Edinburgh Sports Club lose to German giants Paderborn in Squash European Club Championships

Stuart George and Rory 
Stewart both gave the home crowd a thrill and their world-class opponents a fright before Edinburgh Sports Club eventually conceded defeat to German giants Paderborn in last night’s European Club Championship semi-final in Edinburgh.

Edinburgh Sports Club's Rory Stewart

George threatened to pull off an upset when he won the opening two games against former world No 13 Raphael Kandra, but Kandra recovered to win 11-3 in the fifth and deciding game.

Skipper Stewart, inset, faced an even more daunting task when he took on world No 5 Simon Rosner in match two, but Rosner was forced to scrap for every single point as he ground out a 15-13, 11-9, 11-7 victory.

Simon Boughton then lost match three to Lucas Wirths, giving the defending champions an unassailable 3-0 lead and a place in today’s final. There they will meet another German team, second seeds Worms, who beat Edgbaston Priory 3-0 in yesterday’s first semi-final. Scottish No 1 Greg Lobban set Worms on their way by defeating Miles Jenkins in three straight games in the opening rubber.

Edinburgh can still salvage a bronze medal when they play Edgbaston in today’s third-place play-off, while Glasgow’s Newlands Club will finish fifth if they overcome Czechs Viktoria Brno. Newlands beat Dublin’s Fitzwilliam club 3-1.

In the women’s round-robin section, Edinburgh posted their second win of the week after whitewashing Newlands 3-0. Newlands later lost 2-1 to Swiss side Fricktal, leaving Edinburgh and Fricktal in a battle for fourth place today.