Alan Clyne hails his support team after claiming squash title

Alan Clyne, left, receives his trophy from Jim Hay, president of Scottish Squash and Racketball. Pic: Steve Cubbins

Scotland's number one squash player Alan Clyne has been paying tribute to his support team at Heriot-Watt University after retaining his Edinburgh Sports Club Open title.

The 30-year-old came from a game down to beat Welshman Joel Makin 6-11, 11-8, 11-7, 11-7 in a hard-fought final on Sunday afternoon, but Clyne was quick to stress that the key to his successful title defence was the expert help which enabled him to recover from Saturday night’s five-game, 73-minute semi-final with second seed Adrian Waller.

“Neil Gibson, my strength and conditioning coach, got me doing the right stuff and eating the right things, so I thankfully recovered pretty well,” said Clyne, who returns to action at this week’s Swedish Open. “I felt good on Sunday morning when I got up to watch some of the Federer-Nadal [Australian Open tennis] match on TV.

“Joel’s semi-final lasted only 20 minutes after [top seed and five-time winner] Daryl Selby got injured in only the second point of the match. He started really strongly and I made a few mistakes, which he took advantage of, so I had to stay steady and not give anything away. I’m delighted I managed to sneak it out in four games.”

Edinburgh’s Doug Kempsell and Rory Stewart also enjoyed extended runs before bowing out in the quarter-finals.

Gloucester’s Julianne Courtice claimed the ladies trophy with an 11-3, 11-8, 9-11, 11-5 victory over Egypt’s Mena Hamed, but one of the highlights of the weekend was the stunning performances of local girl Georgia Adderley. The 16-year-old overcame a two-game deficit and saved a match ball in qualifying before taking German top seed Sina Wall the full distance in round one. “What a fighter!” exclaimed Wall, who then lost in the quarter-finals.