Details of a new 8-man invitation event to be held in London in March, the Canary Wharf Classic, were revealed yesterday by Peter Nicol.

To be held from Tuesday March 23 to Friday March 26 at The East Wintergarden, Bank Street, Canary Wharf, the event features a spectacular setting and an impressive list of competitors.

Peter Nicol MBE, who has been ranked number one in the world for the majority of the past five and a half years and is one of the event co-promoters, is delighted to be staging a major new event in his adopted home city of London.

Nicol, who has won all of the game’s major titles, including the World Open, British Open, US Open, Canadian Open, a Commonwealth Games gold medal and three PSA Super Series titles, said: ‘I have played major tournaments in some spectacular locations all over the world. These include Grand Central Station in New York, Boston Symphony Hall, the Broadgate Arena in London, the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, and an open-air amphitheatre at the foot of the Great Pyramids in Egypt.

‘Now we can add Canary Wharf to that list. The beauty of staging major squash events is that you can be both creative and flexible in siting glass courts in wonderful venues.

‘The East Wintergarden is a magnificent venue and is perfectly situated for the thousands of squash-loving individuals who work at Canary Wharf.

‘We all know that squash and business go hand in hand and we are looking forward to filling the venue for the four nights of the tournament. It is our ambition in future years to develop the Canary Wharf Classic into one of the major events on the world squash calendar.’

COMPETING PLAYERS AND CURRENT PSA WORLD RANKING
THIERRY LINCOU (France) #1
JOHN WHITE (Scotland) #2
PETER NICOL (England) #3
LEE BEACHILL (England) #4
DAVID PALMER (Australia) #6
ANTHONY RICKETTS (Australia) #8
ONG BENG HEE (Malaysia) #13
JAMES WILLSTROP (England) #18

EVENT FORMAT
The Canary Wharf Squash Classic 2004 is an eight-man invitation event. The players will compete in two round-robin groups of four over the first three nights. The runners-up in each group will compete in a third-fourth place play-off and the two group winners will contest the final.

NEW SCORING SYSTEM
The Canary Wharf Squash Classic is a new-look tournament at a sparkling new venue. It will also feature a new scoring system aimed at making the game more attractive and exciting for spectators and television.

Matches will be best of five games, with each game point-a-rally to nine. If the scores reach 8-8 a tiebreak comes into play, with the first player to go two points clear the winner.

The marker will call ‘deuce’ or ‘advantage’ as in tennis. However long the tiebreak, the score will be recorded as 10-8 (tiebreak) to the victor.

For more details contact:

Eventis Sports Marketing Ltd
Tim Garner
+ 44 (0) 797 381 7468
+ 44 (0) 207 372 7013
tgsquash@aol.com