What's the old joke about the buses? You wait half the day for one and then two come along at once? In terms of his professional squash career, Derek Ryan can relate to that experience. Until the end of last month, he had waited five years for a significant tournament victory - by Saturday evening, he had won his second in a fortnight.
Two weeks ago, Ryan won his first ranking event since 1993 - the Hartford Cup in Connecticut - and on Saturday, he was crowned European Champion of Champions in Oslo when he beat Sweden's Anders Thoren in the final.
So what's going on? "I know, it's getting silly, I'll have to stop training," he says. "Yeah, I'm delighted, it's great to have backed up the Hartford Cup so quickly with another win.
"I feel very fit at the minute, I'm very relaxed and I just know that I'm playing well and that I can play well. It's just self-belief more than anything - even if I lose a set, I know I can come back and win, whereas in the past I've probably panicked a little bit."
There was some cause for panic in the opening set of Saturday's final when Thoren, the number four seed who had beaten favourite Mark Cairns in the semi-finals, took an 8-5 lead, but Ryan recovered to win the next five points and the set.
"From there on in, it was reasonably comfortable. I lost my concentration a little in the next two sets, but I played the big points towards the end really well and won 3-0," said the Dubliner, who was the tournament's number two seed. "To be honest, it was a lot easier than my semi-final against Paul Gregory, when I lost the first set and had to come from behind in the next three."
