TThe Luxembourg Squash Team participates this year with both a women’s an a men’s team at the European Team Squash Championship, which is being held at Aix en Provence.
The first round took place today, an the Men played against Slovakia, while the Women played against Spain. Unfortunately, both teams lost badly, without winning a single set!
Here are the detailed results:
Women:
Spain – Luxembourg 3-0
Xisela Aranda – Sandra Denis 3-0 (11-4, 11-4, 11-4) {24m}
Margaux Moros – Claudia Mich 3-0 (11-1, 11-0, 11-3) {12m}
Chantal Moros – Francoise Donven 3-0 (11-4, 11-7, 11-4) {20m}
Men:
Slovakia – Luxembourg 4-0
Tomas Toth – Nathan Sneyd (11-6, 11-7, 11-4) {22m}
Marek Manik – Sanjay Raval (12-10, 11-5, 11-7) {25m}
Peter Kviecinsky – Niall Woodger (11-3, 11-9, 11-3) {25m}
Marek Zvoncek – Daniel Hutchines (15-13, 11-4, 11-3) {25m}
Luxembourg Minnows Diary…. Day One (from: www.squashsite.co.uk)
Day one in Aix-en-Provence, the weather was fine and, after a couple of cheeky beers the night before, the team from the little land of Luxembourg were in good spirits for the matches that lay ahead.
The men knew they faced an important match against the team from Slovakia, who were something of an unknown quantity (seeded 27th as opposed to 19 for Luxembourg owing to them having not played last year). The women on the other hand faced a tough prospect against Spain.
Despite Danny Kaiser getting the bus times wrong, the team made it to the club in time to see a cracking match between LJ and Oli, followed by the matches between an extremely strong English side and their German counterparts. If ever matches could serve as some motivation for the Luxembourg team, surely that was it?
Unfortunately for the minnows, that is not quite how things panned out.
First up, the ladies team comprised of Sandra Denis, Claudia Mich and Francoise Donven came up against a well organised Spanish team and, despite some hard fought games, ran out….3-0 losers.
Could the men do any better, thus putting themselves in a good spot in their pool? The team, made up of Nathan Sneyd, Sanjay Raval, Niall Woodger and Daniel Hutchines, playing on courts 1 and 2 (following on from James Willstrop and Adrian Grant – tough act to follow), couldn’t dig deep enough and were disappointed to lose to a stronger than anticipated Slovakian outfit.
So, all in all a tough day for the Luxembourg team with the prospect of even tougher matches ahead (Sweden and Hungary tomorrow). Regardless of the outcomes of those matches however, the teams are convinced that they can put in a good account of themselves, even if it means beating their higher rated opponents at the bar on Saturday night…
Niall Woodger
Leave a Reply