The 34th edition of the annual Barbados National Squash Championships, which is once again sponsored by the Barbados Olympic Association, served off on Wednesday May 7th with the popular veterans competition. These age group championships are being played at the Barbados Squash Club, Marine Gardens from May 7-10th and a total of 42 men and 10 ladies have now entered this year?s event.
Only two players entered the Ladies Over-40 competition and there were only two entries in the Men’s Over 55 age groups so these will be straight finals. The Men’s Over-35 competition is a round robin affair with the top two seeded players being Mark Gilkes [1] and Norman Rice [2]. The remaining seeded veteran players are as follows:
Men’s Over-40 ? [1] Mark Sealy; [2] Nigel Griffith; [3/4] Marlon White and Leon Truss.
Men’s Over-45 ? [1] Mickey Armstrong; [2] Craig Archer; [3/4] Dean Straker and Andrew Nunes.
Men’s Over-50 ? [1] Orson Simpson; [2] Cliff Nolan; [3/4] Barry Gale and David Spink.
There was very little drama on opening night with all the seeded players advancing as expected, most winning in straight games. However, there were a few notable exceptions. In the men over-35 age group the #2 seed Norman Rice struggled a bit before finding his touch and to defeat the younger and fitter James Punnett in four games 9/7 4/9 9/5 9/5. Similarly in the men over-45 the #3/4 seed Dean Straker had a tough first round examination from the unseeded John Freer before fatigue took its toll on Freer?s shot making ability. After mistakes began to creep into the Freer game and more of his shots found the tin, Straker won comfortably in the end in four games 6/9 9/4 9/3 9/6. In the final match of the night the defending over-45 champion and #2 seed this year, Craig Archer, was nearly called to account by the energetic Brian Robinson who ran like a man possesed and chased down every seemingly lost cause to win the first and fourth games of a tight contest. By the fifth game, however, Robinson was spent and was simply unable to reach a succesion of accurate drop shots as Archer prevailed to his great relief 6/9 9/3 9/3 3/9 9/0 in an absorbing 39 minutes contest.
The full match results from Day #1 of competition were as follows:
Wednesday, May 7th
M+35: [2] Norman Rice bt. James Punnett 9/7 4/9 9/5 9/5
M+40: [3/4] Leon Truss bt. Michael Best 9/8 9/5 9/1
M+40: [3/4] Marlon White bt. Roger Martin 9/0 9/1 9/1
M+45: [3/4] Dean Straker bt. John Freer 6/9 9/4 9/3 9/6
M+45: [3/4] Andrew Nunes bt. Peter Raymer 9/1 9/5 9/7
M+45: [2] Craig Archer bt. Brian Robinson 6/9 9/3 9/3 3/9 9/0
M+50: [3/4] Barry Gale bt. Chester Haynes 9/0 9/0 9/5
M+50: [3/4] David Spink bt. Ronald Watson 9/1 9/6 9/3
M+50: [2] Cliff Nolan bt. ?Rory? Mackenzie 9/2 9/2
9/2
The top seeded players in the Open Championship that will follow the veterans events (May 13-17th) are as follows:
Ladies:
[1] Karen Meakins; [2] Cheri-Ann Parris; [3/4] Lilianna White & Nadia McCarthy.
Men:
[1] Shawn Simpson; [2] Gavin Cumberbatch; [3/4] Bryant Cumberbatch & Mark Sealy; [5/8] Fabian Goodridge; Marlon White; Nigel Griffith & Rhett Cumberbatch.
