season rolls on with another match in a week's time when UniSport Guildford make the short hop to St Georges Hill for the next round of matches. See you there.

Ian Robinson