SQUASH : Marshall mauled

Peter Marshall may have been the first British man for 22 years to play a British Open final, but there was never any hint of a chance at the Cardiff International Arena yesterday that he would become the first British man in that time to win it.

Marshall was unlucky that Jansher Khan was in overwhelmingly brilliant form. The great Pakistani, who once used to smother and contain his opponents until they were exhausted, attacked and destroyed the British national champion in less than three-quarters of an hour.

The score was 15-4, 15-4, 15-5 and it was one-way traffic almost throughout. A potent mixture of the short and the long games from the champion had Marshall covering uneconomic quantities of the court right from the beginning, and the longer the contest went on the more Jansher realised that, against a labouring opponent, he could go for winners earlier in the rallies.

It was almost certainly the best Jansher has ever played in a major final, but it was impossible to tell from his impassive face. Only once did he reveal any emotion, when he won a 2-1 vote from the three referees for a let decision. He shouted angrily and hammered the glass wall next to the official who had voted against him.

Jansher, having secured his fourth successive British Open title, said he hoped to go on to beat Jahangir Khan's record of 10. "I have played Peter Marshall many times and he is always a fighter, but tonight I played really well," he said.

Results, Sporting Digest, page 28