2011 Smart Haus Daventry Open

Part of the MANTIS Fantasy Squash Series

23rd - 24th July

Click here to view all the photos

Click here to view the results

Daventry was the biggest Fantasy Squash Tournament so far with over 60 competitors making their way to Daventry for the 2nd Smart Haus Kitchens Daventry Open.

D Grade

The D Grade had 4 groups of 3, with every competitor needing to win their group outright to progress to the semi final stage. In both groups 2 and 3 it was close all the way with Ryan Swadling only just overcoming Andrew Jefferies in group 2 and Suraj Kumar only just coming through against Connor Feakins in group 3.

The first D semi final was hotly contested with Swadling again coming through in a tough battle this time over Jordan Young who pushed him all the way in all three games.

In the final it looked like the number of matches that Richard Griffiths had played over the weekend (being entered into both C and D) was finally beginning to catch up with him with Swadling taking him to a tie break in the 3rd and still looking strong, but in the end Griffiths had just too much taking the Grade D title 11/6, 11/4, 13/11.

C Grade

Number 1 seed Nigel Berriman was defeated by Andrew Young in the quarter finals who then lost out to inform Ryan Feakins in the semi final. Feakins path to the semi final had not been easy with a narrow 3-1 victory in the first round against Libby Corke and then just making it past Darren Laughton 11/8 in the 5th in the semi finals.

In the bottom half Joe Smith had by comparison a far easier rout to the final doing so without dropping a single set. It may have been this added freshness that gave him the edge in the end with the final looking close until the 4th where Smith was finally able to pull away taking the game 11/4 and with it the C Grade Title.

The C grade plate saw some of the most competitive matches of the day with two opening set tie breaks helping Dan Cochrane to out run Richard Griffiths in the first of the plate semi’s and Cliff Armstrong narrowly defeating Maurice Hill in the bottom half semi. Despite Cliff Armstrong fighting hard Cochrane was just to fit and consistent taking the plate final 11/9, 11/6, 11/8.

B Grade

Joe Faulkner made it through one of the toughest first rounds of the day beating Rob Stewart 3-2. With Stewart 2-1 up the match looked to be decided in the 4th where despite Stewart having chances to wrap it up, Faulker hung in all the way eventually taking the game 14/12 and levelling the tie at 2-2. Stewart never really recovered losing the 5th set 11/6.

The plate seemed to get progressively easier as it went on for Harry Heathcock, with a narrow 3-2 victory over Luc Elsby in the first round leading to a 3-1 victory over Dan Willetts in the semi final and then a 3-0 victory over Joe Elfasi in the final.

David Jeffery came back from 2-0 down to defeat number 2 seed Jack Follett in the quarter finals taking the last two games 11/2, 11/3. Chris Clements also scraped through to the semi beating number ¾ seed Nick Parks 3-2 in the quarter finals. After both having 3-2’s the previous day Clements and Jeffery were glad they had a night recovery before the semi final but in the end it wasn’t enough for Jeffery who ended up being defeated 11/3, 11/4, 11/2 in the semi.

Ian Cochrane continued where he left off in Kenilworth playing clever tactical squash to make it through to the final but he had stiff competition in all his matches with Joe Elfasi taking a game in the 1st George Willis coming within a couple of points in all 3 but failing to convert at the end of the match and Ben Shakespeare almost taking the semi.

The final was one of the best matches of the day with fantastic squash being played from both players who fought right to the end. Cochrane took an early lead but Clement came back strong taking the second 11/4 and looking the stronger of the 2 going into the 3rd game. Clever squash from Cochrane took him through in the end with subtle changes of pace and direction in the end just taking too much out of Clements, brilliant match though.

A Grade

The A field was one of the strongest I have seen in a graded competition with players travelling from as far as Bristol and Manchester to compete and hope to earn a “local spot” into the PSA $5000 event running at Nottingham in August.

In the top half Chris Fuller comfortably made it through to the final taking out Robert Taylor, Dan Busby and Mark Fuller 3-0.

In the bottom half the matches were much closer with Richard Birks getting close to Chris Hall narrowly losing the 3rd game 13/11. Hall was looking sharp though, onto Birks drops quickly and chopping in hard to read boast and straight drops from the back.

Number 2 seed Rob Downer had to fight hard against Sean Hunter, losing the 1st game 5/11 and being taken all the way in both the 2nd and 3rd, only just taking each of them by a couple of points. It was an entertaining match with an on form Sean Hunter getting very close to his second Fantasy Squash Semi Final.

Chris Hall and Rob Downer’s semi final could have gone either way on paper. Both players had been near the top of British Junior Rankings and both had travelled to Daventry with the aim of earning a place in Nottingham.

Chris Hall went 2-1 up and in the 4th the match looked like it was all over when he took an early 6-1 lead but he seemed to sense this himself and started going short just a bit too often. Downer found a way back and as is always the case when the momentum changes in Downers favour a game can be over very quickly. Hall tried to fight back but from his winning position only managed a couple more points losing the game 11/8. With a “local spot” coming down to just one set both players were really fired up but Hall looked the stronger of the 2 and once he regained the discipline that he had in the first game he pulled away taking the game 11/3 and with it a spot in the Nottingham PSA.

The final between the two Chris’s (Chris Hall and Chris Fuller) was always going to be close, they play almost every week and the win ratio has been about 50/50 for the last 4 years.
Fuller made the better start in both of the opening games playing consistent squash and pinning Hall to deep in the court, but Hall came back in both only to fail to convert the big points at the end of the game. In the 3rd Fuller began to attack more, sensing victory but Hall was still fighting and was getting onto balls quickly and counter punching which made life hard for Fuller. Hall ended up taking the 3rd 11/6 only for Fuller to straighten up, hit a deeper length and reorganise for the 4th taking it comfortably.

Daventry really was a fantastic advert for Graded Squash, a big thank you has to go to the tournament sponsor Rob Stewart and Smart Haus Kitchens for supporting the event for a second year in a row. There is now just one more in this year’s miniseries left, will Fuller complete the set in Nottingham and take home all 3 titles.