England Beat Champions Australia In World Championship Opener

England defeated defending champions Australia on the opening day of the 4th World Deaf Team Championships at the Durbanville Squash Club in Cape Town, South Africa.

"It was a tough match for both teams to begin the championships but, as is always the case when Australia and England meet, no quarter was given," said Team Manager Mike Harris, the England Squash Academy Director.

Matt Hewitt, playing in his first World Deaf Championships, began the tie with a gutsy display against Anthony Stanford - and at one game all and 5-4 in the third game the match could have gone either way. But the Sussex player managed four fantastic attacking boast winners to pull away from his Australian opponent. The final game was also tight but Matt held strong and clinched the match 9-4, 7-9, 9-4, 9-4 with a crunching forehand drive winner.

The second match was a see-saw battle between Berkshire's out-of-form Philip Thomas and a great stroke player Peter Walters. The Aussie from Adelaide began quickly moving the ball to all corners of the court whilst Philip seemed very sluggish and was making error after error.

A few choice words from Mike Harris seemed to do the trick and Thomas took the next two games. However, the Aussie fought back to force the match into a fifth game decider. Walters held his nerve, much to the delight of the Australian supporters, to win the match 9-0, 1-9, 1-9, 9-4, 10-9 - and take the tie into a deciding rubber.

The deciding match saw Surrey's Jamie Mathews outplay Aussie No1 Ben Bruggy. Striking the ball and moving well, the England No1 despatched his opponent for the loss of just a single point, winning 9-0, 9-1, 9-0 to give England a morale-boosting 2/1 victory over the 2005 champions.

England's next opponents on Day 2 will be hosts South Africa, who lost 2/1 to Scotland.

"This is my first world championships event," said Matt Hewitt after his opening win. "I thought I played well in the first game, good length and width and he seemed a bit slow at the beginning. In the second, Anthony started to hit ball harder and deeper in to the back of the court, I hit short and he punished me, plus I broke my racket half way through this game and I got distracted. The third and fourth games were tough but in the last game I could see he was getting tired, so I made sure I kept up the pressure against him and won six straight points to win, it was the perfect way to start the match for England."

After his disappointing loss, Peter Walters explained: "I've only just got back from travelling round the world two weeks before the event and I've been struggling to get back into my game in such a short space of time. Peter has improved in the last two years and he played very well and I wasn't at my best and it wasn't a day for me. I will forget my poor performance today and I will try much harder, especially in the individual event as I'm the defending champion."

England's victorious top string Jamie Mathews added: "Ben started slowly and I was quick on court so was able to take advantage with my attacking game at the front. Overall I played well and we all very happy that we beat Australia the current champions. I'm really looking forward for the rest of the Championships."