Joelle King leads gold rush for Kiwis and Aussies
By HOWARD HARDING – Squash Mad International Correspondent
In a disappointing finals day for British duos at the WSF World Doubles Squash Championships in England, New Zealand retained both the Women’s and Mixed gold medals whilst Australia reclaimed the Men’s title after upsetting the defending champions in the climax of the World Squash Federation event at the National Squash Centre in Manchester.
Kiwi Joelle King was the star of the day, first partnering Amanda Landers-Murphy in the Women’s final to beat English outsiders Jenny Duncalf and Alison Waters, fighting back from a game down and saving three match-balls from 10-8 in the decider to win 9-11, 11-1, 11-10 in 46 minutes.
Immediately afterwards, the 28-year-old world No.12 from Cambridge linked up with Paul Coll to face England pair Alison Waters and Daryl Selby in the Mixed final – Londoner Waters celebrating her 109th cap for England but a second silver medal in less than an hour after the Kiwi conquerors grabbed an 11-8, 9-11, 11-6 victory in 47 minutes.
“That was so tough,” said a delighted and relieved Landers-Murphy after her second gold medal since first winning the title with King in Darwin, Australia, a year ago. “We were ahead in all the games, just glad that we could stay strong and keep it together at the end.”
Duncalf, the 34-year-old former world No.2, said: “Losing 11-10 in the third is always quite tough. We did well to win the first and then the second was a bit of a disaster. The third was very up and down and they won it right at the end. They are the defending champions and we knocked out the Commonwealth gold medallists (Joshna Chinappa and Dipika Pallikal of India) so we’re very pleased with that.”
Coll, also a gold medallist for the second time in a year, said after his Manchester gold: “We felt good together again today. We dropped off a bit in the second, but managed to get early leads in the first and third, which always takes the pressure off.
“We have a great team spirit in the Kiwi camp. It’s been a tough week to start the season off, but a lot of fun, and we’re obviously delighted to be going back with more gold medals!”
Englishman Selby, like Waters a World Doubles finalist for the first time, said: “We were seeded five so to win a silver medal is a fantastic achievement – to push the reigning world champions as hard as we did is really pleasing. Al and Joelle both did really well to play two matches in a row and we weren’t far away in the end.”
Continuing the Antipodean run in Manchester, Australians Ryan Cuskelly and Cameron Pilley took gold in the Men’s event (pictured above) – despatching Scotland’s reigning champions and top seeds Alan Clyne and Greg Lobban 11-6, 11-3 in 34 minutes.
“We’ve had a lot of tough matches with them,” said Australian number one Pilley, renowned as the one of the hardest hitters of the ball. “They beat us last year so it was good to turn the tables this time. There were some brutal rallies in the first, but we stuck to our game plan and it worked out, then in the second we continued to execute and they made a few errors which helped our cause.”
Bronze medals were awarded to the losing semi-finalists – thus, in addition to New Zealand, Australia, England and Scotland, medals also went to India and Wales.
World Doubles Squash Championships, Manchester, England.
MEN’S Final:
[2] Ryan Cuskelly & Cameron Pilley (AUS) bt [1] Alan Clyne & Greg Lobban (SCO) 11-6, 11-3 (34m)
Bronze Medallists:
[4] Paul Coll & Campbell Grayson (NZL), [5] Declan James & James Willstrop (ENG)
WOMEN’S Final:
[1] Joelle King & Amanda Landers-Murphy (NZL) bt [5] Jenny Duncalf & Alison Waters (ENG) 9-11, 11-1, 11-10 (46m)
Bronze Medallists:
[2] Joshna Chinappa & Dipika Pallikal Karthik (IND), [3] Rachael Grinham & Donna Urquhart (AUS)
MIXED Final:
[1] Joelle King & Paul Coll (NZL) bt [5] Alison Waters & Daryl Selby (ENG) 11-8, 9-11, 11-6 (47m)
Bronze Medallists: [7] Tesni Evans & Peter Creed (WAL), [4] Rachael Grinham & David Palmer (AUS)
Men’s Play-Off results:
Fifth place play-off:
[3] Zac Alexander & David Palmer (AUS) bt [7] Peter Creed & Joel Makin (WAL) 11-5, 11-5 (24m)
Seventh place play-off:
[6] Tom Richards & Daryl Selby (ENG) bt Dylan Bennett & Piedro Schweertman (NED) 11-5, 11-4 (19m)
Ninth place play-off:
[8] Nafiizwan Adnan & Ivan Yuen (MAS) bt [10] Lance Beddoes & Evan Williams (NZL) 11-7, 11-5 (29m)
Eleventh place play-off:
Mohd Syafiq Kamal & Eain Yow Ng (MAS) bt [11] Andrés Herrera & Juan Camilo Vargas (COL) 11-4, 9-11, 11-7 (45m)
Thirteenth place play-off:
[12] Douglas Kempsell & Kevin Moran (SCO) bt Jean-Pierre Brits & Christo Potgieter (RSA) 10-11, 11-6, 11-10 (37m)
Fifteenth place play-off:
David Baillargeon & Shawn Delierre (CAN) bt [9] Vikram Malhotra & Mahesh Mangaonkar (IND) w/o
Women’s Play-Off results:
Fifth place play-off:
[8] Samantha Cornett & Nikki Todd (CAN) bt [7] Tesni Evans & Deon Saffery (WAL) 11-6, 11-9 (28m)
Seventh place play-off:
[4] Laura Massaro & Sarah-Jane Perry (ENG) bt [6] Rachel Arnold & Nicol David (MAS) w/o
Ninth place play-off:
[12] Lisa Aitken & Carrie Hallam (SCO) bt [11] Sarah Cardwell & Christine Nunn (AUS) 11-5, 11-8 (27m)
Eleventh place play-off:
[10] Catalina Pelaez & Laura Tovar (COL) bt [13] Alexandra Fuller & Cheyna Tucker (RSA) 11-6, 11-8 (17m)
Thirteenth place play-off:
[9] Natalie Grinham & Milou van der Heijden (NED)
Mixed Play-Off results:
Fifth place play-off:
[2] Dipika Pallikal Karthik & Saurav Ghosal (IND) bt [13/16] Lisa Aitken & Douglas Kempsell (SCO) 11-10, 11-4 (25m)
Seventh place play-off:
[6] Joshna Chinappa & Vikram Malhotra (IND) bt [3] Donna Urquhart & Cameron Pilley (AUS) w/o
Remaining final positions: 9 Amanda Landers-Murphy & Zac Millar (NZL); 10 Victoria Lust & Adrian Waller (ENG); 11 Milnay Louw & Christo Potgieter (RSA); 12 Nikki Todd & David Baillargeon (CAN); 13 Milou van der Heijden & Dylan Bennett (NED); 14 Catalina Pelaez & Andrés Herrera (COL); 15 Samantha Cornett & Shawn Delierre (CAN); 16 Natalie Grinham & Piedro Schweertman (NED)
Pictures by Squashsite courtesy of WSF