Willstrop & Beachill Set For Semi-Final Showdown In Nationals' Draw

All four top men's seeds are set to face qualifiers in next week's first round of the British National Championships in Manchester - and women's favourite Tania Bailey is scheduled to face both the city's Botwright sisters - according to the draw for the event which announced today by England Squash.

And second seed James Willstrop is expected to meet Yorkshire rival and three-times former champion Lee Beachill in the semi-finals for the fourth year in a row.

The sport's biggest UK domestic event takes place at the National Squash Centre at Sportcity from 13-18 February, following qualifying from Sunday 11 February. The NSC will also welcome competitors for the country's biggest Masters event, offering British National titles for men in age-groups from Over-35 to Over-70, and women from Over-35 to Over-55.

The first seed standing in the way of men's favourite Nick Matthew is expected to be Alister Walker, though the No10 seed will first have to overcome Gloucestershire county team-mate Alex Stait. The title-holder from Sheffield is then due to meet England team-mate Peter Barker, from Essex, for a place in the semi-finals where third seed John White, the 2004 champion from Scotland, is his anticipated opponent.

Willstrop, the 23-year-old former world No2 from Pontefract, is looking to win the men's title for the first time - and seeded to meet Matthew in the final. But the draw suggests that 16th seed Lee Drew from Essex, then Shropshire's eighth seed Jonathan Kemp will provide hurdles before the predicted last four clash with fourth seed Beachill, his Pontefract club-mate.

Beachill, a former world No1, has never lost to Willstrop in countless domestic and international clashes - and should the 29-year-old Yorkshireman make the final, it would extend his record to seven successive appearances!

Lincolnshire's Tania Bailey, winner of the women's crown for the first time last year, will take on Manchester's unseeded Rebecca Botwright in the first round. If the 25-year-old world No30 from Worsley cannot overcome the top seed, ranked five in the world, she will hope that her older sister Vicky Botwright can gain revenge in the predicted women's final.

Neither Botwright sibling has progressed beyond the last eight in the championships which celebrate their 11th successive year in Manchester this year - but Vicky, the 29-year-old world No7, will be hoping that 2007 will provide the city's first true 'home' success.

Both players, however, have tough hurdles to overcome before achieving their seeded positions - Bailey her England team-mate Jenny Duncalf, from Harrogate, in a likely quarter-final, before the expected semi-final clash with Irish number one Madeline Perry, the third seed from Banbridge, near Belfast.

An all-Lancashire quarter-final is the prediction for Vicky Botwright - against Laura-Jane Lengthorn, the fifth seed from Preston who upset her higher-ranked county colleague in the Wolverhampton Open final last November. The No2 seed would then be expected to face England team-mate Alison Waters, the fourth seed from London, in the semi-finals.