Jonathon Powers To Aberdeen Legends Title
by Tim Garner
September 26, 2011 - Jonathon Power picked up his first Legends title with a hard fought victory over Irishman Derek Ryan in the Mr. Chips Aberdeen Squash Legends.
Having put out arch rival and local favourite Peter Nicol the previous evening, Power clearly meant business opening up an 8/2 lead in a matter of minutes. Ryan was a little slow out of the blocks, perhaps slightly affected by his tough match the previous evening, but he started to move better towards the end of the game despite losing it and then opened up a lead in the second.
Power battled back saving 3 game balls from 6/10, one of which Ryan was almost out of the door before he realised his opponent had thrown himself forwards to pick up the disguised return of serve. However, he managed to win it at the fourth attempt with a beautifully sliced cross-court winner that barely flickered out of the nick.
Unperturbed, Power then treated the capacity crowd to a true master-class in squash rallies mixing crisp dying drives with holds & flicks that had Ryan lunging all over the court to stay in contention. He worked hard to try and stem the flow of points but having fallen behind by two games to one it was an uphill task as Power went out his business in impressive fashion opening up an 8/0 lead in the fourth.
Ryan hasn’t been capped over 200 times for Ireland for nothing and he battled to the end but eventually after two let balls on match point Power closed it out to get his hands on his first Legends trophy.
Earlier in the day Simon Parke collected third spot with fast and furious two game win over Tim Garner, while for once it was Nicol collecting the wooden spoon. A tough last few months seemingly having taken their toll on the former number one, but with a couple of weeks to rest up before the next leg of the Legends Tour in Baltimore, USA, few would bet against Nicol defending the title he won there twelve months ago.
A fantastic weekend of squash in the north-east of Scotland saw the Legends not only entertaining four sold out sessions, but also stepping on court with juniors and adults as part of the regular Legends clinics that are such an integral part of the tour. Thanks to the hard work of club manager Alistair Gorrie and his team, and the backing of title sponsor Craig Thompson from Mr. Chips, the event was a resounding success and talk is already afoot for making it even bigger and better next year!
Results:
3/4th Simon Parke beat Tim Garner 11/2 11/8
Final: Jonathon Power beat Derek Ryan 11/4 9/11 11/6 11/3 (60 minutes)
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