The Blasters continued their impressive unbeaten start to this year?s squash season while the other seven teams all jockeyed for higher places in the round robin phase of the BSRA’s Inter-Club Squash League as action continued on Match Day 5 last Friday night.
At the Barbados Squash Club the front runners, the Blasters, dropped the first two matches but still managed to find a way to defeat the Bouncers by three matches to two. After recording losses at the #1 and #4 positions, when Karen Meakins and Ashok Merai were both beaten comfortably by Andy Gill (0-3) and David Lewis (1-3) respectively the Blasters team raced to victory after three successive straight games wins from #2 Craig Archer, #3 Cliff Nolan and #5 Ronald Watson who defeated Roger Martin, David Foster and Carolyn Last-Johnson respectively.
Final result: Blasters 13 points, Bouncers 6 points.
On court #1 the Bombers held off the challenge of the Pleasant Place Strugglers team with another 3-2 victory that went down to the final match to decide the tie. The Bombers? #1 Nigel Griffith and #4 Carla Jackson both lost in four close games to Shawn Simpson and Sylvester Nurse. Nick Paddison at #5 and Glyne Husbands at #3 then evened things up for the Bombers with hard fought victories over Cilla Seale and Bo Harris respectively. The deciding match on the night saw Alex Garcia clinch the tie for the Bombers with an impressive 3-1 victory over the hard working Tim O?Neal.
Final result: Bombers 14 points, PP Strugglers 8.
At Pleasant Place, the Strikers moved into second place in the standings with a ruthless display over the defending champions Battalion A, who were crushed by four matches to one. Strikers captain and top local player, Gavin Cumberbatch, defeated Marlon White 3-0 in the #1 position while #2 Andre Donawa, #3 Cheri-Ann Parris and #4 Michael Best all had to fight hard to overcome determined opponents Don Benn (3-2), Norman Rice (3-2) and Ambrose Deane (3-1) respectively. The Battalion A?s only victory was claimed by #5 David Goodman who defeated Julian Welch in straight games.
Final result: Pleasant Place Strikers 15 points, Battalion A 8 points.
At the Barbados Defense Force the Battalion B team suffered its third defeat of the campaign by going down to the Boasters by two matches to three in another close tie. The Boasters? #1 Mark Sealy, #2 Jason Small and #5 Jonathan O?Dowd were all victorious over John Cumberbatch (3-0), Philip Lewis (3-0) and Val Fergusson (3-2) respectively. The home team fans were lifted by schoolboys Nkosi and Liu Ross who both won in impressive fashion. The tall left handed Nkosi defeated the experienced Jerry Hutchinson 3-2, while sibling Liu won in straight games against Jasper Seymour.
Final result: Boasters: 14 points, Battalion B 8 points.
The ICL standings after Match day 5 are given in the spreadsheet below. The Blasters currently top the points table with 73 points, the PP Strikers are second on 58 points with Boasters third on 53 points with the Battalion B one point back in fourth on 52. The four remaining teams are all within six points of fourth place so all eight teams still have a chance of making it to the knockout semi-final round which will be played on March 15th.
