ETC 2022 Day TWO

Dutch gatecrash women’s semis as playoff positions are decided

The second day of the 2022 European Team Championships saw another host of matches at Squash Time and four more on the Glass Court at Klokgebouw as the Pool positions and playoff draws were decided.

The big story of the day is that hosts Netherlands, the 6th seeds, reached the women’s semis after beating 7th seeds Germany in a winner-take-all encounter. Fleur Maas recovered from two games down to put the Dutch in the lead and Milou van der Heijden delightfully clinched the win.

Earlier 3rd seeds Wales completed their third win to top Pool B, and with England and France already qualified from Pool A, top seeds England comfortably beat depleted defending champions France to set up a semi against the Dutch while France meet Wales.

In the men’s final pool matches Scotland beat second seeds Spain 4-0 to guarantee themselves a spot in the last four, and when Germany dropped a tie against the Czech Republic it meant the Scots topped Pool B ahead of the Germans on games countback.

The last match of the day saw unbeaten England and France – who have contested 18 of the last 20 finals – battle it out to see who would top Pool A. England took the lead when Adrian Waller recovered from two games down to beat Greg Marche.

France levelled courtesy of Baptiste Masotti, Nathan Lake restored the English lead, but in the final match Gregory Gaultier beat George Parker in straight games to give the French the edge at 8 games to 7.

In the semis France play Germany in the afternoon, with Scotland meeting England to round off Day Three.

Swiss storm Division Two

In division two pre-event favourites Switzerland made it through to the men’s and women’s semis, where the men will play Ireland and the women the Czech Republic. The other men’s semi will be Belgium v Hungary, while Spain will meet Poland for a place in the women’s final.

The winners of the Division Two semis will be promoted to Division One next year, while the bottom two in the Division One round-robin 5/8 playoffs will be relegated.