The Men’s World Teams Championships ran from the 19-27 August and there were 32 countries represented from all over the globe. It was held in Paderborn, Germany. The Australian team consisted of David Palmer, myself, Stewart Boswell and Aaron Frankcomb and the coaches were Anthony Ricketts and Byron Davis.
We were seeded 4 for the event behind England, Egypt and France. We beat India in the Quarter Final but lost out to England in the semi. In the semi I was first on court against World No.5 James Willstrop. Unfortunately I couldn’t get the boys off to the start we were looking for, and lost 3-0. I played ok but James was sharp. He didn’t miss too much that day. Next up was the anchor of the team – David Palmer. He had the task of taking on current World No.1 Nick Matthew. Nick was in pretty impressive form and ended our title hopes by beating Palmer 3-0.
Obviously losing to England in any sport hurts badly, but we had to mentally get ourselves up for the 3rd/4th place playoff the next day. Egypt beat France in the other semi so we were up against the frogs. French No.1 Greg Gaultier was in pretty devastating form and took out Palmer 3-0. Our No.3 Boswell made amends by taking out his opposite number 3-1 in a close tussle. In the decider I managed to beat
world number 6 Thierry Lincou 3-1 to grab 3rd place.
Like 2 years ago in Denmark, we managed to get ourselves up for the playoff match on the last day of the event and get that last podium spot. There’s a big difference between getting that podium finish or not. It means a lot to the boys to exceed our seeding for the event and hopefully in 2 years time we can push again for the title.
It was an extremely well run event in Germany – probably the best squash event I have ever been involved in. No stone was left unturned by the organisers and the players felt welcome everywhere we went. Top marks Paderborn!
