Barbados wins the Men’s and Ladies’ Team Titles; places 2nd Overall at Southern 2008

As the curtain came down on the 20th biennial Cellink Southern Caribbean Squash Championships the Barbados Ladies? and Men’s Teams both clinched their respective team titles, with Guyana in second place each time. But the Veteran?s team could only manage a 3rd place finish and

this allowed hosts and Veteran?s Team champions, Guyana, to pip Barbados for the Overall Team title by the narrowest of margins.

In the Ladies team final Barbados defeated Guyana by three matches to two at the Georgetown Club courts yesterday afternoon (Saturday). After the first four matches this tie was locked at two all with Barbados winning at #2, with Cheri-Ann Parris defeating Keisha Jeffrey 3-0, and at #3 with Lilianna White also defeating Tiffany Solomon 3-0. Guyana then picked up wins at #1 from the reigning Southern Caribbean Individual Champion, Nicolette Fernandes, who defeated ladies captain Karen Meakins 3-0 and at #5 from Mary Fung a Fat who defeated Carla Jackson 3-2. With the final on the line, Nadia McCarthy playing at #4 for Barbados went two games to one up but trailed 3-8 in the fourth before rallying to claim the last seven points of this nail biting match to defeat Kayla Jeffrey by three games to one and seal the victory for the Barbados Ladies Team with Guyana in second place. No other countries fielded teams in this competition this year.

The Barbados Men’s Team then went into its final round robin tie versus the strong Trinidad and Tobago team undefeated and full of confidence, but then proceeded to lose the first three matches in the tie. At #1, the newly crowned Southern Caribbean Champion, Shawn Simpson, could not repeat his success in the Individual final versus Colin Ramasra and lost 2-3. At #2 and #3 for Barbados, Gavin Cumberbatch and Men’s captain, Mark Sealy then lost in straight games to T&T?s Paul Deverteuil and Ryan Abraham respectively. The Barbados #5, Rhett Cumberbatch, then defeated Peter Pirtheesingh 3-0 and in the final match, at #4 Fabian Goodridge defeated T&T?s Kale Wilson 3-1 to bring some respectability to the final score. But happily for Barbados this 2-3 result was enough to claim the Men’s Team title since Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago and hosts Guyana all finished the round robin format with three wins and one loss each. But crucially, Guyana had beaten T&T earlier in the week 3-2 and so finished in 2nd place with T&T 3rd, Venezuela 4th and OECS 5th.

Earlier in the day, the Barbados Veteran?s Team lost 2-3 to Guyana, with Barbados’ Nigel Griffith defeating his old rival Alwyn Callender 3-1 in the Men’s Over-50 division and the evergreen Errol Pilgrim defeating Guyana?s Louis Narain 3-0 in the Men’s Over-60 division. Barbados’ losses were in the Men’s Over-40 age group where Marlon White lost 0-3 to Guyana?s Brendon Mounter and also in the Ladies? Over-40 and Over-50 age groups where Barbados did not field competitors. As a result, Guyana was crowned Veterans Team Champions, with a record of three wins and no losses. The OECS vets team placed 2nd (2-1) with Barbados in 3rd place (1-2) and T&T finishing 4th (0-3)

At the end of the exciting and hectic three day team competition the hosts Guyana were then crowned Overall Team Champions to the delight of the home fans and dethroned the 2006 overall champions, Barbados, in the process. The Guyanese combined team total of six wins and two losses for 26 points was just better than that of Barbados, who also amassed 26 points, but finished second with an overall record five wins and three losses. The OECS (12 pts.) placed third overall with Trinidad and Tobago (11 pts.) 4th and Venezuela (5 pts.) in 5th place overall.

The Barbados team will return home this morning (Sunday) with the lion?s share of the spoils, however, having won both the Men’s and Ladies? Team trophies, and a third place finish in the Veteran?s team competition as well as the Men’s Individual gold and bronze medal winners (Shawn Simpson and Bryant Cumberbatch) and the Ladies? Individual silver and bronze medal winners (Karen Meakins and Cheri-Ann Parris) as well as the Southern Caribbean Men’s Over-50 Champion (Nigel Griffith) and the Men’s Over-60 Champion (Errol Pilgrim).