It’s been a week of familiar faces for the Irish men’s players taking part in the European Individual Closed Squash Championships in France.
Three Irish – Jack O’Flynn, Sean Murphy and Alex Smith – pitched up on Wednesday for the opening round of the 45-player men’s section in Chartres.
None of the trio enjoyed any round of 64 luck, as they were beaten 2-3, 0-3 and 1-3 by respective Danish, Liechtenstein and Czech opposition.
What happened since, though, was essentially local parish news. The players would have travelled to France in the hope of encountering foreign opposition the whole way through. Instead, there have been two all-Irish shoot-outs.
It was Thursday night when O’Flynn took on Murphy in a 33/40 place match he won 3-0. That qualified him for a 33/36 place match against Smith on Friday afternoon, which he won 3-1 to secure a 33/34 Saturday fixture against Poland’s Jakub Pytlowany.
This win for Flynn over Smith was a reversal of the result when they clashed less than two weeks ago in Dublin. Contesting the 3/4 play-off at the PSA Satellite event in Fitzwilliam, Smith got the better of O’Flynn on that occasion 3-2.
That result came after Smith had lost out 0-3 in his Satellite semi-final to Murphy, who went on to lift the title on August 9.
Smith will now play Hjalmer Mois of the Netherlands for 35th place in France, with Murphy looking to clinch 37th against his Dutch opponent Joseph Burman.
In the women’s section, Breanne Flynn remained in the hunt for a 25th-place finish with a 3-0 win over Portugal’s Catarina Nunes and a 3-1 success against Megan van Drongelen of the Netherlands.
European Individual Closed Squash Championship
MEN’S PLACE MATCHES
Sean Murphy
LOST 0-3 (6-11, 9-11, 10-12) v Jack O’Flynn (33-40 match)
WON 3-0 (11-9, 11-7, 11-7) v Ivan Krznaric of Croatia (37/40 match)
NEXT: Plays Joseph Burman of the Netherlands (37/38 match) on Saturday
Jack O’Flynn
WON 3-0 (11-6, 11-9, 12-10) v Sean Murphy (33/40 match)
WON 3-1 (11-8, 9-11, 11-8, 11-8) v Alex Smith (33/36 match)
NEXT: Plays Jakub Pytlowany of Poland (33/34 match) on Saturday
Alex Smith
WON 3-1 (10-12, 11-6, 11-3, 11-8) v Ivan Krznaric of Croatia (33/40 match)
LOST 1-3 (8-11, 11-8, 8-11, 8-11) v Jack O’Flynn (33/36 match)
NEXT: Plays Hjalmer Mols of the Netherlands (35/36 match) on Saturday
WOMEN’S PLACE MATCHES
Breanne Flynn
LOST 1-3 (5-11, 16-14, 7-11, 8-11) v Tessa Ter Sluis of the Netherlands (17/32 match)
WON 3-0 (13-11, 11-3, 11-2) v Catarina Nunes of Portugal (25/32 match)
WON 3-1 (11-7, 9-11, 11-5, 11-8) v Megan van Drongelen of the Netherlands (25/28 match)
NEXT: Plays Lea Barbeau of France (25/26 match) on Saturday
