Lobban and Pilley bound of semi-finals at Birmingham 2022

Donna Lobban and Cameron Pilley are on the path to defend their Commonwealth Games crown after securing a semi-final spot at Birmingham 2022.

In a highly anticipated match, the stands were full to watch  Lobban and Pilley beat Scotland’s Lisa Aitken and Greg Lobban 2-1. 

It was the first time husband and wife Donna and Greg had come face-to-face on the court.

“I tried not to think about it. I’m glad he was on the other side of the court and not on my side,” Lobban laughed.

“I should’ve made a bet that if I win I get to shave off his mullet and moustache.” 

It was a close match with the Scottish pair taking the first game 11-9 before cousins Lobban and Pilley took the second 11-8. With the momentum change, Australia were in the box seat and remained in control of the match despite the best efforts of Lobban and Aitken to regain a much needed lead. 

Australia would come out on top but it wasn’t an easy win for the duo.

“When a match is that close, usually at the end you turn around and celebrate but my heart just sunk,” Lobban explained. 

“I’m excited we won but gutted we put them out of the tournament and it doesn’t feel good.”

“Husband and wife, it is the first time it has happened in squash…even so no one had any experience in it and I think they handled it pretty well,” Pilley added.

Earlier in the day Lobban and Rachael Grinham bowed out of the women’s doubles after a 2-1 close loss to Malaysia’s Rachel Arnold and Aifa Azman.

After going down 9-11 in a tight first game, the Aussie duo bounced back as they came out firing in the second with Lobban and Grinham winning 11-4 to draw the match level. 

The third proved to be a tense affair as the match went down to the very last ball. With scores at 10-10, Malaysia yelled in relief when they were awarded the point to seal their spot in the semi-final.

“It was a hard game and we always knew they would be tough,” Grinham said.

“All things considered, I think we did well today. They stayed relatively error free except for the second game and the doubles, especially when you get to these rounds it does get quite edgy.”  

Grinham then backed up for her mixed doubles match with Zac Alexander where they went down to India’s Dipika Pallikal Karthik and Saurav Ghosal 2-0.

Karthik and Ghosal were in control from the start of the match, sending a message to other teams that they’re the team to beat as the No.1 seeds.

Australia had both its men’s doubles pairings advance to the quarterfinals as Rhys Dowling and Cameron Pilley beat Sri Lanka’s Ravindu Laksiri and Shamil Wakeel 2-0.

Alexander and Ryan Cuskelly then rounded off the morning session with a 2-0 win over Julian Morrison and Christopher Binnie of Jamaica.

For the full schedule and results from the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, click here.

Photo credit: PSA