Back 29 April 22 _{- by England Squash}

Dominant England reach European Team Championships 2022 finals

England are through to both of tomorrow’s European Team Championship finals after assured performances from the women’s team, who beat the Netherlands in their semi-final, and the men’s team, who beat Scotland.

England’s women produced yet another convincing performance to beat the hosts the Netherlands and reach their 10th consecutive European Team Championship final.

They will go into tomorrow’s final against Wales confident, with today’s relatively comfortable win meaning they are yet to drop a match as they seek to reclaim the crown they lost to France in 2019.

In the first match, 22-year-old Lucy Turmel looked comfortable in her 3-0 win over Megan Van Drongelen, with the World No.20 - who made her England debut on day one of the championships - seeing off the World No.270 in 17 minutes.

Up second, World No.6 Sarah-Jane Perry was made to work hard by a dogged Fleur Maas. Perry edged the first game 14-12 after recovering from being game-ball down at 10-9 and 12-11, before the impressive Maas struck back with an 11-8 win to level.

Perry, who was part of an England team beaten in the previous edition’s final by France, was able to gather herself to take the next two games 11-7 and 11-8, leaving Jasmine Hutton to wrap things up with a 2-0 win in 11 minutes.

“It’s great to have the event back and even better to make the final once again. Obviously we were very disappointed to lose in 2019 but we are focused on regaining that title back tomorrow in the final,” Perry said afterwards.

She added:

“The team is much changed from previous years with three debutants on both the women’s and men’s squads. I’ve been really impressed with how they have stepped up and applied themselves so far and have full faith in them to do the same for the remaining matches.

"It’s great to have younger players coming through and the future of English squash is looking good!”

Meanwhile, England’s men have the opportunity to both defend their 2019 title against France - who pipped them to the top spot in Group A yesterday - in tomorrow’s final, their 28th in a row, after Patrick Rooney, Adrian Waller and Nathan Lake beat Alan Clyne, Greg Lobban and Fergus Richards respectively.

Rooney appeared to be cruising towards an opening game victory against Clyne when he took a 9-3 lead, only for Clyne to level three times at 9-9, 10-10 and 11-11, before Rooney eventually secured a 13-11 win.

A challenging second game for Rooney followed, with the World No.26 recovering from game-ball down at 10-9 to take a 12-10 win before seeing out the match with an 11-4 win in the third.

Second string Waller then put in one of his best performances of the tournament as he saw off Lobban 11-5, 11-9, 11-4 in 29 minutes.

The 3-0 scorelines for Rooney and Waller meant that World No.30 George Parker went into his match against Rory Stewart knowing that taking a single game from the World No.67 would be sufficient for England to reach the final.

Stewart, however, put in a stunning individual performance to deny Parker and England, with the 25-year-old’s 38-minute 3-0 win meaning it would be up to Lake to get England over the line.

Lake quickly settled the tie for England by taking the first game 11-2 in six minutes, before comfortably seeing out the dead-rubber second game 11-6.

Afterwards, Waller said:

"I don't expect anything coming onto court in these team events. Everything is a fight and it doesn't matter what's happened before, because it's a clean slate walking onto the court.”