The BS&T sponsored Barbados men’s team returned to the court on Friday morning to easily dispose of the three member OECS team to register a convincing win by five matches to love as the round robin team competitions in the 20th biennial Cellink Southern Caribbean Squash Championships continued at the Georgetown Club in the Guyanese capital. Newly crowned Southern Caribbean Men’s Champion, Shawn Simpson, was rested to keep him sharp for the evening tie versus Guyana, but the remaining players (Gavin Cumberbatch, Bryant Cumberbatch and Mark Sealy) overcame their OECS opponents with the other
two Barbados team members (Fabian Goodridge and Rhett Cumberbatch) winning via walkovers.
The eagerly anticipated tie against the host country, Guyana, on Friday night took on even greater significance when Guyana surprisingly prevailed against the strong Trinidadian men’s team (3-2) on Wednesday night. However, the rest seemed to have done Simpson and the rest of the team the world of good as the Barbados men defeated Guyana 5-0 on Friday night to set up an exciting final encounter versus Trinidad and Tobago beginning at 3:00 p.m. on Saturday, August 23rd.
For the defending champion men’s team, at #1 Shawn Simpson defeated the Guyanese national champion, Kristian Jeffrey, by three games to two while the #2 and #3 strings, Gavin Cumberbatch and Mark Sealy, each defeated Robert Fernandes and Regan Pollard by the same 3-1 scoreline. The #4 and #5 players, Fabian Goodridge and Rhett Cumberbatch then rounded out a great night for the Bajan team by both winning in three straight games over Nicholas DeGroot and Oliver Downes to seal the emphatic rout of the Guyanese team on their own home court.
The defending champion ladies from Barbados, who are sponsored by Flying Fish Garments, will also be going for gold versus Guyana at noon today (Saturday), while the Veterans team bounced back from a 1-4 loss to the OECS on Thursday to defeat the T&T veterans team 3-2 on Friday. Their final tie will be against the Guyanese veterans today (Saturday) at 9:00 a.m.
The 16 strong Barbados contingent will return home at 8:30 a.m. on Sunday morning August 24th.
