The top two ladies seeds booked their places in the ladies final in contrasting fashion when action continued on Thursday, May 18th in the 32nd edition of the annual Barbados National Squash Championships, which is being sponsored by the Barbados Olympic Association.
Top seed Meakins, who will be the prohibitive favourite to win a record sixth straight national final on Saturday, brushed aside the challenge of the #4 seed 15-year old Cheri-Ann Parris, who is the local reigning U-17 and U-19 girl?s champion, in straight games 9/0 9/1 9/2. The other semi-final, by contrast, was a gruelling encounter between the #2 seed Sonia Perkins and Lilianna White, the #3 seed and a former junior champion, that went the full distance. White played possibly the match of her life and used her volley and drop to great effect to keep Perkins on the back foot throughout the 51 minute encounter. Perkins, to her great credit, kept her composure and did not panic, and after restoring parity at two games all rushed to a 7-3 lead in the fifth game. White recovered to 7-all to get to within two points of a famous victory. It was not to be. Perkins closed out the match the steadier of the two and won the final two rallies to win 6/9 6/9 9/2 9/4 9/7 and then warmly embraced her young opponent at mid-court while the enthralled spectators applauded in appreciation for they had just witnessed a truely memorable ladies match of the highest quality.
In the Men’s quarterfinals the top four seeds all won in straight games. Top seed, Gavin Cumberbatch, defeated his unrelated namesake John, 9/2 9/0 9/4. The #2 seed Shawn Simpson, defeated Tim O?Neal 9/7 9/0 9/3. The #3 seed Mark Sealy crushed Ian Worrell for the loss of three points while #4 Marlon dropped only seven points against the local U-19 champion, Alex Garcia.
Some of the remaining Men’s matches in the Men’s Consolation Plate were quite exciting with Fabian Goodridge defeating Norman Rice in straight games 9/0 9/6 9/1, then Mickey Armstrong overcame Philip Lewis in four games 8/10 9/5 9/7 9/4. The longest match of the night was the final one when local administrator Craig Archer scraped home in five close games against the athletic Don Benn 7/9 10/9 6/9 9/3 10/8 in exactly one hour.
Full results from Day 4 on May 18th were as follows:
Ladies Semi-final: #1 Karen Meakins defeated #4 Cheri-Ann Parris 9/0 9/1 9/2
Ladies Semi-final: #2 Sonia Perkins defeated #3 Lilianna White 6/9 6/9 9/2 9/4 9/7
Ladies Plate 1st Round: Carolyn Last-Johnson defeated Samantha Ferreira 9/0 9/1 9/2
Men’s Quarter-final: #1 Gavin Cumberbatch defeated #5 John Cumberbatch 9/2 9/0 9/4
Men’s Quarter-final: #4 Marlon White defeated #10 Alex Garcia 9/0 9/4 9/3
Men’s Quarter-final: #3 Mark Sealy defeated Ian Worrell 9/2 9/1 9/0
Men’s Quarter-final: #2 Shawn Simpson defeated #9 Tim O?Neal 9/7 9/0 9/3
Men’s Consolation Plate 1st Round: Fabian Goodridge defeated Norman Rice 9/0 9/6 9/1
Men’s Consolation Plate 1st Round: Mickey Armstrong defeated Philip Lewis 8/10 9/5 9/7 9/4
Men’s Consolation Plate 1st Round: Craig Archer defeated Don Benn 7/9 10/9 6/9 9/3 10/8
Men’s Plate 1st round: Cliff Nolan defeated Jason Gilkes 2/9 9/5 9/0 10/9
Men’s Plate 1st round: Kieran Young defeated Ronald Watson 9/2 9/7 10/8
Men’s Plate 1st round: Roger Martin defeated Jasper Seymour 5/9 9/5 9/6 9/2
Matches continue from 5:45 p.m. tonight Friday May 19th at the BSC. All finals will be contested between 1:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. on Saturday afternoon, May 20th.
