Illingworth, Razik, Delierre Advance In Northern Ontario Open
by Mike McCue
April 18, 2012 - First round play kicked off on a few strange notes tonight. First up, Jaymie Haycocks had to retire against Chris Simpson after an innocent-looking collision turned out to be an ankle injury. Haycocks decided he was unfit to continue and withdrew after just 13 minutes. Surely not the way either player wanted it to end. Shortly after that unfortunate opener, the club had to be evacuated due to a gas leak in the kitchen! Play was halted and everyone was herded outside while the fire department did an inspection. The delay was only temporary though, and after 15 minutes players were back on court.
Shawn Delierre was 9-5 down to Lewis Walters in the first before shifting into high gear. A standard long 3-0 for the Canadian who moves on to face Ben Coleman. Ben continued his good form of late with a resounding 3-0 win over Dylan Bennett. There were several disruptions for interference and chats with the ref by Dylan, who strongly disagreed with the line of refereeing on the night. The Englishman was relieved to take the third on a tiebreak and prevent any chance of a comeback.
Welshman Peter Creed was up to his usual tricks, dashing around the court in acrobatic fashion against Eddie Charlton. Eddie was mostly in control of the play but made some untimely errors to lose the crucial second game after already dropping the first.. He continued to assert his dominance in the third and at 10-3 up a full comeback looked possible. Creed remarkably won 9 points in a row from this stage though and took the match 3-0.
Clinton Leeuw became the second qualifier to overachieve in the main draw as he disposed of Dane Sharp 3-1. The first two games were physically punishing affairs. Clinton held his nerve in the later stages of both and came away with an all-important 2-0 lead. Dane admirably fought back to take the third but had no reserves left for the fourth as the South African won it convincingly 11-2.
The closest match of the night was (of course) the one I saw the least of. Charles Sharpes squeezed past Scott Arnold 11-9 in the fifth after 72 minutes. I was warming up at the time, but the fifth game attracted a sizable and appreciative crowd. Unfortunately can't report further as I did not see any of it.
2011 champion Shahier Razik began his title defense with a comfortable victory over wildcard Mike McCue (yours truly). Won't comment too much about my own match apart from being absolutely exhausted afterwards. Finally, top seed Julian Illingworth saw off Aqeel Rehman 3-0. Aqeel did progressively better in each game, but the American seemed to be playing within himself at all times.
First Round Results:
(1) Julian Illingworth (USA) bt (Q) Aqeel Rehman (AUT) 11-5, 11-7, 11-9 (36m)
(Q) Clinton Leeuw (RSA) bt Dane Sharp (CAN) 11-8, 11-9, 6-11, 11-2 (48m)
Peter Creed (WAL) bt Eddie Charlton (ENG) 11-6, 11-9, 12-10 (40m)
(3) Chris Simpson (ENG) bt Jaymie Haycocks (ENG) 5-2 ret. (13m)
(4) Shawn Delierre (CAN) bt Lewis Walters (ENG) 13-11, 11-5, 11-9 (46m)
(Q) Ben Coleman (ENG) bt Dylan Bennett (NED) 11-5, 11-5, 12-10 (37m)
Charles Sharpes (ENG) bt (Q) Scott Arnold (Aus) 7-11, 11-7, 11-7, 10-12, 11-9 (72m)
(2) Shahier Razik (CAN) bt Michael McCue (CAN) 11-5, 11-3, 11-6 (36m)
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