AJ Bell World Championships Manchester 2013

 
One year ago at this exact moment I suffered a nasty ankle injury on my left ankle, only 10 days before the World Open in Qatar. I still pushed through and played it, losing out 3-0 to the world no60 Oliver Pett.

This year one month ago, I suffered a deja vu as the same ankle injured on the same place. After a descent start of the season in Herentals, the injury affected me strongly during the euro club champs in Italy and I continued rehabilitating for 3 weeks after my return to Holland. The injury gave me a good chance to do some solo hits and apply the final touch on my technique that has been a bit of a project over the last years. The last touch still requires a while to get automatized, and I still didnt feel 100% comfortable with it. I managed to get 3 hits on court with a partner before taking off to Manchester. Preperations were far from optimal.

However, talking it over with coach Mark Hornby, we thought it still would be a great experience and learning arena no matter the result. If it didnt go the right way in the tournament, we could still use the time we had to work on my game a bit.

On matchday I had a good preperation with a good hit on the glass court with Shahier Razik, the number 1 Canadian player, as well as  a chat w Nick Matthew and some movement/activation drills at Northern squash club, also in Manchester. The body felt good and ready for a fight. The racket handling was not as good as it has to be.

I drew the no5 seed in qualifying and PSA ranked 39 in the world, Karim Ali Fathi. A fast player with good racket skills, liking hard hitting and a fast pace. After a good warm up, I felt ready to run down every ball and die out there if necessary. I had to, as I had little confidence in my technique.

The first 3 balls played hit all the nicks in the back, and the rest hit all the nicks in the front. Typical egyptian style squash was enforced by a dead court with huge nicks. 11-2 loss

I was told to step up the court, volley more, close down the court, run everything down, while I had to try to hit the ball properly. I could only do one thing at once ( I am but only a man), and then the other parts were not completed very well. I still managed to sneak a few extra points in the second game by keeping the length and width better and slowing the ball down more, pinning him into the back. Still the difference in ranking shone through as I lost 11-5.

In the third game I snatched a bit too much, focusing more on running than hitting, making a lot of tactical blunders to lose it 11-2

Even though it was the quickest loss in the first round qualifying, I cant beat myself up about it, thinking of what I have been through the last months. But naturally one always want to perform better on a stage like this.

All the things missing at the moment has been working well for me at one time or another lately. I just need to get them all in at once. I know I am almost there. I just need a good year of training now to put the pieces of the puzzle together. It will be hard, as I now support myself with working, but it is not impossible. Hopefully I will better myself until next year and come back to the tour stronger than ever.

Squash Kick Off Event Sportcentrum Overhout

Sunday 3d of November we are putting together a Squash event to promote this great sport to the masses and particularly the people of Haarlem.

Sportcentrum Overhout have 5 renovated squash courts of high standard right next to the canal that runs right through the heart of Haarlem city.

On this day we will get together to play a lot of squash, have a social tournament as well as demonstrations and plenty of time in the bar

Send me a mail: barekimare@gmail.com, call Overhout: 0235338777, or leave a comment under to sign up

Costs are 10 euros FOR THE ENTIRE DAY!!!

New New Job

 After my jobs in Dordrecht and in the Haag went down the drain, an opening came to my attention at Overhout Sportcentrum in Haarlem.
This is an extremely nice and cosy Sportcentrum between Haarlem centrum and Schalkwijk, right next to the main canal in a bigger sport area.
They have 15 Tenniscourts (all weather, gravel, hardcourt) outside and inside as well as 5 squash courts. The bar area is really nice and the atmosphere is great.

My girlfriends mother told me about the place, and after having a meeting with the managers I was convinced that this was a place of my liking. After introducing my ideas to the managers, they too were enthousiastic and we see eye to eye on most things.

I will start here next Monday promoting squash and trying to build up a nice and social squash environment. I want to start coaching, arranging tournaments, creating internal ladders, social evenings and maybe even signing up league teams eventually.

Check out their website for more information: http://sportcentrumoverhout.nl/

Why you should fill your company with athletes

http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidkwilliams/2013/10/02/why-you-should-fill-your-company-with-athletes/

"1. They have the drive to practice a task rigorously, relentlessly, and even in the midst of failure until they succeed."

2........

Rollercoasters and Rainbows

You crash you burn, you collect the ashes and pick yourself up, your on top of the world, in the basement, struggling, floating on clouds, when it rains it pours and sometimes money do grow on trees.

The last months of my life could be described from a number of different angles.

One the one hand.... My biggest sponsor pulled out, I had 2 jobs waiting for me after the holiday where one was given away to someone else for some reason, and the other one took 3 months to get started, only to not get started at all :( Im homeless, no money and no job. I'm injured and have the flu, covered with a nasty cold, I have a nasty rash in places where the sun don't shine and have a loan that will be downpaid in 30 years....if I start paying it now..which I can't...at all

On the other hand... The beginning of the year was the best year of my life, my squash has reached a better level than ever. Sun has followed me all over, and had a great week in Belgium with the national team, a fantastic week working in Norway the week after, giving lessons, courses, classes and the week after travelling to Italy for the European Club Championships playing squash with good friends and hanging with one of the best ones, Maggi in Bologna on the last day. I have a great girlfriend, family and friends who got my back. My friends Rob Grant, Steve Finitsis, Cigany, Karen and Jeannot has housed me, My mum has sponsored my squash, the squash federation and my squash club Hafrsfjord has sponsored the trips in the last months. My injury is recovering well, the flu is letting go, I am starting a new job in a new place in Haarlem next week, I will be starting to play league, which will keep me fed from week to week until I get into my new job. And in this period I started my own company and did my taxes in Dutch.

European Club Championships 2013 Riccione, Italy

On the Airport in Trondheim Norway getting ready to take off to the next adventure in Riccione Italy for this years European Club Championships. This years ECC has a record entry, so there will be many good teams and players in the Champions League of squash.





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Here is their website: http://www.federsquash.it/european-club-championship-2013

There will be live streaming from the courts here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=m-ch-fea&v=1rrgEosn2iY&app=desktop

We play at 12 and 16.30 on Wednesday 18.09

Here is the draw: http://www.tournamentsoftware.com/sport/draw.aspx?id=9CF72105-5DA3-4944-8B28-250DE3D03418&draw=4

Unfortunatelly for me I got a small re injury on my left ankle, which is quite bothersome, and I am afraid I can not give it my all during the tournament. I hope, naturally, for a super speedy recovery, but it does not feel good. Hopefully I can play some matches to help the team, and if not we have good reserves on the team to step in. The team is already weakened as the Norway no2 is not playing either.

Happy news in the sad news, Its my birthday tomorrow!! Whoopwhoop. According to the newspapers I am 25, so we will go with that. My best bud Mags is studying in Bologna, so she will accompany me and the boys for a small get together tomorrow :)

Day 1:

First day presented us with a great challenge and probably the most important match of the tournament for us. This was against 5th seed Luxembourg led by Netherland ex professional Dylan Bennet. This was my challenge, who was first on court, with Ronny on the other court taking on Lux no1 Nathan Sneyd. Proper birthday squash as neither me or Dylan produced squash to be inspired by. With a referee worse than both of us put together it was an embarassing view and I lost 1-3. Ronny lost against a difficult player 0-3. Saved by our no3 and 4 player Lasse and Sindre, we tied 2-2 in matches and got 1 point on the board. However, they got 1 game more, so the remaining matches would be crucial.

In the afternoon we faced 4th seed Colets from England, with Jonathan Kemp as no1 string and ex world no4 Alex Gough (!!) as no4 string. The challange proved way too big for... all teams as they chopped all other teams in the group without dropping a game. My ankle was still painful, but I really wanted to play Jon Kemp, who i have watched a lot over the years. Score line was 1-7-1 as I got severly chopped on live streaming but hey. one for the history books...or not :P


Day 2:

After a good nights rest, the team got up for a good breakfast together and got ready to take on Edinburgh at 1pm local time. We knew we all had to win all 4 matches to have a chance in claiming a spot in the quarter finals, and we were all ready for it. Clever Scots however put their no2 player on the no4 spot to put sticks in our wheels, and it worked as the 4th string match ended 1-3 favouring the haggis munchin blue n whites. Ronny won 3-0, I battled my way to a 3-2 win against a tricky player, and Sindre pulled back from 0-2 down to win a great match 3-2. There was still hope as Luxembourg also did not get any games vs Colets. Thanks to poor mathematical skills from mine and Lasses side, we saw a hope of us being 1 game up vs Luxembourg and making the quarter finals... but the administrations computer, calculated otherwise, and it was us being 1 game down instead. Soooo close making top 8, which would b a great performance and an all time high (I think) but it just slipped our oily hands.

Picture below: Counting matches, games, points

Tomorrow we still fight for a good position between 9-12th place. last year we got 12th and the year before 13th, so the chances to improve our seeding are still there. Stay tuned

Day 3:

 First of all, I need to correct myself from earlier, where I said we played from 9-12. All of the teams that not went through to the quarter finals had to play for the last 9-17th spots.

First up we had to play Hungary. We knew very little about the team, and myself and Sindre started off. The Hungarians thought it was a good idea to referee themselves, and this created a number of problems for the Norwegians. Sindre lost 3-0 to a better opponent. I felt I was quite a lot stronger than my opponent, and took the first game quite comfortably. The next game was tighter, up until 9-9, where I stroked him 4 times, and his team mate refereeing gave lets and no lets. I kept fighting, even though their supporters screamed their hearts out every time I missed a shot, but lost in a long tie-break. Shame I lost a game, but for the match it suited me better. I stepped up a gear in the next 2 games and took the match 3-1. Ronny lost his match 2-3, so Lasse had to bring it home for the team. With a 3-0 win, we would go through on games, a 3-1 win would mean a draw. Unlucky for us (again) Lasse won 3-2 after playing some great squash in patches and 11-1 in the 5th. This meant we lost on one game again. I found out the Hungarians reffed Ronnys match as well in the same manner as mine, and not only that, but they pulled the same stunt in the next match against Ukraine to win on games again to get through to the 9-10 play off.

We faced Poland only 2 hours later to all win our matches. A 4-0 victory, to save ourselves from the bottom. Next up is the Belgium team Castle squash to battle for 13-14th place. A bit of a disappointment after being so close to top 8, but the job still needs to be done, no matter the opponent. Today Niclas will be stepping in for Sindre and get some good squash in his legs and good experience in the bag for future brilliance.

Day 4:

On our last day of match play in Riccione, we got up early to take on Castle club from Belgium. The referees continued their excellent system of letting our opponents ref our matches, so again I had to take on several opponents at once. My game had improved over the last days, and it was easier to hit the ball at last. I tried my best to stick to gameplan, and it worked better than earlier in the week, but it could still be even stronger. Coach said I was in full control of that match, and my opponent did all the running, but I took the ball in short still a bit too early. I noticed this, when the counter attack came and he scored points as I could not move to the front as my ankle was still sore from my injury. Moving around the T did not pose as many problems, so I should be better at working a clear opening from this position. Although I was happy with most of my game, I was disappointed for the team as I lost 3 close games 13-11, 11-9, 11-8 with a string of dodgy decisions at the end of each game, especially seeing that we lost with 7 points after a 2-2 tie and a great performance from the other team mates. Especially happy for Niclas, who got his debut win 3-1 over the Belgian number 4 player.

Although we again lost a tie, we were still happy on how we ended the tournament. Looking at it with a sense of humour as we had a huge string of bad luck throughout. Our seeding will now drop for next year, but I believe we will come back stronger.

The tournament was probably one of the best so far in terms of organization. The hotel was good, food and transport great and a nice venue. It’s a shame though that the referee quality and organization failed so badly on all aspects and pulled the tournament experience down. Many of the referees were very fresh to the game, up to 30 minutes late to not only the morning matches, but also the semi finals and letting teams referee their own way through to a better seeding is not the way to do it. Many teams and players struggled with the referees, and I personally had to educate the head referee on a very very basic concept in squash. The referee gave a let when it was a clear stroke to my opponent, as I lost equipment on court. The head referee came over to assess the situation and told us all that with loss of equipment on court it is always a let. All in shock I confronted the head referee after the match and told him the rules, where he replies that he did not see the situation, and did not know what he was saying……… que!!?? If only Jonathon Power was here… he would know what to say…

A local newspaper from the clubs hometown, made a story of the players before the championship. See it here: http://solabladet.no/index.php?page=vis_nyhet&NyhetID=8297&sok=1

Injury

Ankle...farked!  European club champs is in 2 days..... great