BARBADOS are still the squash champions of the South Caribbean.
Congratulations to the Ladies Team for defending their title with such class, the veterans for placing second and finally the Men’s Team for pulverising Trinidad and almost beating Guyana to finish in second position.
Our combined prowess has once again earned Barbados the Overall Southern Caribbean Championship Title, a goal we set ourselves from the outset of the tournament despite the tough competition.
The SCSC started with individual competition on Saturday and was quite grueling as players had up to 2 matches per day for 3 days straight. The Barbados ladies performed brilliantly and held 4 of the top 6 positions as follows:-
FIRST — KAREN HOGARTH
THIRD — SONIA PERKINS
FIFTH — JENNY ARMSTRONG
SIXTH — LILIANNA SEALE
In the men’s event, two top 10 finishes were achieved: Gavin Cumberbatch who placed 4th losing to Shawn Badrinath, and Andy Gill who finished 10th after pulling out due to injury.
We then had almost 3 full days to rest before our first team match.
In our first ladies match against OECS, we were victorious in all five positions. In our second tie against Trinindad we won three of the five matches with Lilianna Seale losing to an in-form Gen Shim and Carla Jackson going down in a hard fought 5 setter.
Our first men’s team match against Guyana was quite gut wrenching. Andy truly pulled off a hard-fought #3 string victory over Robert Fernandes, coming back from 0-2 and 4-8 match ball down. Marlon and Gavin predictably lost to the strengths of Shawn Badrinath and Luke Fraser respectively, and it was now for Fabian Goodridge to play Julian Chin and Shawn Simpson to play Damian DaSilva. Unfortunately Fabian lost his match, the Barbados men’s team missing a golden opportunity to defeat Guyana, the reigning Caribbean men’s team champions. Shawn concluded the night’s play by thrashing Damian DaSilva, and Barbados had lost 3-2 in matches.
Our second men’s team match was against Trinidad, and we recognised that this was again a golden opportunity to create an upset after their team was weakened by Michael Khan’s injury during their match against the OECS. Our players rose to the occasion in fine fashion with Fabian starting off the night’s play with a very mature win over Dirk Prudent. Next, Andy was once again forced to claw his way from 0-2 down to beat Colin Ramasra in 5 closely contested games. By now we were up 2-0 in matches, and everyone’s confidence and adrenaline was peaking as it would take but one more win to secure the victory. Next up was Gavin who put on an awesome display to demolish Don Lee 3-0 in an inspiring show of physical prowess and speed. It was all over. We had done it! To add icing to the cake, Shawn took to the court and wiped the floor with Ryan Abraham. Marlon then lost to Paul DeVerteuil, but not without a good, hard fight.
In the men’s vets, Nigel Griffith demolished Alwyn Callendar on Wednesday, then had a great game against John Holly (who seemed to have a guardian angel on his side) but eventually went under 10 – 9 in the 5th game. Errol lost (3-1) to former champion Richard Hart in one of the best matches we have seen Errol play – he really gave it his “all”.
The ladies team excelled beyond expectations in our final match against Guyana. The first to take the court was Carla Jackson who was not feeling very well. She pulled out all stops to win her match 3-2 against Kristina King and clinched the first victory for the elated Bajan supporters.
Second on the court was Jenny Armstrong. She was showing her class of play on court, up 2 games to 0 against Kathy Shuffler when she fell and twisted her ankle. She lost the third and fourth game, but continued to fight toward victory, limping and wincing in agony, but refusing to concede her match. The support of her Barbadian team mates coupled with sheer determination and grit pushed Jenny to an exhilarating win and a 2-0 lead for Barbados in the tie.
Karen Hogarth then had her re-match against Nicolette Fernandes. She refused to let her flu virus stop her from confirming her title of ” Southern Caribbean Champion “. Karen needed to produce even better squash than in the individuals since Nicolette played a better and more patient game. She did what was needed to win 3-1, and Barbados had won the Ladies Team Championship.
It was then Sonia’s turn to show Guyana that this performance was going to continue. Sonia defeated Denise Jeffrey 3-0 with more ease than in the individual quarter finals. Lilianna Seale then proved her superiority against Tiffany Solomon and took no time to win 3-0, finishing off the match with a cracking forehand crosscourt drive. The ladies had now completed their dream of a 5-0 win against their rivals, Guyana.
On Saturday morning, the men’s team played the OECS and won 4-1 with Marlon, Andy, Fabian and Shawn winning
convincingly against James Bentick, Leroy Edwards, Mark Borton and Marlon Roudette respectively. The experienced OECS #1, Charlie Sonson, defeated Gavin (3-2) in a match that should have been finished by Gavin in the third game and again in the fourth. Unfortunately, Gavin missed a total of 6 match ball opportunities to an in-form Sonson. This was vintage squash from Charlie, and Gavin deserves praise here as Charlie’s nicks just kept finding their mark. Gavin will devour him the next time they play! In retrospect, we could have played Rhett as Guyana eventually beat Trinidad later that evening and there was no count back.
In addition to this fine performance, the Barbados team was awarded the “most disciplined team” award, and Andy Gill was awarded “most valuable team player”.
