alain @ squash: Après l'Angleterre, l'Allemagne

German Bundesliga Finals 19-20 May 2007, Bremen	2006 Finals 2005 Finals
Women's Final: SC Bordeshelm 3-2 SC Deisenhofen Vanessa Atkinson 2-3 Jenny Duncalf 9/5,3/9,9/3,9/10,5/9 Katharina Witt 3-1 Carola Weiß 10/9, 3/9, 9/1, 9/3 Daniela Schumann 3-1 Pamela Hathway 9/5, 5/9, 10/8, 9/4 Jessica Reese 1-3 Sina Wall 4/9, 0/9, 9/3, 6/9 Eve Rixen 3-1 Stephanie Müller 9/2, 5/9, 9/5, 10/8 Bordeshelm keep women's title Bordeshelm retained their German league title, but it went to the wire. Honours were shared at numbers four and five before Jenny Dubcalf put Deisenhofen in the lead with a marathon win over Vanessa Atkinson. Katharina Witt levelled the match leaving Daniela Schumann to complete the comeback for Bordesholm. Men's Final: Paderborn 3-1 Black & White RV Worms James Willstrop 2-3 David Palmer 9/11,5/11,11/9,11/6,8/11 Stefan Leifels 2-1 Jens Schoor 11/2, 5/11, 11/9 Simon Rosner 3-0 Daniel Hoffman 11/1, 11/6, 11/3 Lars Osthoff 3-0 Matthias Heinemann 11/3, 11/4, 11/2 Paderbord reclaim the men's ... Paderborn reclaimed their title as Simon Rosner and Lars Osthoff got them off to a great start with two 3/0 wins. David Palmer gave Worms hope when he took the first two games against James Willstrop, but one Willstrop pulled a game back the match was effectively over, even though Palmer went on to win 3/2.
Women's Semi-Finals: SC Bordesholm 5-0 Squash Insel Taufkirchen Vanessa Atkinson 3-1 Kathrin Rohrmüller 7/9, 9/7, 9/6, 9/7 Katharina Witt 2-0 Astrid Kern 9/3, 9/7 Daniela Schumann 2-0 Lisa Sedlmeier 9/3, 9/2 Jessica Reese 3-0 Nina Janisch 9/3, 9/0, 9/0 Eve Rixen 3-0 Erika Fischer 9/1, 9/3, 9/1 SC Deisenhofen 5-0 Match & Motion SC Gütersloh Jenny Duncalf 3-0 Simone Korell 9/0, 9/3, 9/4 Carola Weiß 2-0 Eva Brauckmann 9/7, 9/1 Pamela Hathway 2-0 Nina Broschart 9/1, 9/1 Sina Wall 3-0 Miriam Rösler 9/0, 9/1, 9/1 Stephanie Müller 3-1 Stephanie Rohe 9/4, 8/10, 9/3, 9/1
Men's Semi-Finals: Schängel Squash Koblenz 1-3 Black & White RV Worms Joseph Kneipp 0-3 David Palmer 10/12, 4/11, 9/11 Hansi Seestaller 1-3 Jens Schoor 12/10, 10/12, 10/12, 3/ 11 Oliver Pettke 2-3 Daniel Hoffmann 7/11, 11/4, 11/7, 7/11, 5/11 Tim Weber 3-0 Carsten Schoor 11/1, 11/3, 11/1 Paderborner Squash Club 4-0 Sport-Insel Stuttgart James Willstrop 3-2 Joey Barrington 5/11,11/4,11/13,11/5,11/6 Stefan Leifels 3-0 Patrick Gässler 11/6, 11/8, 11/6 Simon Rösner 3-0 Moritz Dahmen 11/1, 11/6, 11/3 Lars Osthoff 3-0 Dennis Drenjovski 11/5, 11/4, 11/6

Revenge for Paderborn

Many-time German champions Paderborn avenged their defeat in last year's final with a 4-0 win over European Club Champions Stuttgart and will face Black & White RV Worms in the men's final on Sunday. No surprises in the women's event as SC Bordesholm and SC Deisenhofen advanced to the final.

Different Stories ...

Barry Dodson reports on the semis

The semi-finals of the Bundesliga are taking place in Bremen today and in the two matches this morning there were quite different stories to be told ...

Ladies stars brought in

In the Ladies Bundesliga this year all clubs decided, due to ever-increasing financial problems, to play until now with a four woman team without imported players and in the finals as a five woman team using top world players. Only the top two ladies teams took advantage of this rule and were consequently both expected to make tomorrow's final.

Therefore in the Ladies first semi-final things were to be very clear! Defending Champions SC Bordesholm, using ex-world Champion Vanessa Atkinson, were able to score a clean sheet against Squash Insel Taufkirchen, playing with Germany's Nr.1 lady Kathrin Rohrmüller at one for her team. Kathrin put up a very creditable performance but after four games lost her match and thus the tie but was the only player in her team to take a game off the defending Champions.

Worms' upset win

The Men’s first match brought together two teams from the same county in Germany where I used to be and am once again the county coach; Rheinland-Pfalz. Due to a weakened Black and White Worms and full strength Schängel Squash Koblenz things looked to be quite clear from the start but as we all know in sport, “funny things can happen”.

Worms' Carsten Schoor in the first tie was never able or expected to make many points against the new nationally ranked Nr. 2 Tim Weber and shows that the system where players who have improved so much during the season and still are able to play at the back of the team at the end of the season needs to be looked at!

Second up were Daniel Hoffmann and Oliver Pettke who, when they met in the Bundesliga, parted with a score line of 13/33 for Koblenz and as a result originally not planned for this match today.

Daniel, whose life seems to be on the up at the moment, showed once again some of the form that put him in the national team a couple of years back, and against all beliefs scored a 3/2 victory over a stunned Pettke.

The top match saw David Palmer and Joe Kneipp take to the court and although it seemed Joe has prepared for today and made David work hard for his victory it eventually led to the inevitable 3/0 for the Worms Nr.1.

Last on Jens Schoor and Hansi Seestaller, and as I had already warned Jens this match was going to get ugly! Hansi is one of the most difficult players to take on as he wishes to use every trick in the book to achieve his desires.

After three games that went to the tie break Jens took the lead 2/1 and had finally crushed the will of his opponent, giving him a clean up job in the fourth and putting Black and White Worms in tomorrow's final.

I especially enjoyed that one as we were on court this week together preparing for the play-offs and we called just before the match to go through his game plan and discuss all possibilities that could come up today.

So therefore a great unexpected triumph today, but against Paderborn in the final things will not get easier.

Final thought: Had Koblenz played in the correct order today they may well have been able to qualify for the final; who knows, who cares?

No afternoon upsets

The afternoon session was to bring no further surprises. The ladies team SC Deisenhofen with their English Nr.1 Jenny Duncalf were clearly able to crush the Match & Motion SC Gütersloh team 5/0 and this time only the fifth string for Gütersloh was able to take a game. This now means that the favourites for the title must be Bordesholm fielding ex-world champion Vanessa Atkinson and the number 2 Daniela Schumann and three Katharina Witt from the national team. The ladies on four and five are both ex-national players Jessica Reese and Eve Rixen and will also be very difficult to beat.

Deisenhofen also look strong with Jenny Duncalf on one and then two the EM team Nr.4 Carola Weiß and ex-national junior Pamela Hathway on three. Sina Wall and Stephanie Müller as current national under 19 team players bring up the rear of the team and with their coach Uli Brennstuhl. I am sure they shall give all they have but with the lack of experience and being such a young team I think they may have to wait another year.

The men's match between last year's winner Sport-Insel Stuttgart and runners-up Paderborner Squash Club was sadly not even close. Stuttgart having now lost their Australian/German Simon Baker who has returned back

home to follow another career are too far away from the top teams to be any real danger this year.

Paderborn on the other hand with national Nr.1 Simon Rösner at three and Stefan Leifels at two is the team to beat this weekend.

In the first match an out of form Dennis Drenjovski managed only to take 15 points from Lars Osthoff to be followed by Moritz Dahmen who chalked up only 10 points against a far too strong Simon Rösner. Only the number ones Joey Barrington and James Willstrop who seem to have put on a show match for the spectators played five and the last match between Stefan Leifels and Patrick Gässler was once again disappointing as the contest was already over before they started.

Paderborn still has to put on a good performance tomorrow but I believe they are looking at taking back the trophy they had robbed from them last year.