Both England teams confidently secure semi-final spots in Helsinki

It was another successful day for England at the 2023 European Team Championships in Helsinki, Finland as both sides recorded two wins to secure semi-final spots.

The women’s team started day two first as they took on hosts Finland. England No.1 and World No.8 Georgina Kennedy surrendered just five points in her match against Riina Koskinen, winning 11-2, 11-1, 11-2 to emphatically give England the lead. No.2 Jasmine Hutton followed suit in her match against Maarit Ekholm and only lost one more point than Kennedy to record a 3-0 win. Lucy Turmel completed the dominant win as she overcame Meeri Sarkka 11-2, 11-5, 11-4 to also win in straight games.

The secure top spot in the group, the women’s next match was against former champion France in what would be the toughest test yet for the girls. Commonwealth Games champion Kennedy again was too strong for her opponent Enora Villard as she needed just 14 minutes to record a 3-0 win. Northumbria’s Lucy Beecroft played at No.3 in the tie and secured a 2-0 lead for England as she beat Lauren Baltayan 3-0 in under 20 minutes.

Lucy Turmel was involved in the closest match of the contest as she needed four games to beat Marie Stephan in 40 minutes. Turmel established a 2-0 lead after winning the opening two games 11-3, 12-10. Stephan fought back to take game three 13-11, but Turmel regained her composure to run away with the fourth game and take it 11-3 and send England through to yet another semi-final at the European Team Championships.

The men’s team started their second day of competition in strong style, as they beat Hungary 4-0 to lead Pool A. All three first time England Internationals played in the tie and all recorded 3-0 wins. Charlie Lee won his match against Daniel Simon in just 23 minutes restricting the Hungarian to just nine points in the whole match.

Malik and Wall also didn’t need long to despatch their opponents Benedek Takacs and Lenard Puski, both claiming wins in under half an hour. Both players have been in good form throughout the season on the PSA tour and have carried that into the team championships so far this week to secure the tie for England.

World No.3 Mohamed ElShorbagy is featuring in his first team event for England at this year’s championships and managed to score another win as he beat Hungary’s No.1 Farkas Balazs in four games. Balazs levelled the tie at 1-1 after winning a close second game 13-11 but ‘The Beast’ battled back to secure the next two games 11-7, 11-6 to close out the match.

An all-British battle against Wales was the last match of the pool stages for the men’s team with the team determined to enter the semi-final stage on a high. Nick Wall and Charlie Lee kept their places from the first match of the day and again recorded 3-0 wins over Elliot Morris-Devred and Rhys Evans to put England in the control of the tie. Adrian Waller then scored a win over Wales’ No.2 Emyr Evans to win the tie for England with Patrick Rooney still to play.

Rooney was up against World No.10 Joel Makin in a British Nationals semi-final rematch with Makin looking to deny England a clean sweep. Rooney was in top form in the opening two games of the match, moving Makin into all four corners and attacking with great precision. He took both games to take a massive 2-0 lead.

Makin is renowned for his never-say-die attitude on court and started to mount his comeback against a tiring Rooney. Despite the Merseyside man doing his best to try and regain his form from the start of the match, Makin was proving very difficult to beat yet again. The Welshman took the next two games to level the match and then took the fifth game 11-6 to score a win for Wales to make the overall score 3-1.

The women’s team are up first on semi-finals day as it is their turn to take on Wales, with action starting at 10:00 local time. The men will take on Switzerland in their semi-final, with play set to start at 11:30 local time. The action will be available to watch live on SQUASHTV.