DAY 1: My first match was against a local player. I won 11-1, 11-1, 11-4 with minimal effort. Next match is at 20.00 and will probably be against the Czech Terminator.Czech terminator it was indeed. A skilled racketplayer that can not be given anything loose to put away. It suited my game well on paper as he did not move that well.
But other forces in the universe wanted it otherwise. I see now that I had the same referee as I had 2 years ago in the same tournament. I now sit here with the same feeling as I did then. There are only 2 referees I have met in my career that can decide an entire match. One of them is a european referee often seen in the lowest divisions and this is the other one. It is not often I can blame the referee for losing a match (luckily) but unluckily I am in this situation now. I should probably wait with blogging until tomorrow after Im more calmed down, but the result would be the same.
In the first game there were a lot of absolute dreadful desicions, but equal amounts both ways. I explained the difference between a let and a stroke to the referee after the second time he gave me a stroke that was a simple let. My opponent had quite a few words with the referee as well, and he was right in every comment. It was simple. a let was a stroke and a stroke was a let. Fair enough. My opponent laughingly told me:"Its gonna be a long evening" He was sure right about that. I stuck to my game plan winning 11-8, I believe.
Then it started getting really entertaining. Strokes became lets or no lets, while safety lets and simple interference became no lets. Unfortunatelly for me I was hitting better lengths and moving better. A string of extremely poor desicions gave the game 9-11 to my opponent.
Trying to re set my mind in the third game worked well in the early stages, mostly because there were no big points at this stage. Close all the way. When I deviated from gameplan I got punished by my opponents great short court game. When I stuck to it, I was winning. until my opponent figured out how to play the referee. Then it was over. It was simple for my opponent from there and he could basically "produce" a no let situation at will. At that moment we both knew who would win it. I did not want to deviate from gameplan (maybe my mistake) but sticking to it would lose me the match. I kept hitting the ball but knew the referee would give it away, and he did. Just like two years ago. 9-11 loss in the third and a give away in the 4th, 6-11.
2 years ago strokes were consistently no lets. Then I also lost 1-3 in a match where I was clearly the better player. My opponent today was better than my opponent 2 years ago, and a lot smarter. The other guy was not aware of not clearing.
What I have seen is that referees struggle a lot with the principal of "going for the player not the ball" versus " hit and block" This is forgivable as the referees do not have the experience to see the difference. This is also the problem on a high professional level. The problem of these lower level tournaments is that the local referees (when used) have even less experience, and many struggle with the bare minimum basics of squash rules. That is when there is trouble.
This experience hit me at a bad point in my career as I am already struggling with motivation and the choice of retiring is in the front of my mind constantly. I did not enjoy todays experience at all. If I do not enjoy playing, why play? If I play well, but still get "fucked over", as a spectator called it, is it worth it?
"luckily" I already booked my Australian trip, so I have to play some more tournaments, and I am playing well at the moment. Not great but even on a bad day like today, I played maybe 85% of my best. Focus was good, and the actual squash was ok.
Lets end with something more beautiful: The south Spanish valleys ;)
