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…