England win 11 medals at World Masters

England won 11 medals, three of them gold, on an entertaining final day of the BETARD WSF World Masters Championship in Wroclaw, Poland.

With the World Masters Championship returning after a four-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, some 683 players entered the tournament, which was played inside Hasta La Vista, the world’s biggest squash club.

In the Women’s 75+ category, England’s Ann Manley completed the rare feat of winning a title without dropping single game.

The Bristol-based 76-year-old, who won a 60+ gold in 2012 and 70+ golds in 2016 and 2018, was in brilliant form throughout the tournament in Wroclaw, reaching the final thanks to 3-0 wins over Ireland’s Barbara Sanderson, South Africa’s Dawn Kaiser, England’s Bett Osborne and Slovenia’s Mariza Ohlsson.

Today, in her final against South Africa’s Margaret Hunt-Kemp, the match was initially an even one, with the scores tied at 5-5 in game one. Manley’s excellent holds continuously forced Hunt-Kemp to gamble, though, and the Englishwoman quickly pulled away to a one game lead with an 11-6 win.

This was followed by a routine 11-4 victory in the second game, before Manley was tested in the third. The top seed trailed for the majority of the third game, falling behind at 4-2, 6-4 and 7-6, before a late push saw her lead for the first time in the game at 8-7, and Manley was able to press home her advantage to secure the match in three games with an 11-9 victory.

England’s second and third gold medals were also won in straight games.

In the Women’s 70+ category, Karen Hume overcame Australia’s Gaye Mitchell with a routine 11-7, 11-3, 11-6 win to secure her second masters gold, matching Manley’s accomplishment of winning the title without dropping a game after overcoming Lynne Davis, Eunice Bond and Shirley Whitmore earlier in the competition.

In the Women’s 60+ tournament, Mandy Akin won her first masters title in a testing match against Finland’s Sari Niemistö.

Akin made a confident start as she sped into an 8-3 lead, before Niemistö struck back well to close the gap to just 8-7. Akin, however, held her nerve to take the opening game 11-8.

The 60-year-old then recovered from difficult starts in games two and three, with the Bromley-based player falling 2-0 behind in game two before winning 11-8 and then 3-1 down in game three on the way to an ultimately comfortable 11-6 win.

Elsewhere in the women’s draw, Rose Bamber (55+) and Natalie Lawrence (40+) won silver medals and Bett Osborne (75+), Jill Campion (60+) and Rachel Calver (45+) won bronze.

In the men’s draw, Adrian Wright came close to winning his fifth World Masters title as he fell to the USA’s Michael Gough 3-2 in the 80+ final.

British O80 Open winner Wright put in a battling performance as he fought back from 2-1 down to level 2-2 with a brutal 16-14 win in game four. The 81-year-old appeared to have the momentum in game five as he took a 9-5 lead, only for the 83-year-old Gough to put together a strong scoring run to snatch his second Masters title with an 11-9 win.

Elsewhere in the men’s draw, there was a silver medal for Keith Jones in the 70+ category and a bronze for Barry Featherstone in the 75+.

Today also saw a number of placing matches take place. Click here for the full results.

Results: BETARD WSF World Masters Championships Day Seven

Men’s 80+

[2/2] Michael Gough (USA) bt [1/2] Adrian Wright (ENG) 3-2: 4-11, 11-5, 11-7, 14-16, 11-9

Women’s 75+

[3/4] Bett Osborne (ENG) bt Dawn Kaiser (RSA) 3-0: 11-9 11-5 11-3

[1/2] Ann Manley (ENG) bt [2/2] Margaret Hunt-Kemp (RSA) 3-0: 11-6 11-4 11-9

Men 75+

[3/4] Barry Featherstone (ENG) bt [3/4] Aubrey Waddy (ENG) 3-0: 11-6 11-6 17-15

Men 70+

[1/2] John Macrury (CAY) bt [2/2] Keith Jones (ENG) 3-0: 12-10 12-10 11-1

Women 65+

[1/2] Karen Hume (ENG) bt Gaye Mitchell (AUS) 3-0: 11-7 11-3 11-6

Women 60+

[3/4] Jill Campion (ENG) bt [3/4] Julie Multamaki (CAN) 3-1: 3-11 13-11 11-5 11-5
[1/2] Mandy Akin (ENG) bt [2/2] Sari Niemistö (FIN) 3-0: 11-8 11-8 11-6

Women 55+
[2/2] Kylee Hammett (AUS) bt [1/2] Rose Bamber (ENG) 3-1: 6-11 11-9 11-5 11-8

Women 45+

[3/4] Rachel Calver (ENG) bt [5/8] Melanie Kreisel (GER) 3-0: 11-5 11-9 11-3

Women 40+

[2/2] Karen Blom (RSA) bt [1/2] Natalie Lawrence (ENG) 3-1: 11-1 9-11 11-9 11-7