Opie to appeal

Press, 2 May 1984, Page 52

Opie to appeal

NZPA London The English squash player, Lisa Opie, is to appeal against the heavy punishment for her behaviour while losing to New Zealand’s Susan Devoy in the British Open final earlier this month.

Opie, who was fined ?NZ2140 and banned from next year’s open, has ordered her manager to lodge the appeal. “The whole thing is exaggerated. All I did was throw my racket into the air and it went to the back of the court,” she said. Opie had declined to make any comment directly to the Women’s Squash Rackets Association before it imposed the punishment last week-end.

The disciplinary penalty is easily the toughest ever imposed in world-class squash and the W.S.R.A. said it had taken previous examples of bad conduct by Opie into account as well as her behaviour in the final which Devoy, the world number one, won comprehensively, 5-9, 9-0, 9-7, 9-1. That behaviour included the racket-throwing incident, audible use of bad language, banging her racket on the floor and making a two-fingered gesture towards the referee.

Devoy strongly criticised Opie’s display immediately after the match and Opie’s coach, Jonah Barrington, had no complaints about the punishment today. “It’s a bit like a life sentence but perhaps it will teach Lisa to behave decently,” he said. The previous highest fine in the women’s game was the ?NZI6O — later reduced’ on appeal to SNZIO7 — imposed on England’s Sue Cogswell and Angela Smith after they almost came to blows two years ago. In the men’s game, the highest fine is recorded against England’s Kiddy Jahan, who paid SNZS3S for off-court remarks.