European Club Team Championship: 2010

Hadrian Stiff will play for our club at the European Championship

On September 12, the Petroholding Squash Club team leaves for England, where the European Club Championship will take place from September 16 to 18. According to the regulations of the tournament, the winners or finalists of the domestic club championships can take part in it. Reaching the final of the Ukrainian club championship, where Petroholding Squash Club lost to the Grand Prix team only by additional scoring, allowed our team to enter the continental championship in Pontefract.

In order to perform as best as possible at the European Club Championship, Ruslan Sorochinsky, Konstantin Rybalchenko and Denis Podvorny will fly to England a few days before the competition. In Bristol, they will be trained as much as possible by the head coach of Petroholding Squash Club, Hadrian Stiff, who will then travel with his charges to Pontefract as the fourth member of the team. “Actually, the fourth player was supposed to be from Odessa Valeriy Fedoruk as one of the most promising domestic squash players. We didn’t even consider the option of Stiff being a player-coach, ”says Anastasia Netrebchuk, director of Petroholding Squash Club. - We did not think that Hadrian would express a desire to play at the European Club Championship. He had to go to the tournament exactly as a coach - to watch the game of his players, to prompt, to help. It so happened that Stiff himself proposed himself as the fourth member of the team. He said that this would be a great opportunity to get closer to his team, to overcome the psychological boundaries that usually divide the coach and his charges. Moreover, Hadrian's participation as a player at Petroholding Squash Club is a great opportunity to play as strong as possible at the club championship and show a much better final result. "

Valeriy Fedoruk was sympathetic to the situation when he learned that one of the strongest mentors in the world would play in Pontefract instead of him. In any case, Valery should have been flattered by the fact that out of all domestic players the management of Petroholding Squash Club gave preference to him. And this already suggests that Ukrainian squash officials believe in him, who, at the first opportunity, will contribute to the realization of his potential.

As for the European club championship itself, this is already the 23rd such tournament in the history of world squash. Sixteen men's and women's teams take part in it. Last season, the Scottish Aberdeen became the winner of the men's tournament held in Gothenborg, Sweden, while the women from Pontefract turned out to be the strongest - the very ones who will defend their title in the current home tournament. This tournament will be the debut for Ukrainian clubs. And we hope that in its first participation in the championship of this level, Petroholding Squash Club will play in the best possible way and prove that the Ukrainian squash school is one of the best on the continent.

Club European Championship: We are in the quarterfinals

On the second day of the European Club Championship, Petroholding Squash Club players dealt with the Swiss Volen and reached the quarterfinals of the continental championship. Ruslan Sorochinsky, Konstantin Rybalchenko and Denis Podvorny easily beat their rivals, gaining a victory that was so necessary for their club to leave the group. But the mentor of Ukrainian squash players Hadrian Stiff lost his meeting - yesterday, during a meeting with James Earls from the English Pontefract, our coach pulled his leg and in today's meeting due to sharp pains he was forced to give up the fight. Nevertheless, "Volen" was beaten, and at the same time a ticket to the quarter-finals was obtained, where the winner of group C English "Colet" will be waiting for the team of "Petroholding Squash Club". The English squash players representing this team are currently not represented in the PSA rating, although at one time they were considered very strong players - for example, Mark Cairns in 1995 was the tenth racket in the world rating. And the rest of the Colet's players, even though they are veterans of squash, are by no means considered easy opponents - this applies to Lee Drew, and Scott Handley, and their playing coach Clive Ewins. The proof of this is that the team easily and naturally beat the Luxembourg Angels, and then dealt with the Irish Fitzwilliam.

European Club Championship

Group stage

Group A

Paderborn (Germany) - Recrean (Belgium) - 4: 0

Group B

Marseille (France) - Roslagen (Sweden) - 3: 1

Group C

Colets (England) - Fitzwilliam (Republic of Ireland) - 4: 0

Group D

Petroholding (Ukraine) - Volen (Switzerland) - 3: 1

Aberdeen (Scotland) - Pontefract (England) - 2: 2

In the quarter finals meet

Paderborn (Germany) - Roslagen (Sweden)

Petroholding (Ukraine) - Colets (England)

Aberdeen (Scotland) v Fitzwilliam (Ireland)

Recrean (Belgium) - Marseille (France)

Results of the Petroholding Squash Club games at the group stage of the European Club Championship

Aberdeen (Scotland) - Petroholding (Ukraine) - 3: 1

Simon Park - Hadrian Stiff - 3: 2 (11: 5, 7:11, 11:13, 11: 4, 11: 5)

Alistair Gorry - Ruslan Sorochinsky - 3: 1 (13:11, 6:11, 11: 4, 11: 5)

Jamie Jacobsen - Konstantin Rybalchenko - 2: 3 (7:11, 7:11, 11: 9, 13:11, 5:11)

Mike Black - Denis Podvorny - 3: 2 (11: 7, 9:11, 6:11, 11: 7, 11: 7)

Pontefract (England) - Petroholding (Ukraine) - 1: 3

James Earls - Hadrian Stiff - 0: 3 (8:11, 7:11, 9:11)

Sam Wilman - Ruslan Sorochinsky - 1: 3 (5:11, 11: 8, 5:11, 6:11)

George Wilman - Konstantin Rybalchenko - 0: 3 (7:11, 3:11, 3:11)

Karan Malik - Denis Podvorny - 3: 0 (11: 7, 11: 5, 11: 5)

Petroholding (Ukraine) - Volen (Switzerland) - 3: 1

Hadrian Stiff - Stefan Leifels - 0: 3 (0: 2, rejection)

Ruslan Sorochinsky - Dani Oyshger - 3: 2 (11: 6, 12:10, 10:12, 7:11, 11: 7)

Konstantin Rybalchenko - Yuri del Tenno - 3: 1 (11: 5, 4:11, 11: 8, 11: 9)

Denis Podvorny - Peter Frey - 3: 0 (12:10, 11: 7, 12:10)

Club European Championship: Aberdeen took revenge

This weekend the European Club Championship ended, where Petroholding Squash Club made its debut. The first ever participation of a Ukrainian club in the continental championship was successful for Hadrian Stiff's charges - Petroholding Squash Club took the high seventh place. As the team captain Konstantin Rybalchenko predicted, the strongest clubs at the moment - German Paderborn and French Marseille - met in the final. The Germans lost only one game - Simon Rosner lost to Mathieu Castagnier. Otherwise, Paderborn was head and shoulders above the rival - not a single lost game in the next three meetings. Peter Barker, Tim Gardner and Lennart Osthoff defeated their opponents with clean sheets 3: 0.

The third place was logically taken by the English Coletz - the one that stopped our team in the quarterfinals. By the way, in the semifinals he lost to the future club champion, so you shouldn't blame our guys for losing 0: 4 to a weak opponent. Moreover, if you remember, Hadrian Stiff had problems with his leg.

On Saturday, the English playing coach showed his inherent class - literally "on one leg" he brought the first racket of the Swedish "Roslagen" Romain Tennant. And it was not his fault that Petroholding played a little worse than the Swedes in subsequent meetings. The winner of the confrontation was determined not by the number of victories or even by the number of games won, but by counting each point won! Who could have guessed that it would end with this? In fact, that's what the concept of a player's class is - to fight for every point. We have no doubt that there will be no such embarrassment in the future. But the defeat in this match gave Stiff & Co. the opportunity to meet again with their offenders in the group stage, Scottish “Aberdeen”. Despite the fact that after losing in the quarterfinals, the Scots decided not to flirt with their leader Simon Park once again, but to give the young players the opportunity to feel the level of international matches, the revenge was sweet. In four matches the Petroholding team gave the opponent only two games! Due to this, our club stopped exactly in the middle of the final table of the championship, forcing the former European club champion to be content with only eighth place.

By the way, the hosts of the continental championship, Pontefract, took only the ninth position. The outsider was Luxemburg's Angels, which, having failed to catch even the tenth line, simply withdrew from the tournament and automatically received technical defeats in further matches. Sincere congratulations to Konstantin Rybalchenko, Ruslan Sorochinsky, Denis Podvorny and their mentor Hadrian Stiff with a worthy debut at the European Club Championship! This is a common achievement not only of our club, but of all Ukrainian squash as a whole. We hope that next fall Petroholding Squash Club will be able to make one more step forward and rise even higher in the final table.

European Club Championship

Match for 5-8 places

Roslagen (Sweden) - Petroholding (Ukraine) - 2: 2

Romain Tennant - Hadrian Stiff - 0: 3 (7:11, 8:11, 6:11)

Karl-Johan Lofvenborg - Ruslan Sorochinsky - 3: 0 (11: 1, 11: 7, 11: 4)

Henrik Lofvenborg - Konstantin Rybalchenko - 3: 1 (11: 5, 9:11, 11: 5, 11: 3)

Victor Stenstrom - Denis Podvorny - 1: 3 (9:11, 11: 8, 3:11, 4:11)

Roslagen won by better point difference

7th place match

Petroholding (Ukraine) - Aberdeen (Scotland) - 4: 0

Hadrian Stiff - Alistair Gorrie - 3: 1 (11: 7, 11: 6, 4:11, 11: 7)

Ruslan Sorochinsky - Mike Black - 2: 0 (11: 8, 11: 8)