The men’s top seed and Barbados’ most outstanding player over the past decade, Mark Sealy, duly won his eighth National title since 1992 last Saturday night, to draw level with the record of eight National titles held by the legendary Rudy Goodridge.
In the men’s final of the OLYMPIO National Squash Championships, Sealy eventually defeated Barbados’ current under 19 champion Fabian Goodridge in four games to claim the most coveted prize in local squash. In the first game Sealy seemed nervous and made several uncharacteristic errors, especially on the forehand drop and was unusually loose on the backhand drive. Goodridge, who is the nephew of Rudy, was much faster to the ball and seemed to enjoy the fast pace in this first game which he won 9-3 in 11 minutes. The ease with which Goodridge claimed this game left the crowd buzzing with excitement: would Sealy be able to regroup and see off the challenge of this talented junior’ The audience got their answer in the second game as Sealy began making the necessary adjustments. He reduced his pace of shot, achieved better length both straight and cross court by hitting higher on the front wall, and extended each rally until he was in a better position to play his trademark clinging straight drops.
After a 15 minute second game, the match was level at one all. The pressure of the crowd and his opponent started to tell on the younger player, and his response was to try to hit the ball at pace into the nick while Sealy remained composed and continued to wait for the right opportunity to attack. Although the remaining rallies were long and exciting to watch there was only one player in it at this stage. For the loss of just three more points Sealy swept the final two games to win 3-9 9-4 9-0 9-3 in 48 minutes and was clearly ecstatic when the end came.
The ladies final was not as close but spectators were treated to some high quality squash from the two best players in the tournament, the defending champion and Barbados’ #1, Karen Hogarth, and the #2 seed, Sonia Perkins. This match was punctuated with good length, tight drives, crisp volleys and was played at pace throughout. Perkins gave a good account of herself in her second national ladies final but Hogarth is simply in a different league and is clearly the best player ever to play in a national ladies final. Hogarth cruised to a 9-4 9-7 9-3 victory in 33 minutes.
Both matches for third place were extremely one sided 3-0 victories which was a surprise in the men’s third placed match between the #2 seed Marlon White and the lanky 4th seed Andy Gill. On paper this match-up looked like it would be close but, on the day, White had no answer to the questions posed by Gill’s all-round game. The first game was the most competitive and at one stage White held a slim 5-4 advantage but relinquished it by making error after error and ignoring the basic fundamentals of good length and width. As better players in the Caribbean have learnt to their cost, pace without length and width is meat and drink to Gill who hits the ball to good length on both wings, is an excellent retriever but can put the ball away with neat volleys and drops when the opportunity presents itself. From 5-5 in the first game Gill rushed to 9-5 in a single hand. Worse was to come for White in the second game which was over in an embarrassingly short four minutes with Gill winning in only two hands. At this stage the writing was on the wall and Gill never trailed in the third and won at a canter 9-5 9-1 9-4 in 26 minutes.
In the ladies third place match Jenny Armstrong, the #3 seed dispatched Lilianna Seale the #4 seed in straight games for the loss of five points to underline her status as one of the best players on the island.
In the playoff matches for fifth place there were impressive 3-0 victories for Barbados junior representatives, Shawn Simpson and Sherice MacDonald over Tim O’Neal and Elizabeth Johnson respectively. In the consolation plate final 14 year-old Rhett Cumberbatch, the Caribbean under-15 Champion, also had a very impressive 3-1 victory over Richard Moorjani to finish in ninth position. In the men’s plate final former Caribbean under-14 Champion, Bryn Palmer, also looked impressive in disposing of the experienced John Freer in straight games.
Results of matches played on Saturday April 27th are as follows:
Men Open – Final:
Mark Sealy (#1) defeated Fabian Goodridge(#6) 3/9 9/4 9/0 9/3
Ladies Open – Final:
Karen Hogarth (#1) defeated Sonia Perkins (#2) 9/4 9/7 9/3
Men’s 3rd Place:
Andy Gill (#4) defeated Marlon White (#2) 9/5 9/1 9/4
Ladies 3rd Place:
Jenny Armstrong( #3) defeated Lilianna Seale (#4) 9/5 9/0 9/0
Men’s Classic Plate -Final (5th place):
Shawn Simpson defeated Tim O’Neal 9/1 9/5 9/3
Ladies Classic Plate – Final (5th place):
Sherice MacDonald defeated Elizabeth Johnson 9/2 9/3 9/5
Men’s Consolation Plate – Final (9th place):
Rhett Cumberbatch defeated Richard Moorjani 9/4 10/8 8/10 9/2
Men’s Consolation Plate – Semi-finals:
Rhett Cumberbatch defeated Craig Archer 9/6 9/0 9/0
Richard Moorjani defeated Terry Millar 9/6 9/1 9/4
Men’s Plate – Final:
Bryn Palmer defeated John Freer 9/5 10/8 9/4
Men’s Plate – Semi-finals:
John Freer defeated Norman Rice 9/6 10/9 10/8
Bryn Palmer defeated Jim Mark 9/7 9/7 9/4
Ladies Plate – Final:
Rae “Muffin” Johnson defeated Ayoni Bradshaw 9/0 10/8 1/9 5/9 9/3
by Craig Archer, 28th Aug, 2002.
