True to their seeding, the top two men and top two ladies seeds all made it through to their respective finals as action continued in the Barbados National Squash Championships, which are being sponsored by the Barbados Olympic Association.
In the first Men’s semi-final last night (Friday) the left handed top seed and defending Men’s champion, Shawn Simpson , gave an awesome display of power hitting to destroy the #3 seed, Nigel Griffith , in straight games 9/2 9/2 9/2 in 15 minutes to became the first person in nine years to reach three successive national Men’s finals. In that final Simpson will face the #2 seed Marlon White, who has been runner-up in the nationals on four previous occasions. White enjoyed a comfortable straight games victory over the #4 seed, Rhett Cumberbatch 9/7 9/4 9/4.
The ladies finalists are the same as they have been for the past three years: #1 Karen Meakins and #2 Sonia Perkins . The top seeded Meakins will be a prohibitive favourite to claim her fifth straight national title, but the left handed Perkins, a former Barbados champion jockey, and the current national ladies squash captain will have other ideas and will be hoping to mark her fifth appearance in the ladies national final with her first victory. Both ladies were a class above their respective opponents in their semi-final encounters last night. Meakins won 9/1 9/1 9/1 only dropping three points against the #4 seed, Cheri-Ann Parris, who right now is arguably the top junior female player in the English-speaking Caribbean. Perkins was almost as good and only dropped four points against the #3 seed, Lilianna White 9/1 9/3 9/0 in a efficient display.
In the Classic Plate competition for fifth place, #5 seed Bo Harris defeated the unseeded Ayoni Bradshaw 9/4 9/5 9/1 while #6 seed Nadia McCarthy prevailed over the #7 seed Carla Jackson 9/4 9/0 2/9 9/2. In the Men’s equivalent, Bryant Cumberbatch the #5 seed, easily defeated the unseeded Craig Archer 9/3 9/6 9/2 while the #6 seed John Cumberbatch had an easy walkover when his opponent #7 seed Richard Moorjani withdrew with an injury
Results in the other matches played last night were as follows:
Ladies Plate Semi-finals
Sue Rogers defeated Maia Blackman (3-0) 9/5 9/5 9/6
Edna Corbette defeated Carolyn Last- Johnson (3-1) 9/0 9/1 4/9 9/2
Men’s Consolation Plate Semi-finals
Leon Truss defeated Tim O?Neal (3-0) 9/4 9/3 9/6
Ryan Truss defeated Jason Small by default
Men’s Plate Semi-finals
Don Benn defeated Alex McDonald (3-1) 9/6 9/2 6/9 9/4
Andrew Nunes defeated Dean Straker (3-0) 10/9 9/1 9/3
Action in the various Men’s and Ladies Plate competitions continues at the BSC this afternoon from 2:00 p.m. The ladies final will be played at 4:45 p.m. and the Men’s final at 5:30 p.m. The presentation of trophies in this competition as well as the preceding National Championships for veterans will commence around 6:15 p.m. at the conclusion of the Men’s final.