Week 7 - ITF M15 - Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt (hard)

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

Week 7 - ITF M15 - Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt (hard)

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

QR1: Barney Fitzpatrick UNR defeated Ainius Sabaliauskas (LTU) UNR by 5 & 5

QR1: Mattias Southcombe WR 2149 defeated (qWC) Tadej Mihajlovic (SRB) UNR by 0 & 0

*****

QR2: (q2) Félix Balshaw (FRA (*)) WR 900 (CH = 892 last November) vs Barney Fitzpatrick UNR

QR2: Mattias Southcombe WR 2149 vs (q12) Karim Ibrahim (EGY) WR 1462 (CH = 1428 last September)

(*) the son of the former England RU player, Iain, who was one of 19 England players who played during the win over Australia in the 2003 Rugby World Cup final in Sydney, coming on as a replacement in extra time. He moved to Biarritz in 2009 to play club rugby for Biarritz Olympique & that's where young Felix, who's 18, grew up & obviously opted to take a leaf out of Evan Furness' book & play for his adopted homeland, though he'd have been not quite 3 when Iain made the move. Our loss... hmm

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Thanks for that background on Balshaw, Stircrazy

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Stircrazy wrote:
QR1: Barney Fitzpatrick UNR defeated Ainius Sabaliauskas (LTU) UNR by 5 & 5
QR1: Mattias Southcombe WR 2149 defeated (qWC) Tadej Mihajlovic (SRB) UNR by 0 & 0
*****
QR2: (q2) Félix Balshaw (FRA (*)) WR 900 (CH = 892 last November) vs Barney Fitzpatrick UNR
QR2: Mattias Southcombe WR 2149 vs (q12) Karim Ibrahim (EGY) WR 1462 (CH = 1428 last September)
(*) the son of the former England RU player, Iain, who was one of 19 England players who played during the win over Australia in the 2003 Rugby World Cup final in Sydney, coming on as a replacement in extra time. He moved to Biarritz in 2009 to play club rugby for Biarritz Olympique & that's where young Felix, who's 18, grew up & obviously opted to take a leaf out of Evan Furness' book & play for his adopted homeland, though he'd have been not quite 3 when Iain made the move. Our loss...

That's a shame re Felix, one to follow from afar. Is Barney Fitzpatrick linked to any other former players? Wasn't there an Andrew Fitzpatrick and I also have a Matt Fitzpatrick as a name from the past, in my mind, but could be wrong?

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

Coup Droit wrote:
Thanks for that background on Balshaw, Stircrazy

Well, such a fine old French name like Balshaw, I just had to investigate, didn't I? wink Information about Iain is easy to come by, though I must confess that I didn't immediately associate him with England's RWC triumph in 2003, as I would, say, Jonny Wilkinson, Martin Johnson, Matt Dawson or Mike Tindall: I was on holiday in New Zealand, of all places, at the time & didn't see the final!

I was in two minds whether to spell the young man's Christian name with an accent. The regional newspaper, Sud Ouest, for example, refers to him as "Félix", while Roland-Garros doesn't, but that was before I discovered that he was Iain's son.

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Re Barney Fitzpatrick - he lives relatively closely to me, Adel in North Leeds; he has a disease called Menier, which means he has lost his hearing in one ear as well as suffering vertigo.

www.ilkleygazette.co.uk/sport/24500107.local-tennis-player-falls-narrowly-short-ilkley-event/

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

I guess that the obvious answer would be that if Iain married a British woman and baby was born in the UK, he was almost certainly a 'Felix' without an accent. So if he moved over when kiddie was 3, I'm going for that, and no accent

(A baby born in France, and - most definitely - a French wife, would be different)

And I'm guessing the newspapers put an accent because that's the French for you - their way or the highway, as far as language goes

and otherwise it'd be pronounced, effectively, 'F'lix'

(Any country that insists on calling one of the world's greatest composers 'Bash', even though they border that composer's homeland, and it's not a difficult word, had got to be a bit questionable

)

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

QR2: (q2) Felix Balshaw (FRA) WR 873 defeated Barney Fitzpatrick UNR by 5 & 1

QR2: Mattias Southcombe WR 2147 defeated (q12) Karim Ibrahim (EGY) WR 1458 by 3 & 1 biggrin

*****

FQR: (q5) Lu Pengyu (CHN) WR 985 (CH = 974 last October) vs Mattias Southcombe WR 2147

No sign of Giles Hussey in the main draw.

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

FQR: Mattias Southcombe WR 2147 defeated (q5) Lu Pengyu (CHN) WR 985 by 7-5 1-6 [10-8] biggrin

*****

L32: Martyn Pawelski (POL) WR 813 (CH = 469 in July 2023) vs (Q) Mattias Southcombe WR 2147

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

L32: Martyn Pawelski (POL) WR 813 defeated (Q) Mattias Southcombe WR 2147 by 7-6(5) 6-7(5) 6-3 hmm