Austin and Coutts progress to qualification round
10th September 2008The British pairing of Denise Austin and Mel Coutts won the opening contest as the Nestea European Tour English Masters got underway at St Chad’s Headland in Blackpool today (Wednesday).
It’s the first time the Nestea European Tour has held a round in Great Britain, in a competition being hosted by VisitBlackpool and the Northwest Regional Development Agency.
Austin and Coutts booked a place in tomorrow’s (Thursday) qualification tournament of the English Masters with a 21-18, 21-13 win over Helen Brown and Rachel Turner. The two pairs met on the sand courts in the country quota clash on Blackpool’s iconic promenade this afternoon.
The younger pair of Brown and Turner pushed the Austin and Coutts close in the opening set, but Austin and Coutts raced away to a 9-2 lead in the second set. The University of Bath-based Brown and Turner clawed their way back to 9-4, but could never close the gap on Austin, who lives in Croyde, Devon and her partner Coutts, from Edinburgh.
Coutts said: “We had a bit of a nervy start, but we haven’t played together for a week or two and we don’t train together because we live so far apart. We’re experienced enough that we can just come together and play.
“Once we got our serves going we got on top of them a bit more,” she added. “It will probably be a good thing for us to have got a game under our belts before we play in the qualification round.”
Coutts praised the impressive set-up for the English Masters, which has seen six courts – including a show court – created on the promenade for the competition.
“It’s a really good set-up and there are lots of volunteers helping out,” she said.
Turner said playing in the English Masters has proved a valuable learning experience. She and Brown plan to return to Blackpool to at the weekend to learn by watching some of the top-flight beach volleyball players in action as the competition reaches its finale.
“Of course we’re disappointed to lose, but this is our first season playing together and our first season playing internationally. This is the highest standard tournament we’ve been to,” she said. “As long as we’re learning something in every tournament, that’s a good thing.
“We played really well in the first set and we had them under a lot of pressure,” she added. “We made a few silly errors in the second, but it’s all about experiences and consistency. Hopefully playing here will make a difference next time.”
In the second of the two country quota games of the day, the young Dutch pairing of Danielle Remmers and Michelle Stiekema beat their compatriots Ilke Meertens and Marloes Wesselink to reach the qualification round.
Remmers and Stiekema have re-united for the English Masters after playing against each other last weekend in the final of the Junior World Championships – when Remmers finished on the winning side.
The pair had previously played together last season before going their separate ways to find taller partners – which they felt they needed to achieve their goal of competing at the London 2012 Olympic Games.
They took the first set 21-14 this afternoon, but were edged out of the second 18-21 by Meertens and Wesselink. Remmers and Stiekema romped away to an 8-0 lead in the decider, and although their opponents came back to 12-9, Remmers and Stiekema never looked in danger of missing out on the qualification draw. They eventually took the deciding set 15-9 – with Remmers’ serve hitting the net and slipping over to wrap-up the tie.
Stiekema said: “We’re friends and when our partners couldn’t be here, we decided to play together again. It’s always really nice for us to do that.
“We were never going to lose that last set,” she added. “We’ll be a bit fitter after today.”
Remmers said: “We were both a bit tired after last week, but we’re warmed up now, so we’ll be there tomorrow.”
The action continues tomorrow (Thursday) with both the men’s and women’s qualification tournaments. The main draw gets underway on Friday, with the competition continuing on Saturday and reaching its grand finale on Sunday.