Rigged draw aids selectors

THE recently appointed Irish selectors have made their mark on this weekend's Limerick Squash Open with one of the strongest fields ever seen at a local tournament lined up to battle it out for places on the teams for the European Championships in Denmark this spring.

The organisers of the event who, with the backing of sponsor Analog Devices, have traditionally attracted a number of English players, as well as an annual visit from Irish number one Derek Ryan, have this year been encouraged to focus their attention on the leading local players as the new men's manager, John McKay, and his fellow selectors seek to weigh up their options.

In addition to Ryan, who should come through the weekend without being too severely tested, Manchester based student Patrick Foster will be at the Catholic Institute to press his case for a place in the senior international squad. Meanwhile, Chris Collins will be equally anxious to show that he has shaken the back injury that kept him out of last season's Europeans.

To help them in their deliberations McKay, John Kielty and Jack Flynn have openly rigged the tournament draw with a view to, bringing together players they want to see play each other. Thus, in the next few days, many of the players on the periphery of international competition will meet.

"What we decided to do was to seed the top four players and then plan out everything else to suit ourselves," said McKay yesterday. "A few of the players might not be too happy when they get to see the draw, but we made it clear to them when they were entering that this is what we would be doing, so they can't have too many complaints."

Foster's presence for this evening's first round is a particular boost for McKay but, he says, it is the entry of so many of the country's middle ranking players that has impressed him most.

"I think we felt that a lot of the tournaments were suffering from a lack of support and we wanted to try to reverse that," he said.

In the women's event, the focus of attention will also be a place on the team for Denmark. Louise Finnegan appears to have the most to prove after her disappointing showing in the National Championships before Christmas.

The Dubliner is seeded three for the title this weekend behind Anna McGeever and Madeline Parry, while Eleanor Lapthorne will also be in action.