Luxembourg finishes 4th

After losing for the 2nd time of the tournament against Norway, Luxembourg finishes at a good 4th place! Ukraine wins with a 4-0 victory against Poland, and here are the other final positions: 3rd Norway, 4th Luxembourg, 5th Croatia, 6th Gibraltar, 7th Malta, 8th Cyprus, 9th Turkey, 10th Lithuania.

Luxembourg – Norway 0-4

Sanjay RAVAL – Kim Are KILLINGBERG  6-11 6-11 3-11
Niall WOODGER – Kristian SOLHAUG  10-12 8-11 6-11
Daniel KAISER – Ronny AASBø 6-11 7-11 4-11
Daniel HUTCHINES – Edvard HEGBOM 11-9 9-11 11-9 10-12 6-11

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Luxembourg plays for bronze!

After losing to Norway 3-1 this morning, Luxembourg finished 2nd of their pool, and played against top-seed Ukraine in the semis.

Ukraine was too strong for us, beating us 4-0. This means that Luxembourg will play for 3rd or 4th place tomorrow, while Ukraine plays the finals against Poland!

Norway – Luxembourg 3-1

Kim Are KILLINGBERG – Sanjay RAVAL 11-8 11-6 11-6         Kristian SOLHAUG – Niall WOODGER 5-11 3-11 11-8 1-11         Ronny AASBø – Daniel KAISER 11-7 11-6 11-7 Edvard HEGBOM – Daniel HUTCHINES 11-4 9-11 11-9 6-11 11-8

Semi-Final: Ukraine 4-0 Luxembourg

Ruslan Sorochynskyi 3-1 Sanjay Raval  11/7, 11/6, 4/11, 11/3
Konstantyn Ryblchenko 3-0 Niall Woodger  11/9, 11/8 rtd
Denys Podvoryni 3-0 Daniel Kaiser 11/2, 11/3, 11/5
Valerii Fedoruk 3-0 Daniel Hutchines 15/13, 11/4, 11/5

Good result for Luxembourg!

Day 2 for Luxembourg started off very positively with a 4-0 win against turkey. Mark Radley (age 15) making his ETC debut getting a 3-1 win at number 4 and Sanjay, Niall and Danny following with 3-0 wins.

Next came a big test for Luxembourg playing number 2 seed Gibraltar. Danny kicked things off with a strong performance winning 3-0 leaving little room for his opponent to get past him. Daniel started off his match very positively going 2-0 up with solid squash. Gibraltar came back fighting and won the next two sets, working very hard for every point and retrieving everything! Fifth set was going to be tight, in the end Gibraltar came through – a very good fight from their side!
Sanjay had a very tough game at number one. Sanjay started off with lots of energy and going 1-0 up. Brindle from Gibraltar came back with very disciplined squash making few errors And moving Sanjay all over the court, winning the next two sets. Sanjay dug deep to fight in the fourth and managed to take it too five sets, but Brindle was too strong in the end with more energy left.
Niall was last on court and produced a very convincing performance, playing tight squash and making his opponent work every rally. Niall went 2-0 up and a very tight third set which could have gone either way, eventually went Nialls way with a tie break win.
So a final score of 2-2 with Gibraltar sets up a big match with Norway tomorrow to decide who will top the group!!

Turkey – Luxembourg 0-4

Huseyin GUMUS –  Sanjay RAVAL 4-11 11-13 2-11    (0:25)
Uzay AYSEV – Niall WOODGER 3-11 4-11 3-11 (0:12)
Ergul YILMAZER – Daniel HUTCHINES 9-11 5-11 4-11 (0:18)
Atilla MUSTAFAOGLU – Mark RADLEY 9-11 8-11 11-9 5-11   

Gibraltar – Luxembourg 2-2 (6-10)

Anthony BRINDLE  – Sanjay RAVAL   5-11 11-3 13-11 6-11 11-4
Christian NAVAS   –  Niall WOODGER   3-11 8-11 14-16
Steven SCHACALUGA – Daniel KAISER   2-11 7-11 11-9 11-5 11-8    
Colin DAVIS – Daniel HUTCHINES    5-11 3-11 3-11    0-1

Luxembourg finished their first day at the European team championships with an important win against Croatia. Number 1 and 2 strings were first on court – Sanjay Raval and Niall Woodger. Niall played steady squash giving his opponent little room for manoeuver and wrapped up the game in straight sets 3-0. Sanjay was trying his best to follow up on Niall’s win, but couldn’t find the shots to work his opponent enough and in the end lost 3-0. Danny Hutchines and Daniel Kaiser were both on court next. Danny playing solid squash with few errors and won quickly 3-0. Daniel had a more testing game at number 3. He took a quick 2-0 lead playing solid squash but then the Croatian fought back and a very long third game finished 17-15 to the croat. Fortunately, Daniel came back strong in the fourth and wrapped up the last game to seal a hard-fought 3-1 win for the minnows from Luxembourg.

Croatia – Luxembourg 1-3

1. Manuel FISTONIC – Sanjay RAVAL          11-3 11-5 11-8    (0:22)
2. Vedran SVONJA – Niall WOODGER        4-11 6-11 3-11    (0:19)
3. Robert PETROVIC – Daniel KAISER        8-11 6-11 17-15 8-11 (0:43)
4. SroAn MAKSIMOVIC – Daniel HUTCHINES    5-11 1-11 7-11    (0:28)

National coach Daniel Verhoeven recently nominated the team that will represent Luxembourg at the European National Team Championships 2012 – Division 3, which will be held in Malta, between April 18 and 21.

The nominated team is: Sanjay Raval, Niall Woodger, Danny Hutchines, Daniel Kaiser & Mark Radley.

20 teams and 90 players will compete in this event. In the men's competition, the following teams have entered: Malta, Ukraine, Russia, Norway, Sweden, Croatia, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Isle of Men, Gibraltar, Poland, Lithuania and Turkey.