18-21/02/10 - French Junior Open, Lille

report from Greg Lobban & photos from Alison Henderson

Wednesday 17th February and the eight of us which including myself (Greg) and Alan Lobban, Billy, Ewen & Trish Urquhart, Alison & Jamie Henderson and Ally McCorquodale were all ready to set off and start our journey to Lille, France where we were travelling to compete in one of the most prestigious European events, The French Open.

We all arrived at Inverness Train Station around 19.45 for a departure time of 20.45 on the Caledonian Sleeper. Carol Lobban and Ann McCorquodale were both there to wave us off at the station and to say there final goodbyes to their boys before they left for five days. Well that's what my Mum said but it was really to see that my Dad had not forgotten the tickets and he at least managed to get us on the Sleeper!

To say the least there was a few mixed, mostly negative thoughts of what to expect from the Sleeper itself. But to be honest we thought the train and the rooms were going to be small, crammed, noisy, tight and very little room to move and well, that's exactly what we got!

On a serious note though, it was very tight for space but the rooms and the train were actually very pleasant although it was fairly cosy.

We obviously spent the evening socialising on the train, with the adults not being strangers to enjoying a glass or two of red wine so they didn't take long to crack open the 1st or the 4th bottle of the night. While the 'responsible' adults were laughing and fooling around in the lounge, where some passengers were trying to get some rest and sleep for the next day as they did not book a cabin, the 'kids' sat down in a small row of seats and quietly watched a few episodes of Still Game on Ewen's laptop. And soon after midnight we all retired to our rooms after having to endure an unbearable and extremely uncomfortable heat of the lounge in the carriage we were in.

So, the morning of the 18th and the start of the competition for Ewen, Ally, Jamie and myself.

Our 1st match times were up on the website and we were playing from 6pm starting with Jamie and finishing at 8.45 with Ally scheduled on at night but at 8 o'clock in the morning we were in the middle of London looking for St Pancras International Station where we were going to be finding the Eurostar terminal for our train at 1 o'clock. So with the help of an English man we were pointed in the direction of St Pancras and off we went dragging our big squash bags around the streets of London getting a few peculiar looks from some passers-by.

We found a nice wee cafe in the station for breakfast and Ewen attempting to eat his 1st ever croissant which he did enjoy, and we were off to check in for the Eurostar 3 hours before departure just too make sure we were in the right place. As it turned out we were getting put on at an earlier train departure time which turned out to fit in perfectly as we were also being upgraded to first class! So this was a good start to our first experience of the Eurostar getting a full English breakfast, comfy seats and loads of space to relax in, perfect.

After 20 minutes through the tunnel to France and another 20 to get to Lille we had reached our destination. Before we got on the minibus to go to the venue of the tournament we were waving goodbye to Alison's new Turkish friend and his son. To the amusement of Billy and Alan who heard bits of their conversations, with the highlight being the Turkish man insisting that he believes there will be a tunnel much like the London - France tunnel but instead it will be run from Britain - America! Somehow by the impression I was getting off Billy when he was telling me this story I don't think he was convinced!

We arrived at 'WAM' the main squash venue for the next four days with eight glass backed squash courts. We checked in and looked for shuttle buses back to our hotel which we later found out which was the 'Mercure'. We needed to unpack and some of us needed to freshen up before we had to be back at the venue for Ewen's match at 7 o'clock after we found out that Jamie had received a walkover, alright for some! Not mentioning any names about who needed to freshen up and get their hair and make-up done before the rest of the day.

Trish and Alison were probably the most persistent about getting someone to give us a lift back to the hotel surprisingly! But anyway I don't know how Alison and Trish did it but the tournament official had agreed to persuade someone to take us back which was very nice of them and we had 30 minutes to unpack and do whatever before we had to be back on the bus. No prizes for guessing who last back on the bus was!! Us boys got a quick hit on the courts doing some specific warm up routines..... Well, 3 quarters!

The adults were at the bar, enjoying a few drinks before we were scheduled to go on. Ewen had a tough first round draw against a Dutch player, Rick Penders ranked 11th in European rankings but it is really the world rankings and Ewen competed very well playing what had to be his best squash of the weekend. He went down to a respective 11-8, 11-6, 11-8 defeat to a very good but over confident player it had to be said.

I was next up against a French player Vincent Droesbeke I was expecting a fairly easy game as I was the higher ranked player and he was fairly low down in rankings, but he was a very nice and skilful player. I sailed through the 1st playing very well 11-1 but he made my job difficult in the next two which I won 11-5 11-9.

Ally also was up against it on paper against Zybnek Standera from Czech Republic, who is very steady and got some very nice shots. Ally went down 3-0 but competed at the start of each game but Zybnek stepped it up and Ally wasn't able to react as well as he hoped and was disappointed at the end but he wasn't too upset with way he played as the Czech is ranked 19th in the world.

After the excitement of all the matches we were all extremely tired and needed our beds so we all got on board the 'Grande bus' as Billy proudly announced every time we needed to leave the club back to our hotel! We settled for a fairly early-ish night and much needed rest.

We were refreshed and all met at breakfast at 7.45 in preparation for an 8.45 bus to the venue for our matches. After a strange breakfast of ham and cheese baguettes mostly and hot chocolate that was COLD. After the meal we had as part of the package last night, which was raw meat it was just bright red which us boys certainly didn't try as we were so put off, and the disappointment of breakfast, the food side of things we were not really looking forward to. So we made our way to the venue, unfortunately at the French there was 3 venues and Jamie played at a different venue from us every match, as he was in the Under 17 event. Myself, Ally and Ewen were Under 19. So my report isn't as long for Jamie's matches are less detailed as we didn't manage to see Jamie play which was very disappointing and frustrating for both Jamie and the rest of us.

So, I will start with Jamie, and he was into the 2nd round with a walkover the previous day and was up against Robin Gadola of Switzerland the No.5 seed. Jamie was on the verge of a big upset as he clinched the first 11-9. Unfortunately the Swiss player won the crucial points to win the next 3 games 12-10 12-10 11-9 although Jamie was disappointed initially he felt he put in a good performance and made it difficult for the 5th seed which was promising for the rest of the tournament.

After losing his 1st round game it was important for both Ally and Ewen to win their next games so they could play for a good position in the draw and that is exactly what Ally did. He played a Norwegian player Sigurd Martinius Stray with a fairly comfortable victory 11-7 12-10 11-8 probably slightly easier than the scoreline in the games suggest.

Unfortunately for Ewen he lost his match 3-2 to Leo Colomb of France in a very close encounter, 7-11 11-9 7-11 11-9 8-11 the match was very close with very little between the players. Ewen was a much better player just was playing the wrong game for someone who was very good at the front of the court.

My second round game was against Daniel Mekbib from Czech Republic who is an extremely clever and skilful player and must be 6ft 3 or 4 with an incredible reach and ranked 6 in world. I managed to compete well throughout the entire match but he was just that much better at the end of each game with little more experience at those tight situations and arguments with the ref! I finally went down in a close 11-8 11-9 12-10. I was disappointed but I knew I was playing well enough to have good results in next few matches.

So with two matches that day, we had lunch which was an improvement on last night's dinner which was a relief!

It was the Under 19 turn to go to the other venue and Jamie came to WAM obviously missing each other matches again. Jamie and I were playing for 17th place at best and Jamie was up against Pascal Gomez of Spain and they had the same seeding of 17/32 so it was looking like would be a good game. Unfortunately, I don't think Jamie performed as well as he hoped going down 11-6 11-7 11-7 but Alison didn't say he played bad or could of played better, she just said he didn't boast as much and for Jamie to not boast is a BIG positive to take into next match!

Ewen after losing his first two was up against Shaun Atkinson of England and there wasn't much to say about this rather than it was far too easy for Ewen comfortably winning 5,5 and 4 the match could of been 1,1,1. Ewen deciding not to stress to much over a match that was too easy for him.

Ally playing for 32nd after his win that morning. Aadit Zaveri originally from India but under the nationality of England was his opponent and Ally made short work of him in the first two games not doing anything wrong, playing a very solid game.

I unfortunately had to go on after the first two games of Ally's match but to my astonishment I heard he lost the next two after being so comfortable in the first two. The Indian upped his game and it was down to a tiebreaker in the 5th. Ally came from 10-5 down in that deciding game to eventually clinch the tiebreaker 14-12. Probably too close for comfort and Ally was definitely was playing very close to defeat but assured us he had it all under control!

During Ally's game I had gone on court against an extremely quick and steady Swiss player. I wasn't wanting to spend too much time on court if I could avoid it and went on with confidence in playing different attacking shots and they all came off, most of the time and that was my tactic throughout the whole game trying to take away his pace with controlling him at the back then attacking to front on the volley and won 11-8, 11-8, 11-4.

Dinner again that night was an improvement, things were looking up for us on the food side and we headed back to our hotel. The adults obviously retired to the bar to relax after a tough long day and the athletes went to our rooms to get some much needed rest....for 20minutes then we raced to KFC to tuck into some chips, coke and some ice cream.... Then we got some much needed rest!

Saturday morning and we enjoyed an extra hour in bed as we didn't need to get the bus until 9.45. Well it was the same for breakfast except Alison assured me that the hot chocolate was actually warmer today, unfortunately I still wasn't convinced!

Jamie again playing at WAM and the rest of us at ARBO. Jamie was up against a Ukraine boy called Yannick Lindenmann and Jamie proved too strong for his opponent winning in convincing style 11-3 11-6 11-6.

Ewen was up against Jordan Besnier of France and Ewen controlled the 1st and was looking very comfortable until he lost concentration and any interest in the match, but after a bit of time alone to pull himself together he composed himself to win the next two in the same fashion as the 1st or as his Dad put it during the 3rd 'at least he's finally pulled his finger out!'

Ally had his best match of the tournament where he played Ondrej Uherka who was seeded above Ally. Ally had other ideas of who was expected to win that match and took the game to the Czech and as the incorrect results are up on the website I don't know the exact game scores but I know it was Ally's 3-2 victory. Again coming from 10-5 down in the 5th to win 15-13 in the tiebreaker in a very physical match to say the least. We were all wondering what Ally was thinking about when he was 10-5 down in the 5th and his reason was 'I just thought of Robin Hamill and what he would say if I lost the match, so I thought no I can't lose this now!!'

I was then next on in the last match of the morning against another Frenchman Vincent Lecoq. I lost the 1st 13-15 but I knew I was well in the match and I knew how to win and I stuck to tactics which lead me to a 3-1 victory. The Frenchman after he lost got disqualified after my match for kicking a hole in the wall outside the court. An expensive kick it turned out to be as well leading to him not playing another French Open and 300 Euros, Ouch!

Once again we switched venues for the next matches of the day, to the adults amazement though they were greeted by the barman at the WAM club by the famous Thurso quote of 'what like e day'. Alison had begged the barman to say when we came back to meet her at WAM! So with the hysterics of this over it was back to the squash, and apart from our matches there was some great squash coming from all age groups and all the time there was always good quality of Squash to see and really competitive Fathers that usually get far too involved in certain games. A few parents having to get escorted out during their son's games, this was highly amusing. Typically it was the Egyptians or the Jordanian coaches just getting too involved!

Martin Laursen from Denmark was Jamie's opponent and Jamie won the 1st game 11-7 but the Dane came back strong in the next two winning 11-4 11-3. Jamie again regained some composure and control in the match but being edged out in the 4th 14-12 in a close match.

Ewen had a tough match on paper next round against Englishman Reuben Phillips, who has had good results against top players just not able to close out on big matches. He is a laid back person off court and he brings that on court as well playing very relaxed and bringing the best squash out of him.

Ewen won the first 11-8, was looking good and the second was absolutely crucial to both players, if Ewen took that game I think he would of gone on to take that match but it was Reuben who clinched it 17-15. After that game Ewen also received a conduct warning for his language. To his astonishment and ours that he got a warning for shouting out 'dive' to get to a ball just out of his reach, we still don't know how the marker misinterpreted for something offensive. But Reuben had the momentum after the second and Ewen was always trying to pull it back just making a few tins at crucial points. Losing the next two in two tight 11-8 games.

Ally 'comeback king' McCorquodale was up against Theodore Anderson who is a tidy player and Ally found himself two nil down fairly quickly but Ally must of thought of his inspiration again in the 3rd as he clinched it 13-11 and his nickname was looking a possibility again. Unfortunately it wasn't to be and Ally went down 11-3 in the 4th.

I was still playing for 17th but my next match I knew was going to be a killer on the legs. The Swiss player is known for his relentless style and the boy will run and run was what somebody told me before the match. Not what I was really wanting after a fairly long match that morning.

The first game must of lasted about 15-20 minutes which I clinched 17-15 but the second he took all control and won 11-4. I was absolutely knackered! But I was going to put all the effort in the next two to try grab it in four and I won the next very easily 11-2 and had 3 match balls at 10-7 up in 4th. 3 cheap points in a row and I find myself at 10-10 and a broken racket, Oops. I lost the next two points for the game and also lost the 5th which I put down to Lukas just wearing me out and he succeeded in doing so very well!

It was the last night and final day was tomorrow and everybody was feeling the exertions of the last few days. We were physically tired and all the adults were drained mentally but nothing a glass or two couldn't cure. And off to bed, another late night due to the Winter Olympics keeping me up to all hours in the morning.

I paid the price in the morning though being up at 8 for the last matches of the tournament.

The Urquharts and Ally enjoyed an extra hour as their matches weren't scheduled to a little later.

The legs were tired and the body was drained but just like all last days matches of a European event it's just about giving it your all and hoping the other guy is just as tired or more tired than you if your lucky!

Jamie was up first for the final day and enjoyed a 3-0 victory over Pedro Pinto 17-15, 11-8, 11-6.

It was then myself to take to the court, slowly! Not trying to use too much energy... I also enjoyed a 3-0 victory against the Frenchman Paul Bonabesse who is high up in the rankings fairly convincingly.

Ewen was up next and continued the winning streak for the Scots against Vincent Maris in 5 games. But Ewen looked very flat and bored throughout the match as his opponent wasn't really anywhere near standard of Ewen but he did make it longer and tighter than it really should of been!

Ally was last on and to finish the day and the tournament for us. He was against the Frenchman who I beat 1st round, Vincent Droesbeke. Ally didn't play as well as previous rounds probably down to the two long 5 setters he had earlier in competition and went down 3-0, 11-6 12-10 11-5.

And that was the tournament. We stayed around for some good quality and exciting finals, but I think we all had watched enough squash for the week and were happy to get away and back to the train station.

To conclude the tournament on a squash front, Ewen came 51st, Ally 36th, Jamie 27th and myself 19th.

Ewen, Ally and myself have another year and that age group and to improve on positions we set this year. Jamie will be moving up an age group for the Under 19s next year and another big step to compete at the next level in 2011.

After all the excitement of the squash and the whole week everybody started to wind down at Lille Train Station with the adults going to pub for a few drinkies and the kids obviously just being left with the bags stranded in the waiting room!

We had a two hour wait for the Eurostar and according to the board we had to check in 15 minutes before time of departure, so we had two hours to relax, perfect!

So, 17.15 train and it was currently 16.55 we made our way to the departure gate all excited to get home and start the journey back after a two hour wait, but my goodness did that mood change when we got to the check-in desk.....

Dad and Billy led the way with the tickets with us closely following behind we came to a stop, so with me texting and Alison and Trish in deep conversation all we hear is from Billy, 'what do you mean we are too late we only had to be here 15 minutes before departure' (if only I could explain the panic and frustration in Billy's voice right now!)

'Sorry, you're too late' said the French Eurostar Employee shutting the gate but Billy would not let the gate shut and started pushing the gate back at the supervisor, refusing to let him close the gate for us not to get through.

'Sorry but it is just not possible to let you on at this stage' said the guard, 'tres possible' in a French accent belted out by Billy in anger and anxious tone of his voice at this point!

Everybody began to panic a little and even us 3 at the back started to pick up what was going on. We kind of knew there was a problem with translating our points across when Ewen asked to talk immediately with someone that spoke fluent English! So as Billy was refusing to let the gate shut the main officer came over to us and called for the police that were securing around the corner. So after the efforts of Billy using his strength to keep the gate open and Dad waving our tickets in their faces they gave in and we got through!

Wow, well, that certainly got our hearts racing and we were told to sprint through security and onto the train as quickly as possible and 5 minutes later we were on our seats on the Eurostar unable to stop laughing and control ourselves for at least half an hour! And I think we all understood we were very lucky, but we were given the wrong information so we weren't at fault for it!

So, after a lot to talk about on the Eurostar, we were back at St Pancras and we made our way to Euston Train Station for the sleeper back to Inverness. We had dinner at Nando's and tucked in to a change of food compared to the food in France. The meat in Nando's was actually cooked. The adults got ready for the trip back with another few bottles of wine and we were off, back to Inverness.

Everybody managed to get a good sleep, I think on the way back and we were off the train at 8 in the morning in Inversnek, all a little tired and cold!

Everybody had a really good time and definitely benefited from more experience and European level and the adults gained more experience from learning to spend less time in the pub and allowing more time to check in on time!!!

 

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End-of-Document

Season 2010-2011

As and when fixtures become available, they will appear here.