DEREK RYAN'S Manchester born club mate Patrick Foster has received his first call up to the senior Irish squash panel with team manager John McKay yesterday naming him in the five man squad for the forthcoming European Championships in Denmark.
Foster is included in the party as a travelling reserve but he may be promoted to number four if Old Belvedere's Chris Collins fails to recover from an ankle injury he picked up at the Interprovincial Championships.
Ryan will lead the team, which also includes Maurice Collins and Stevie Richardson, at Odense in two weeks as they try to bounce back from the disappointing showing of last season's Europeans where they slumped to 14th place overall.
This year's campaign starts with group matches against Luxembourg, Slovenia and Belgium after which, if they are successful, the Irish will go on to meet one of the competition's stronger side's in a promotion play off.
"The Belgians will be tough enough," says McKay, "they have improved a lot over the last few years and will be no pushovers. We'll be hoping for a dramatic improvement over last year, though, with a regular place in the top eight the sort of target that we would have in mind."
The women's team, which should stand a very strong chance of being promoted back to the competition's leading group, was also named yesterday with regular number one Aisling McArdle backed up by Madeline Perry, Louise Finnegan and Anna McGeever.
