Bryant upsets top seed. Simpson through to 11th national men’s final.
The top seed and defending champion in the men’s championship, Gavin Cumberbatch, was upset last night by his younger brother Bryant in an exciting semi-final match in the 40th National Squash Championships being played at the Barbados Squash Club in Marine Gardens. In a hard fought match played at great pace the diminutive Bryant, looked to be close to the form that he was in when he reached and won his only previous men’s final three years ago. Both players covered the court with amazing speed and generally the match was played at a blistering pace but after squandering a game ball in the first game to lose the tiebreak 11-13 Bryant who at 25 is five years younger than his eldest sibling was able to settle down and generally made fewer errors, especially at the front of the court, and wore Gavin down to win 11-13, 11-9, 11-9, 11-7 and reach only his second men’s final. In that final Bryant will face the #2 seed and six time former national champion, Shawn Simpson, who has now reached 11 out of the past 12 men’s finals and at age 30 is one short of reaching the record of twelve final held by the revered former champion, Rudy Goodridge. The left handed Simpson defeated Rhett Cumberbatch, the third Cumberbatch sibling seeded this year in the top four in straight games 14-12, 11-5, 11-5 in a hard fought encounter that Simpson was in complete control of once he prevailed in a tight first game that went to deuce. Rhett led from the start all the way up to 10-7 and then failed to convert any of the five game balls he held after that. Simpson steadied himself, restored parity at 12-all and won the next two points to clinch the first game 14-12. Buoyed by that success Simpson was never in any further trouble and never trailed in the match which he closed out 14-12, 11-5, 11-5.
In other matches played, in the playoffs for the 5th to 8th Mark Sealy defeated Don Benn 3-0, while Mark Gilkes turned the tables on Andy Gill who had beaten him recently by bouncing back from a game down to win 4-11, 11-9, 11-7, 11-8 in one of the matches of the night. In the first round of the Consolation Plate Zaki Williams had to dig deep to defeat Copeland Straker in five games, 11-9, 9-11, 11-9, 12-14, 11-6 while Ryan Foster and Stewart St. John defeated Brandon Straker and Shemane Griffith respectively in four games. The wily veteran Leon Truss used his lob and drop game to telling effect to overcome the Caribbean and Barbados U-13 champion Khamal Cumberbatch in straight games 11-3, 11-5, 14-12. In the second round of the Men’s plate, Sylvester Nurse just edged out Deepu Panjwani in five games 4-11, 11-8, 10-12, 11-7, 13-11 in a thriller. Dean Straker and Craig Archer defeated their respective opponents Andrew Nunes and Rithew Saywack in four games while Peter Harris took out Julian Welch in three games 11-9, 11-4, 13-11
