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© 2005 Q Squash Ltd
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LATEST NEWS
06-05-2007
Scarborough Sizzles
Scarborough have won their first Pro League Title and stopped Holland Park from winning their 4th title in succession.
The last time these two teams met in a Grand Final was in Spring 2005 – the 3rd season of Pro League. Despite a home ground advantage HP secured their first Pro League Title 2-9 to 2-6. Even their last match up this season saw another 2-2 result with Scarborough winning by one game.
Despite Scarborough finishing minor premiers a close contest was expected with the squashmatrix rankings suggesting another 2-2 result.
However, the Final will be remembered for the Freeme Fightbacks and the Pringle Purple Patch.
The day began with HP winning the toss and electing to begin proceedings with the number fours.
HP's Daryl Gayton found himself up against the ever green Ian Freeme. Squashmatrix suggested a win to Freeme and the last time the two players met saw Freeme win in 4.
Freeme began well and raced to a 5-1 lead. Gayton secured the serve at 2-6 and began a very impressive recovery to eventually get back to 7-7. Freeme then secured a game ball but Gayton once again secured the serve and ran out an impressive 10-8 winner.
The opening exchange saw 39 rallies played over 13 minutes.
The second started in similar fashion to the first with Freeme racing to a 5-0 lead. But as it happened in the first Gayton staged another comeback and secured the 2nd 9-5 in 8 minutes and 26 rallies.
Scarborough looked in deep trouble but Freeme changed the tempo of the game in the 3rd and this time the Gayton comeback was no where to be seen. Freeme was back in the match winning 9-4 in 11 minutes and 31 rallies.
As he did in the earlier games Freeme raced to another 5-1 lead before looking as if he had given it his all. At 1-5 the two players exchanged a massive rally which saw Gayton secure a handout and actually look the stronger player.
Freeme is a fighter and despite his apparent exhaustion he got back the serve and with some well placed and controlled drops and volley drops from mid court Freeme locked up the rubber at 2-2.
The final game was another struggle with points off the serve getting harder and harder to get. During the 37 rallies there were only four occasions where Freeme secured 2 points at a time off serve.
The Freeme Fightback was complete. He secured the last game 9-5 and put Scarborough up 1 rubber to 0.
The match lasted 62 minutes and involved 156 rallies. Freeme won 8-10 5-9 9-4 9-2 9-5. His touch was fantastic and most of his winning shots were drops on the backhand side and volley drops from the T to the backhand front corner.
Freeme continued to attack the Gayton forehand with well placed lobs and secured a number of errors as the Gayton boast regularly found the tin.
Scarborough then called for the #3 players. HP thought they had made a mistake. They expected the #2 players because Kelvin Smith had previously beaten Andrew Pringle in four in March 2007.
Well the match got underway in a fairly normal fashion with Smith taking a 1-0 lead but then Pringle began his charge. Everything Smith did was answered by Pringle with authority. Pringle is extremely quick on court and his racquet skills can be very impressive. He possessed a great eye for the ball and when his touch is there he can hurt his opponent with well placed drops to the front and awesome lobs to the back corners.
Pringle was on fire. He secured the first 9-1 in 10 minutes and 26 rallies. He secured the 2nd just as impressively 9-0 in 11 minutes and 31 rallies.
He raced to a 3-0 lead in the 3rd before Smith finally secured a point. It had been a “purple patch” which lasted an incredible 63 rallies. Smith finally scored a point at the conclusion of the 64th rally. With some uncharacteristic errors from Pringle, Smith finally took the lead 3-2 and even had a 4-3 lead before Pringle found his form once again and secured the 3rd and the rubber.
The 9-1 9-0 9-5 score line gave the impression it was a thrashing but it was a well crafted and disciplined demolition which saw 93 rallies played in 39 minutes.
It was a case of Pringle being too fast with one too many answers for Smith. Pringles touch took Smith to all corners of the court each time applying pressure on Smith to come up with something extra special.
In a last throw of the dice HP called for their #1 Zac Alexander to resurrect their title defense. Ranked # 3 Alexander was favourite to win against Scarborough’s Brad Freeme.
The two previously met in April 2006 and on that occasion Alexander won in five.
The first two games were nothing special. Freeme got off to a fantastic start winning the first 9-3 whilst Alexander got off to a better start in the 2nd and secured it 9-4.
Then an epic battle unfolded. Alexander took a 6-2 lead after 23 rallies. Freeme then changed the tempo of the match by firstly serving a series of corkscrews, then a number of skid boasts and then slowed the game considerably.
Whilst the changes didn’t seem to overly concern Alexander, the AIS scholarship holder was not as dominant. All the angles and change of pace certainly forced Alexander into a few more errors and 15 rallies later it was 6-6.
Then within 5 rallies it appeared Alexander was back on track serving for the game at 8-6. Freeme saved 4 match balls and after a further 14 rallies Freeme emerged a 10-9 winner.
If anyone was feeling the effects of the 21 minute game it was Freeme and when Alexander rushed to a 7 nil lead in the 4th (17 rallies) it genuinely looked as if Freeme was going to let the 4th go to conserve energy and give himself every chance in the 5th.
But once again the Freeme began to work himself back into the match. Another fightback was beginning to take shape and the main ingredient became a slowing of the pace. Within 10 rallies Freeme had got the game back to 6-7.
Alexander then secured a vital point and set up 8-6 game ball. Freeme had to dig deep once more. Freeme saved another game ball, got the handout and rattled off 3 unanswered points to set up a 9-8 match ball. Alexander saved one but Freeme hit some timely nicks near the end which ultimately put Scarborough in an unbeatable position.
Freeme commented later that “he hadn’t played his best” but he weathered a massive storm with a blend of lobs, drives and drops but the biggest weapon was his amazing ability to change the tempo of the game.
Freeme won 9-3 4-9 10-9 10-8 in 65 minutes and 142 rallies. The last 2 games called for 57 and 39 rallies for a total of 96 rallies.
The #2’s was a dead rubber and the players Nathan Turnbull (Scarborough) and Steve Martin (Holland Park) were not required to play.
After 6 seasons of trying, Scarborough had finally done it in front of a home crowd.
Pro League Awards.
Following presentations to the two teams it was time to recognize the best averages for the season.
Line 4: Julius Krauss 3.8 – Acacia Ridge
Line 3: Kelvin Smith 3.8 – Holland Park
Line 2: Nathan Turnbull 4.8 – Scarborough
Line 1: Steve Finitsis 4.9 – Acacia Ridge
The Ian Freeme Encouragement Award
Seventeen Pro league players then voted for who they consider is the Player’s Player of the Season. It was a tight contest this season with 9 players being nominated.
Scarborough’s Nathan Turnbull won the Award for the second time with 4 votes. Steve Finitsis picked up 2 nominations as did, Steve Martin, Damian Tam, Peter Taylor and Courtney West. Jacob Lohrisch, Tony McLeod and Adam Morgan each picked up 1 vote.
That then brought us to the ultimate award … the Pro League Gold Award.
It was presented to the player who accumulated the most votes throughout the season. Players voted on each night who they thought was deserving of recognition for outstanding play and good sportsmanship. Votes were awarded on a 4-3-2-1 basis.
The 2007 Autumn Season Pro League Gold Award winner was Damian Tam from Acacia Ridge.
The Top 10 players gather 50 plus points over the 21 week season.
They were:
1 Damien TAM Acacia Ridge 58.5
2 Steve MARTIN Holland Park 55
3 Nathan STEVENSON Caboolture 54.5
4 Nathan TURNBULL Scarborough 54.5
5 Jacob LOHRISCH Daisy Hill 53
6 Tony McLEOD Raceview 53
7 Terry GIBBONS Acacia Ridge 52.5
8 Courtney WEST Daisy Hill 52
9 Adam MORGAN Daisy Hill 51
10 Steven TAYLOR Raceview 50
It is interesting to note that 7 of the players nominated for the Ian Freeme Encouragement Award also appeared in the Top 10 of players vying for the Gold Award.
Thank you to all the volunteers who helped at Scarborough. Particular thanks to the entire Freeme Family, Peter Coates and the boys from Raceview who refereed the final. Your efforts were very much appreciated.
Grand Final Analysis: CLICK HERE
ENDS
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