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.