England Clinch World Title In Pakistan

More than four year after 'defecting' from Scotland to join take advantage of England's Lottery-funded World Class Performance Programme, Peter Nicol rewarded his country in the strongest possible way by clinching victory for England in today's final of the Big Time Men's World Team Championships in Islamabad, Pakistan.

The 2/0 success over second seeds Egypt marks the first time England have won the biggest team prize in world squash since 1997, and the first time that Nicol has played a part in an England world championships triumph.

It was 22-year-old James Willstrop who set up England's victory on the all-glass court at the Mushaf Squash Complex in Islamabad. The new world number two, who is leading the England squad for the first time, fought back from a game down to claim a sensational 4-9 9-6 9-3 9-1 win over world champion Amr Shabana in the 63-minute clash between the countries' first strings.

Nicol, who won a Commonwealth Games gold medal for England in 2002 in Manchester, then faced Egyptian number three Mohammed Abbas for the title. Despite scoring only three points, Abbas kept the world No8 on court for 44 minutes before Nicol raised his arms in triumph after the 9-0 9-2 9-1 win which earned England their third title since 1995.

"This is my way of repaying England for all the support they have give me over the years - the programme, the funding, the coaching, and everything else," said the jubilant former Scot afterwards.

"I really wanted this victory badly and am really pleased to have done it," added Nicol, who now holds two world titles this year after winning the World Games trophy in Germany in July.

France clinched third place after beating Canada 2/1. World number one Thierry Lincou was in fine form as he despatched Canada's Jonathon Power 9-4 9-2 9-2 to extend his unbeaten record in the championships. But Shahier Razik brought Canada back into contention by defeating Renan Lavigne 9-7 7-9 9-7 6-9 9-3 in a 116-minute marathon.

However, Frenchman Gregory Gaultier made sure of his country's second best ever finish in the event when he beat Toronto's Graham Ryding 9-2 9-4 9-1 in the decider.

Australia won the play-off for fifth place, beating sixth seeds Malaysia 2/0 - but the sixth place finish marks Malaysia's best-ever position in the event in 12 appearances since 1979.

Hosts Pakistan also finished on a high, winning the play-off for seventh place by beating Wales 2/1 - marking their best finish since 1997.

Also noteworthy was the 11th place conclusion by a young India team - appearing in the event for the first time since 1995 when they finished in 28th place!

USA are also celebrating in Islamabad: Seeded in the 19/22 group, the team coached by England world championships hero Chris Walker beat Scotland 2/1 in the 13th place play-off, thereby recording their best finish in 22 years!

The young Kuwait squad, appearing for the 14th time in the event - with a squad aged 21 or younger - finished in a commendable 16th place, their highest place since 1979.

Final:
[1] ENGLAND bt [2] EGYPT 2-0 (James Willstrop bt Amr Shabana 4-9, 9-6, 9-3, 9-1 (63m); Peter Nicol bt Mohammed Abbas 9-0, 9-2, 9-1 (44m); Lee Beachill v Karim Darwish (match withdrawn - dead rubber))
3rd place play-off:
[3] FRANCE bt [5] CANADA 2-1 (Thierry Lincou bt Jonathon Power 9-4, 9-2, 9-2; Renan Lavigne lost to Shahier Razik 7-9, 9-7, 7-9, 9-6, 3-9; Gregory Gaultier bt Graham Ryding 9-2, 9-4, 9-1)
5th place play-off:
[4] AUSTRALIA bt [6] MALAYSIA 2-0 (Anthony Ricketts bt Mohd Azlan Iskandar 10-9, 9-0, 9-2 (34m); Joseph Kneipp bt Mohd Nafiizwan Adnan 9-0, 9-2, 9-0 (20m); Stewart Boswell v Ong Beng Hee (match withdrawn - dead rubber))
7th place play-off:
[7] PAKISTAN bt [8] WALES 2-1 (Mansoor Zaman bt Alex Gough 9-4, 9-0, 9-3; Safeer Ullah Khan lost to Gavin Jones 5-9, 3-9, 9-6, 2-9; Farhan Mehboob bt David Evans 6-9, 9-5, 9-4, 9-1)
9th place play-off:
[12] SOUTH AFRICA bt [13/18] GERMANY 2-1 (Rodney Durbach bt Stefan Leifels 9-2, 9-5, 9-0 (34m); Clinton Leeuw lost to Simon Baker 3-9, 10-8, 3-9, 9-3, 7-9 (87m); Michael Tootill bt Simon Rosner 9-7, 8-10, 9-6, 9-4 (61m))
11th place play-off:
[10] INDIA bt [9] NETHERLANDS 2-1 (Ritwik Bhattacharya lost to Laurens Jan Anjema 1-9, 3-9, 3-9; Gaurav Nandrajog bt Tom Hoevenaars 9-4, 9-3, 9-3; Siddharth Suchde bt Dylan Bennett 9-5, 9-6, 9-7)
13th place play-off:
[19/22] USA bt [13/18] SCOTLAND 2-1 (Preston Quick lost to John White 6-9, 4-9, 7-9; Christopher Gordon bt Stuart Crawford 9-4, 9-6, 9-4; Julian Illingworth bt Harry Leitch 9-6, 9-3, 9-5)
15th place play-off:
[11] NEW ZEALAND bt [13/18] KUWAIT 2-1 (Callum O'Brien lost to Abdullah Almezayen 4-9, 8-10, 0-9 (31m); Martin Knight bt Nasser Al Ramezi 9-1, 9-2, 9-6 (37m); Campbell Grayson bt Bader Al Hussaini 9-0, 10-9, 9-1 (29m))
17th place play-off:
[19/22] SPAIN bt [13/18] FINLAND 2-1 (Borja Golan bt Olli Tuominen 9-2, 9-2, 9-1 (32m); Alejandro Garbi Caro bt Hameed Ahmed 9-6, 9-3, 9-3 (36m); David Vidal Villamide lost to Matias Tuomi 9-4, 4-9, 4-9 (38m))
19th place play-off:
[13/18] IRELAND bt [19/22] IRAN 3-0 (Liam Kenny bt Majid Rohani 9-0, 9-3, 9-2; Neal Murphy bt Mohamad Hassan Jafari 9-3, 9-1, 9-5; Arthur Gaskin bt Poya Ahmad Abadi 9-6, 9-7)
21st place play-off:
[13/18] HONG KONG bt [19/22] AUSTRIA 3-0 (Dick Lau bt Jakob Dirnberger 9-0, 9-5, 2-9, 9-1; Wai Hang Wong bt Aqeel Rehman 9-6, 9-0, 9-0; Roger Ngan bt Stefan Brauneis 9-7, 9-3)