Category: ENCC 2010

The European Nation Challenge Cup took place in the marvellous "Kahuna" Club in Warsaw, Poland, from September 30th to October 2nd. The Luxembourg team, composed of Danny Hutchines, Daniel Kaiser, Stéphane Ayache and reserve player Marcel Kramer, coach Paul Tuffin and team manager Mark Gillies competed against 15 other "small" squash nations.

We ended up at a good 7th position out of sixteen. The event was eventually won by Serbia, the runner up was Ukraine. The 7th position is quite good, considering that we left the other nations participating in the "Mini-Olympics" next year in Liechtenstein behind us: Monaco (8th), Malta (9th) and Liechtenstein (11th) . 

The day by day reports, with the detailed results can be found here

Luxembourg – Monaco 2-1

Stéphane Ayache – Jérôme Gobert 3-0

Danny Hutchines – Christian Billard 0-3

Daniel Kaiser – Nicolas de Gaillan 2-11 11-4 11-4 11-7

The match of this tie surely was Daniel’s. In fact the two other matches were quickly done with, as Stéphane played solid rock squash, and dispatched Monaco’s number 3 easily.

Then Danny had to play against Christian: Danny looked more and more tired, didn’t find the right answers, and lost 3-0.

Daniel’s game was the decider: he came on court, ready for a big push, and fought really hard. After losing  the first game 11-2, he made his opponent work more and more, and Daniel found some amazing angles, finding the nick quite often. Best shot surely was game ball in the 3rd, which Daniel finished in stlye with an beautiful nick!

The last one was pretty close until 7 all, but then Daniel wrapped it up to win the match!

This means that we finish as 7th. This is a quite good results, especially considering this tournament as a preparation for the Mini-Olympics in Liechtenstein: in fact we finished ahead of Monaco, Malta and Liechtenstein!

At 5pm the final will be Ukrania against Serbia (the team that beat us in the quarterfinal). This will be a very interesting game, and we expect to see some excellent squash, as both the Ukranian and Serbian number ones are the best players here at this tournament!

The organization here was absolutely perfect, the food very good, and the facilities very nice! So a big compliment to the polish organizers for having this nice event!

Luxembourg – Estonia 0-3

Stéphane Ayache – Paul Piik  13-11 11-13 4-11 13-15

Daniel Hutchines – Kristjan Pettai 11-6 13-15 9-11 8-11

Marcel Kramer – Jaanus Pettai  6-11 5-11

Today, the playing order is 3-1-2, so first on court is Stéphane Ayache against a very fit looking Paul Piik. The first game was for Stéphane, he won it 13-11 on tiebreak. In the second game though, Paul Piik improved, did not make any mistakes anymore, and the very long game finished 13-11 for Estonia this time. The Estonian now played much faster, wearing Stéphane down, and wins game 3 easily 11-4. But Stéphane did not give up, and fought back: the 4th game was a gruelling one: long rallies, and the Estonian  being all over the place, retrieving everything. He found amazing angles, and every boast almost went into the nick. Despite this, Stéphane stayed into the game, and even had 4 game balls, all saved by Paul Piik. Eventually, on another tight shot from the Estonian, Stéphane played it back to the middle, and a stroke gave the match to Estonia!

Next on court is Daniel Hutchines, who has to be prepared for a very long match. Good first game from Danny, who won it 11-6. Quote Mark Gillies “Well done!”. What a game the next one was: incredibly long rallies, good retrieving, and some astonishing shot-making by Danny. But Danny really should have asked for some lets: at least 4 clear strokes, and he just played one! Hopefully he can convert the advise Paul gave him between the sets. Danny started well in the 4th, and the score was very close throughout the whole game. In the end, the Estonian had a slight advantage, and at 9-10, game ball for Estonia, Danny served…out! So it’s 2-1 to Estonia now! The Estonian was too fit in the 4th game, which Danny lost 8-11.

In the dead rubber match, Marcel Kramer lost against Estonian number 2 Jaanus Pettai 0-2.

Final game is at 2pm…

Luxembourg – Serbia  1-2

Daniel Kaiser – Ivan Djordjevic  6-11 6-11 3-11

Daniel Hutchines – Dennis Drenjovski 3-11 4-11 1-11

Marcel Kramer – Dejan Skrbic 11-5 11-4 

First on court is Daniel Kaiser. He’s facing his toughest opponent yet, and despite doing everything he can, his opponent had the right answers, kept Daniel under pressure and won the third game 11-3, to win the match 3-0!

So, Danny Hutchines now has the pressure on him to win the next game….The first game unfortunately was quickly over: Danny tinned 7 shots while trying to go short, and lost the game 3-11. The next two games went quite the same way, and Danny quickly lost 3-0 as well.

In the dead rubber game, played best of 3, Marcel Kramer won against Dejan Skrbic.

Tomorrow we’ll have 2 more games, now playing for the 5th to 8th place!

Luxembourg – Poland 2

Daniel Kayser – Lukasz Nitka 11-9 11-5 11-1 Daniel Hutchines – Kanil Domaniak 11-4 12-10 11-7 Stéphane Ayache – Tomasz Abramowski 11-8 16-18 11-7 12-10   Today, the playing order is 2-1-3, so first on court are the number 2 players. Solid squash by Daniel, he is winning the first game 11-9. Daniel continued by taking the ball early, volleying a lot, and putting his opponent under pressure by playing good lengths. Daniel wins 3-0!

Daniel Hutchines dominated throughout the whole game, and won it convincingly 3-0.

Last game of the pool stage was Stéphane playing against Tomasz Abramowski. This was the best game of this morning, as Tomasz played a solid game. Especially the second game was epic, with Stéphane losing it 16-18! Also the 4th game was a tight one, both players playing great shots, and retrieving almost anything! Fortunately for us, Stéphane won it 12-10.

So this is another 3-0 victory for Luxembourg, which means that we will play the quarterfinal this afternoon at 5 against Serbia. Serbia almost won against the first seeded Ukrania yesterday, so we have to expect a tough encounter!

Luxembourg – Gibraltar     2-1

  Danny Hutchines – Antony Brindle 11-8  2-11 11-6 7-11 5-11 Daniel Kaiser – Christian Navas 7-11 11-2 11-4 8-11 11-8 Stephane Ayache – Mark Tewkesbury 11-2 11-9 11-8   The first match of the event was against Gibraltar, the number 2 seeds. So we knew that this would be a tough match to start! First on court was Danny Hutchines, who lost a long match in 5 sets. Next on court was Daniel Kaiser. After losing the first set, Daniel started playing good squash, and his opponent became nervous, and started to make mistakes: Daniel won the 2nd and 3rd.  But in the fourth it was Daniel who made the mistakes, and so the fifth set was decisive: Daniel never lost control, and despite some strange calls at the end of the set, he won it 11-8. So, Stéphane’s game had to bring the decision. Stéphane won the first set convincingly, but his opponent struggled back and the second set was quite disputed, and finished with the score 11-9 for us. The third was also won by Stéphane, which meant that be beat Gibraltar 2-1  

Luxembourg – Isle of Man

Danny Hutchines – Allister Crossley 11-3 11-6 11-1 Daniel Kayser – Tom Whiteway 9-11 11-8 11-7 11-5 Stéphane Ayache – Chris Corrigan 11-7 11-2 11-2   The match against Isle of Man became a convincing win for the Luxembourg team. Only Tom Whiteway, a 15 year old talent, gave some resistance to Daniel, by running to every ball Daniel played. In the end the Daniel prevailed and won in 4.  

The European Nations Challenge Cup is being played from September 30th to October 3rd in Warsaw, Poland. Luxembourg is represented by the players Stéphane Ayache, Danny Hutchines, Daniel Kaiser and Marcel Kramer, by coach Paul Tuffin, and team manager Mark Gillies.

16 countries compete in the ENCC this year: Poland, Croatia, Estonia, Latvia, Serbia, Russia, Ukraine, Malta, Cyprus, Isle of Man, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Monaco and Gibraltar. In the pool’s stage, Luxembourg will play against Gibraltar, Isle of Man and Poland 2. It’s the first time that Luxembourg plays this event which is taking the place of the Small Nation’s Squash Tournament.

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