Team Serbia (M) win Balkan Team Championships - women finish fourth!

It's now over 24h ago that Team Serbia won the finals, but the victory was quickly followed up with celebrations and alcohol, which don't go well in combination with blogging. After the girls finishing in fourth place thanks to some great all-round performances, our match was pushed back until like 7:30 due to Croatia taking on Bulgaria on center court in the 3/4 place play-off. It was close but Vedran lost at position one 2:3 (great performance) and the young number three lost 1:3 to a guy whose name I forgot, but he looked like a bouncer. Bulgarian coach told me though that Bulgarian bouncers are far bigger than him. Well now I know who not ge

t in trouble with.

Dennis was on court first and played Martin from Slovenia, who

looked in good shape in his previous matches. Dennis couldn't live up to his heroics from the Small Nations Cup and lost 0:3. Games one and two were poor on his side, bad shot selection and mistakes. Coupled with Martin getting everything back with interest and playing with high-confidence (he hit some outstanding winners) - it wasn't looking good. Dennis changed the game around a bit and tried to play like me (lobs and all) and that made it closer, but Martin was too good on the day and Dennis was simply not on form. Coming off one of the busiest weeks of his professional life probably didn't help.

I was on next playing Damir, a guy probably just short of forty years old. A marathon runner and not known for his attacking play, more the steady kind. I won game 1 11:8 and lost game two thanks to some poor play and some unexpected old-school reverse-angle boasts (you gotta love 'em) from Damir. Game three and four were pretty good, and I managed to win both 11:4. I had really issues with my backhand over the whole weekend and at times I felt like I could barely hit the ball on it properly, so I just took all pace off the ball and made sure not to do anything risky. That of course means I can't do my favourite backhand lob serves either, but at least I didn't serve out like in the semis. Tried changing rackets and all, but it just wasn't to be, and once you start thinking about it too much... Oh well, it was enough anyway and although I was expected to win, it wasn't easy with a loud crowd and awkward opposition.

So the stage was set for coach, manager, player of the century: Ivan! He hadn't played earlier as it was a dead-rubber and he was slightly annoyed by having to wait long, and I guess he was thinking we'd be 2:0 up again and he needn't play. So he went on against Rozle and lost the first game easily. Rozle is one of those players who looks terrific on court when he has time, but that all falls apart when you put him under pressure. I mean not completely of course, but you know what I mean. In game one Ivan wasn't able to do that at all and he lost easily, in the other games he was and Rozle made mistakes, chose some bad shots and just generally started looking uncomfortable, playing through balls when he could have been receiving strokes and hitting tins at crucial times. Ivan didn't exactly play out of his skin, but he kept the pace up and he's used to playing finals being under pressure, and at 1:1 I was confident he'd win. And he did, and you can see the last videos in this great video. Ivan said that this would be his last match for Serbia, so we were delighted that he finished off his illustrious national career with a great win that was witnessed by many proud Serbians!

After the victory we enjoyed our winners' beers at the club, posed with the trophies (and the Greek female team (!!), ate (I stupidly skipped that part) and headed to the Player's Party after. Luckily my flight was at 4:50pm so I still had time to meet my friend Ivana (from Google) in town before flying home to Dublin via Gatwick (with hang-over and cold).

Balkan Team Championships - Day two (pre-final)

First of all an apology: our women's team actually finished second in their group yesterday. In a group of four they lost two matches, but so did their opponents Slovenia and

Turkey. Going back on games-countback - it turns out Serbia had the best difference! So they finished second and progressed to the semis, where the Greek girls made short work of them. However, they recovered well and gave the Slovenian women's team a real fight for their money for third places. Alexandra recovered from twisting her knee but lost 2:3, but then Jelena put on a tremendous performance winning 3:1 at position 1. Of particular note wereher excellent serves! Anja was up against a hell of a player at second string (she should have been playing one) and was beaten 3:0, but she fought well and extended the rallies. Fourth place is a great result for our team and the girls can be proud of themselves.

We played Croatia this morning (they placed their second team in the quarters) and won 2:0. Dennis played superbly

dropping about 10 points in three games against Vedran. I was next up and managed a 3:0 victory too, but served out five times and made about eight mistakes in game one alone. Didn't feel too comfortable with my rackets today but hopefully the touch will come back in the final.

The match of the tournament so far was Bulgaria against Slovenia in the other semis. The strong Slovenian number one was impressive in his 3:0 victory, but Nicki leveled it for Bulgaria with a solid 3:0 win at third string. The match at position too was awesome. The crowd got really in to it with the Bulgarian ladies jumping up and down with every point won. Stoli, the Bulgarian, was down in every game but managed some great comeback from 3:8 down, but he lost the crucial tie-break in game two and a close third game 9:11. It was tight all the way but the Slovenian did well to see it out 3:0.

Right now the ladies' final is on - Greece versus Croatia. Greece are favourites to win but the Croatians might feel uplifted by the support they are getting here. We are on afterwards, with Dennis playing Martin at first string to kick things off. Serbian Squash president is here to support the teams, so we are ready to go!

Balkan Team Championships - Day 1

It was a busy first day at the Squashtower club in Zagreb on the first day of the Balkan Team Chmpionships. All teams made it down and were addressed by various officials, someone who had to do with the Olympic Committee, as well as the (very friendly) Croatian Squash president. I heard the Greeks struggled to make it down due to some strike at the airport, but they made it, too. All in all we have teams from Turkey, Grece, Slovenia, Serbia, Croatia and Bulgaria - it's not the biggest turn-out but Croatia and Slovenia bothfielded more than one team.

Our women's team got off to a great start beating Turkey 2:1. Jelena, our num

ber one, lost in five sets, but her loss was compensated

by Alexandra's clear win. Anja, who has improved a lot over the last time I saw her play, played her heart out and won her match 3:2 in dramatic fashion. Against Slovenia the tables were turned and Jelena losta close encounter against a strong junior. While Axandra, one of the best junior players in the Balkan region, destroyed her opponent (whoreminded all of us of Vicky Botwright playing), Anja extended the match to five games but lost by the narrowest of margins in the fifth set. Against favourites Croatia the team lost 3:0, Alexandra having to pull out due to injuring her knee.

Our men's team wasn't tested on Saturday, beating both Croatia III

and Slovenia II, not dropping a game in the process. Dennis, who comes off the back of organizing a big conference and didn't get much sleep of late, played the first match to get used to the courts, and won 3:0. Marko, our super-sub, looked impeccably smooth on

court and won 3:0 too, and I followed up with a straigh-forward win against a guy with an Ivanisevic-esque serve. Lest we forget though that they aren't much use in Squash, but he was a decent opponent. In the second match against Slovenia II, Dennis was rested and Ivan produced the goods against a decent opponent at one, with Marko playing a guy with an underhand technique, that was surprisingly effective. I had to play a policeman (special forces), who had a coffee after the match and told me he only sleeps 3h a day. He was over forty and a bundle of energy, and I found out before that he does charity 12h Squash sessions! I won anyway. So we finished first in our group (we are seeded at position 2) and will face Croatia I in the semis - they won their group surprisingly (I thought they'd finish last), while Slovenia and Bulgaria, both very good teams, are playing the other semis.

The day though was packed with plenty of action and good squash. There were some enthralling women's matches - not always featuring the highest quality squash - but

definitely a lot of heart and passion. Especially the Turks were

vociferous in their support, though the Bulgaria versus Slovenia women's match might have been the loudest. It'll be interesting to see Croatia play the semis as the volume record might be broken.

Balkan Squash team championships - Team Serbia is back!

Now in its second edition, the Balkan Squash Team Championships is a great little competition that sees the best teams of the Balkan region get together to determine the Balkan champion! Keep in mind that squash is more of a developing sport in this area, so while the quality is really quite good, no current professionals are playing. Last year Greece won both titles, but this year the Greek men's team are absent, so last year's finalists Slovenia are the team to beat. In the women's competition Greece look as strong as ever.

More importantly, Team Serbia are here, sporting their strongest line-up (for the men's team) - Dennis, Ivan, Dan, and Marko! The women will do well with a top 5 finish with Jelena, Anja, and Alexandra playing.

I left for the tournament on Wednesday night, staying the night in London Gatwick in the wonderful Yotel! I had a 7 square meter room rented for precisely 8h, setting me back 61GBP. That isn't exactly cheap, but the next best option had been the Hilton for 164 pounds. Yotel featured free wireless, TV, shower, virtually everything you need apart from plenty of space. Have a look at the slide-show - I can definitely recommend it if you have a stop-over in Gatwick and you feel like freshening up rather than sleeping on the bench.

Arrived in Zagreb (I hadn't been to Croatia in almost twenty years) on Thursday morning and was picked up by the tournament staff and local coach Luca (quite the chatty fella) and was taken to the club. Four Courts (Mc Will courts, so with wooden planks), large gym, nice bar and super-friendly people.

Had a hit with the number one from the Croatian team Vedran, who first told me I was the best player he had played (obviously a

lie) and then told me that I must have lost weight since the last time he saw me a year ago in Poland (thanks Vedran - I actually lost 5kgs since then). Club was pretty busy with last minute preparations - they even put up a stand for center court with about 100 seats.

After a deserved nap and I sampled the local beer - Ozujsko - had dinner, and then my first team mate Dennis arrived, with Ivan and the rest of the crew preferring to drive up early in the morning from Belgrade.

Em, Sloths!

I have to say I was always quite oblivious to sloths but then I came across this video and it turns out sloths are quite famous (on Youtube) at least. Not only are they fun to watch crossing a street (I find), but turns out they are quite the quirky bunch, too. Here are my favourite bits from their Wikipedia page:

• A sloth's digestive process can take a month or more to complete
• Sloths host two types of bacteria on their fur (which provides them with the ability to camouflage)
• They have approximately a quarter as much of muscle tissue as similar sized mammals
• Maximum speed on the ground for three-toed sloths is 2 meters per minute, but in situations of danger they can speed up to 4 meters per minute
• Their longed curved claws allow them to hang overhead from trees without much effort, in some cases they will remain that way even after they pass away :( And hanging from trees is by far their favourite pastime (with eating leaves I think)
• Sloths supposedly sleep loads - up to 18h it was thought, though a recent study suggested they only sleep 10h a day.
• This is my favourite part: they climb to the floor to defecate about once a week and always do so in the same spot. They actually dig a hole and cover it again. This is when they are most vulnerable to be attacked and it is thought that they might do this because dropping excrements makes too much noise. But maybe they also think burying is more hygienic. I mean if you hang over a pile for a few days it is bound to be not so pleasant - and their sense of smell is their best sense! Also - and this is Wikipedia - chilling down to the ground might provide them with a chance to meet a mating partner.

So, that's sloths for you. They come two-toed and three-toed btw. And while they are slightly odd, they can be quite cute, too:

http://youtu.be/vkZ1qR-v__8

Next month: armadillos!

WARPAINT 'Beetles' on Vimeo

WARPAINT 'Beetles' on Vimeo

Vanessa Atkinson is a Serbia fan!

As every year, I went to watch the Canon Kirk Irish Squash Open in Fitzwilliam Lawn Tennis Club in Dublin. I normally write about the event on squashsite.co.uk but, lo and behold, someone was doing that already! Arthur Curran clearly took way better pictures than I ever did (I actually had people hold my Macbook in front of them in one year), but was also far more dedicated than I ever was. So that was a pleasant surprise - and he even went on to cover the event in Galway the week afterwards.

Anyway, the real highlight of the tournament was the ladies' final between Jaclyn Hawkes of New Zealand and Nour El Tayeb - the longest match in the history of women's squash lasting a startling 110mins. That was due to over 60 lets I would say, but it was utterly enthralling and ended in a 16:14 fifth set tiebreaker in El Tayeb's favour. El Tayeb plays a remarkable game - a bit like Ramy Ashour - and we saw her even diving around the court and doing some splits.

The Egyptian double was completed when Tarek Momen beat Stewart Boswell in the final. Momen just played drops from everywhere - which Stuart really hated. Momen was lucky to go through though as he was 0:2 down in the semis against Goshal of India, but he got injured and pulled out! I saw Goshal play Mustonen of Finland in round one, which until then was the best match of the tournament, as the two of them are probably within the top five fastest players in the world at this point, which made for exciting squash.

The other big news was that Vanessa Atkinson, former world number one, chose the Irish Open to be her last tournament on the WISPA tour. She lost in the semis here to El Tayeb,m and she said it was fitting that she made room for a younger generation "leaving the game in good hands". I always liked Atkinson a lot, not only because of the picture at the top, but also because she plays with great flair, touch and is a bit of a character.

Anyway, I thought it would be fitting to talk to her for the very first time and ask her for a picture, so here we are (as you can see she is a Serbia fan, too):