DARYL SELBY - BRITISH CHAMPION

Daryl Selby beat fellow Ashaway player and World number 1 Nick Matthew to win the British Nationals last weekend. A superb achievement, given the quality of players at this event.

These are Daryl's thoughts sent to us by e-mail just after his win:

"... feels great to be the British Champion and to beat the World number 1 again!"

"I feel the last 6 months have had mostly ups with a few downs. The down was the Commonwealth Games where I lost in the quarter finals to Azlan Iskandar, and had hoped to get a medal. But I have had a lot of ups since then, making the quarter finals of the last 3 World Series events in 2010 and beating the World number 1 Nick Matthew in Kuwait.

2011 has also started well, as I won the Comfort Inn Open in Vancouver where I beat Hisham Ashour in the final (he beat David Palmer 3-0 in the semi). I also won the Edinburgh BSPA, which is the largest British Grand Prix event of the year, and then obviously winning the British Championships was brilliant. The Swedish Open I lost to Nick Matthew in the semi final, I didn't know there was a promotion of Ashaway at the event, although I did get a racket strung there.

My plans for the next 6 months, are Virginia next week for the North American Open, then Canary Wharf. I have a few weeks of training before the European Team Champs in Finland where I will hopefully be in the team for England. Then there are possibly 2 World series events in Egypt in May but we are waiting to hear. Then i am getting married in June! So will have an end of season break then, and start training in July in preparation for next season.

The string (UltraNick 18) is awesome, I am currently trying it at a tighter tension as I played the final last week with it slightly tighter than usual and really liked it. The playability is great, and for me the durability is absolutely fine..." "....it breaks slightly quicker than the PN18 but it never breaks too quickly"

BLACK KNIGHT & ASHAWAY SIGN JOEL HINDS

Black Knight Enterprises and Ashaway Racket Strings are proud to announce a 3 year sponsorship deal with World University champion Joel Hinds. Joel has risen 29 places in the PSA rankings since completing University in 2009 also picking up the British Under 23 title and was crowned the BSPA series champion. Currently ranked world number 88, Joel is aiming to break the top 50 this year and is tipped to enter the elite top 32 next season.

Joel met with Paul Smith, Partner at Goode Sport (European distributor for Black Knight and Ashaway Racket Strings) last week at the Edgbaston Priory Club for a publicity photo shoot with Mike Edwards (Head Squash Professional) and fellow Black Knight Player, British Under 19 champion Julianne Courtice.

Joel said: “I am extremely happy to be offered this 3 year deal, Black Knight is much talked about and I am chuffed to be chosen as the British representative on the tour” “I have used Ashaway strings for the last 3 years and am now using Ultranick 18, the only tricky part has been choosing which racket to play with, there are so many great options at the moment I am trying the Ion Cannon and Ion Drive”.

Mike Edwards said “The partnership between Ashaway, Black Knight and Edgbaston Priory Club has developed well over the last 2 years since I moved to Birmingham. It’s a great signing for Black Knight with the mens under 23 British Champion Joel Hinds and the ladies under 19 British Champion Julianne Courtice, both of who train and base themselves here at EPC”. Paul Smith added “Joel is going to be a great ambassador for us, he is one of the best prospects on the tour and a very popular and likable lad. At over 6 feet tall wearing either his afro or corn rows – he certainly gets noticed! Lets hope that Black Knight and Ashaway do as well!”

Joel got into squash at school as part of an England Squash primary school programme with Paul Hargraves (now owner of PDH Sports). He was quickly spotted as a player with natural talent and was escalated through the England Squash programme with David Campion. Now Joel trains at Edgbaston Priory club 3 times a day: One session solo on court, One session hitting with one of the other pros and also a session working on his EIS strength and conditioning programme.

Joel is preparing for the British Nationals in Manchester on Tuesday this week where he is aiming for a quarter final place, then he leaves for America to enter PSA tournaments in Virginia, Los Angeles, Winnipeg then on to Canada for the Calgary and Montreal tournaments.

(Pictured above left to right: Paul Smith - Partner Goode Sport, Julianne Courtice, Mike Edwards - EPC Head Professional, Joel Hinds).

ASHAWAY & BLACK KNIGHT EXTEND DEAL WITH DAVID PALMER

Ashaway Racket Strings and Black Knight Enterprises have extended their long-term sponsorship agreements with squash great David Palmer. The two-time World Open Champion has been an Ashaway sponsored player for more than ten years and with Black knight for 3 years. He has recently begun playing with Ashaways new PowerNick^® 19, the world's thinnest squash string. The terms of the agreements were not disclosed.

"I'm very happy about the agreement," said the 34-year-old Lithgow, New South Wales, native who is now US based in Orlando, Florida. "I've been with the company for a long time. I have had a great relationship with them, and obviously love the string, so I was happy that they were still keen to have me on."

Currently ranked number 15 in the world by PSA, Palmer has been Australia's top squash player for most of the past decade. In addition to his two World Open crowns in 2002 and 2006, and four British Open trophies, he has reached the finals in 53 tournaments since turning pro in 1995, and claimed some 26 tour titles. In a remarkable show of consistency, in August of 2010 Palmer completed ten full years in the world's top ten!

Said Ashaway's Steve Crandall, "We are also 'keen' to have David in our stable and are delighted that he continues his career playing with Ashaway string. He is not only a great player, but a great ambassador as well, both for our products and for the sport."

A long-time user of Ashaway's popular PowerNick 18, Palmer recently switched to Ashaway's latest Zyex^®-based innovation, PowerNick 19. After play-testing the string during development, Palmer began using the final production version in tournament play beginning in November 2010. He said the new string "feels excellent," and gives him, "a little bit more power, a little bit more touch. On top of that, it looks really good: the black string with the white Ashaway logo stenciling looks really good and stands out well on the court."

He also likes the durability of PowerNick 19. "The great thing about the PowerNick 18 was that I could never bust the stuff," he said. "PowerNick 19 is not lasting quite as long—it is thinner, after all—but I'm still getting a long time out of my racquets. It's great not to have to worry about restringing my racquets every two or three matches. With this I can go to a tournament and have my racquets all strung up and not have to worry. I can often use the same racquet for the whole tournament which is what I like to do."