How the New York Knights overcame the Nashville Crushers in the 2024 NSL final
After the highly anticipated inaugural final of the NSL, in what was perhaps the most closely
contested game of the season, this article breaks down how the final was won and lost in
what was not only a display of squash at the top level, but a tactical chess match of the
finest margins. The Knights, helmed by Sebastien Bonmalais, Rory Stewart and Matias
Knudsen went into this match so far undefeated, as they stormed through the North division,
whereas the Crushers, led by Timothy Brownell, Simon Herbert and Ronald Palomino, had a
rocky road to the final after advancing only on points from the South division. The Knights
continued their dominant run, taking the NSL 2024 title 3-1.
1st Period
The Knights showcased the unique PowerPlay feature of the NSL almost right away, utilizing
PowerPlay specialist Knudsen to develop a quick 6-3 lead. This set the tone immediately,
with aggressive tactics from the Knights putting pressure on the Crushers. A convincing
performance from Bonmalais started with him serving a fortunate ace against Palomino,
perhaps a sign that it wasn’t to be the Crushers day as they went into a 6-point deficit. What
was particularly striking from the data from game 1 was the excellent rally length
management from the Knights.
The data here represents the shot count in each rally as game 1 progressed and describes
how each rally concluded. Particularly of note is the contrast in rally length in points won
by the Knights. Knudsen’s aggressive play style lent well to the opening of the match where he hit 4 quick winners. However, it was Bonmalais who controlled the match exquisitely after the
team PowerPlay which made the key difference in period 1; extending the rally length to just
under 50 shots on a couple of occasions, through both pace variation and utilizing every
corner of the court, not only drew out proceedings and ran the clock down, but frustrated
Palomino and led to some hasty errors and strokes as he tried to force winners and take
back the initiative. The Crushers conceded 8 strokes in game 1, compared to just 1 from the
Knights.
The number of lobs played in period 1 by the Knights, over twice as frequent in comparison
to the Crushers, gives us an insight into how they managed to draw out these opening game
rallies in their quest to run down the clock and take the key 1-0 lead.
In response to the Knights early PowerPlay, the Crushers deployed theirs late on in the
period, but it was a case of too little too late as Herbert was faced with a daunting 8-point
turnaround needed in 6 minutes against Rory Stewart. This seemed an uphill battle against
the World number 41 and proved so as the Knights took period 1 25-16.
2nd Period
Perhaps inspired by the Knights early success, it was in fact the Crushers who took their 2-
minute PowerPlay first in period 2, and Brownell added 5 points in this period to the team’s
total, a very successful stint against Knudsen. The next round of substitutions came for both
teams as Bonmalais and Palomino returned to the court in a rematch of their period 1 battle.
However, this time it was Palomino for the Crushers who played fantastic defensive squash
whilst restricting Bonmalais to just a 2-point PowerPlay. The Crushers closed out the second
period 23-18 after a fantastic effort to tie the final at 1-1 with the decider to come.
Interestingly, if you were to discount the PowerPlay rule, it would have ended 31-23, showing
how well the Nashville Crushers did in restricting the Knight’s effectiveness on PowerPlay.
3rd Period
Fittingly, the 2024 NSL title hung in the balance with a final 30-minute period deciding it all. Another tense and hard-fought battle between Bonmalais and Palomino started it off, before
the Knights once again used both their final period PowerPlays in the first 10 minutes,
leading to comprehensive lead of 13-5. If the Crushers were to win the first NSL title, they
now had their work cut out for them in the early stages of this final all-important game.
Nashville still withheld their PowerPlays and could now use them to claw their way back into
this final, but with Rory Stewart, reliable as ever, playing conventional squash, time seemed
to be running out as he opened a huge 7-point gap over the Crushers. Some aggressive T
positioning from Herbert set up the final 7 minutes with the score 24-18. Brownell vs
Bonmalais was to be the final showdown, with the former doing everything in his power to
fight back, and aggressive shot selections from the American paid off as he drew just one
point behind Bonmalais at 25-26 with just a minute to go. An agonising out of court call came
from Brownell’s lob at the back of the court in the next rally, and it was enough for Bonmalais
to see out the match and crown the Knights as title winners.
Match statistics
During the final, both teams exploited the front of the court, and both hit close to 50% of their
overall winners here. The fast paced, aggressive nature of the NSL plays into these stats,
with powerplays giving players free rein to go for quick winners via unconventional shots,
with crowd pleasing cross court volley knicks and trickle boasts making a regular
appearance. We saw 33 winners hit into the front of the court in the match, but also 32
unforced errors into the same region. The Knights were much more efficient however with
their ratio of front court winners to errors at 18:13 compared to 15:19 from the Crushers. This
key points difference in this region might well have been the decisive factor in the match.
The figure above shows the type and frequency of shot choice utilized by the Crushers in
points that they won. The fact that the Crushers volleyed the ball nearly twice as much as
the New York Knights signifies the much more aggressive play style. Amongst all the insight
into tactics and strategy on display by the two teams this final, squash is an unforgiving
game, and it’s often the error count that tells a comprehensive story of the match (perhaps a
familiar pattern for many of us amateur players!). Particularly in games 2 and 3, the fact that
unforced errors swung so heavily towards the losing team of each period reinforces this fact.
Was the Crushers aggressive playstyle at times too much?
After a thrilling contest in the 2024 NSL, the competition promises to get even better with the
plans of 3 new men’s teams and four new women’s teams in 2025, so stay tuned.
Tom Glover,
Cross Court Analytics
https://crosscourtanalytics.com/