Digging for Gold

Commonwealth Games 2002

By Martin Bronstein

Photography by Steve Line/squashpics.com

What organization! What a venue! What presentation! Now I can see what all the fuss is about when it comes to getting squash into the Olympics. The Commonwealth Games were a huge success and squash has never been treated so well. One new glass court (which can be 'hovered' around on 16 jets of air to move within the Squash Center) surrounded by 1700 seats, a second glass court with another 800 seats, stewards all over the place, proper security so that spectators didn't roam in at the wrong time and press seating with desks and computer plug-ins. Aaah! Dreams are made of this.

Even though only members of Commonwealth countries could enter, the men's draw still contained 15 of the top 20 players with the focus, naturally, on the top player from Canada and England. The jousting for top place between Peter Nicol and Jonathon Power continues, and going into Manchester Nicol led the head-to-head statistics 15-14. But significantly, Power had won their last three encounters.

Power simply dominated Nicol from the start of the final, employing wonderful length and tight drops, forcing Nicol to scrape them off the wall only for Power to drive them into the back corner again. Nicol had no answer, no counter strategy to wrest control from Power and lost the first game 9-4. Nicol led the whole second game, but for 22 minutes he was still doing all the work. Power made six errors, which helped Nicol to a 9-4 win, but Nicol's exertion showed in the third. He lacked the spark that would get him to the ball a fraction of a second earlier and once again found himself doing the Step 'n Fetchit as Power increased his ratio of drop shots. When Power led 7-3 Nicol was finished, ending the next two rallies with forehands into the tin.

Nicol came out for the fourth looking grey and dispirited; Power had taken his energy and his determination. The game was a rout as a listless Nicol went through the motions to lose 0-9 in under seven minutes. After the handshake Nicol wandered off the court, numb, looking as though he had let down the packed spectators who had given him such a roaring reception. Power was totally focussed and could have gone on for another three games. He finally had a gold medal to complete his war chest. More importantly he was back on top when there were fears last year that he was on the way out.

To read the complete article, please see Squash Magazine, August/September 2002.