Hill and Hopwood to meet in repeat final

Hopwood beat Matthew Inglis 6-9 9-2 9-3 5-9 9-4 in a 66-minute semi-final at Clifton Park, York, last night while fifth seed Anton Green was forced to retire against No 1 Hill when trailing 9-4 9-4 8-4.

The match was approaching the hour mark when Green took injury time because of a cut on his leg.

Referee John Mozarella would not permit Green to continue until the flow had stopped. Green attempted to cover the injury without success so conceded the match which had been dominated by Hill from the start.

The other semi-final was much tighter with Inglis taking the first 9-3.

Hopwood played some good outright winners to level 1-1 in games and controlled the play to win the second 9-3 and take a 2-1 lead.

Inglis put in a huge effort in the fourth and held Hopwood all the way to 5-5 and was rewarded by taking the fourth 9-5 to level the match.

There was little to choose between the two in the decisive game until the score reached 3-4 and Hopwood played the neater squash to win 9-4.

The women's final will be between Trish Kochaniec and third seed Natalie Watson.

In the vintage semi-finals, top seed D Booth had a tough game against fourth seed Pete Renton before winning 3-1.

Booth narrowly took the opening game 9-7 and was quick to win the second when unforced errors crept into Renton's game.

Renton narrowed the gap by winning the third 9-6 and the fourth proved competitive with Booth playing some punishing drop shots to move Renton around the court.

Renton rallied and just as it looked as though the match was heading to a fifth game he mis-timed a shot to let in Booth who took the match 9-7 and booked a place in tonight's final against Bob Robinson, who beat York's Arthur Williams 3-1 in his semi-final.

Stuart Gray (Wigginton) lifted by Vintage Plate by beating Paul Burgon 3-9 10-8 9-6 9-3 in the final.

Order of play and last night's results - Page 33

Updated: 14:13 Saturday, February 17, 2001