BARBADOS GIRLS REACH ANOTHER TEAM FINAL. BOYS STUMBLE VERSUS HOSTS.
After two convincing 5-0 victories on Thursday against the Cayman Islands girls and Bermuda’s boys on the third day of the team competition in the 34th Caribbean Junior Squash Championships being held at the South Sound Squash Club, both Barbados’ squash teams advanced to play yesterday (Friday) but had mixed results.
The defending champion Barbados girls team made it four wins out of four with a 3-2 victory against Trinidad and Tobago; while Guyana also remained unbeaten as they easily defeated Bermuda 4-1, to set up yet another girls team final between the two powerhouses of Caribbean junior squash.
In the boys team semi-finals the Barbados team, after playing so impressively to top their group, stumbled against the hosts Cayman Islands, who won 3-2 to set up an unexpected final against, who else but the defending boys team champions, Guyana, who prevailed 4-1 versus the OECS. The OECS team members will nevertheless be very pleased with their performance as they have competed in this year’s team event shorthanded as they only travelled with four players to contest each tie. A junior team tie consists of five matches played in four age groups – two at U-19, and one each at U-17, U-15 and U-13.
In the afternoon session on Friday, the Barbados girls team defeated Trinidad and Tobago by three matches to two, dropping both U-19 matches against much older and experienced opponents. Faith Gillezeau defeated 13-year old Chelsie Samuel, who despite being outmatched was undaunted, and put up a great fight before going down in straight games 10/12, 6/11, 3/11. Trinidad’s Marie Claire Barcant also defeated 14-year old Jada Smith-Padmore 6/11, 6/11, 1/11 in another hard fought encounter. But the core of this young Bajan team: Sumairaa Suleman (U-13), Meagan Best (U-15) and Amanda Haywood (U-17), Caribbean champions all, came through once again with three victories, all in straight games. 11 year old Suleman defeated Chloe Walcott 11/7, 11/4, 11/7. Best won 11/1, 11/0 and 11/0 versus Jinan Al-Rawl and Haywood vanquished Alexandria Yearwood 11/7, 11/7, 11/3 to give Barbados its fourth successive victory in the six team round robin.
In last night’s evening session the Barbados boys team were upset in their semi-final by the Cayman Islands team, who revelled in the raucous support from their home supporters who filled the South Sound Squash Club to its rafters. Reggie Brewster (BU-17) overcame Jasun Sairsingh, in three close games 13-11, 11-2, 12-10 saving four game balls in the process to give Barbados a 1-0 lead in the tie. Darien Benn then had no answer to Jace Jervis who ran away with the U-13 match 11/4, 11/5, 11/6 and Jervis’ older brother Julian, the Caribbean U-19 champion, put Cayman 2-1 ahead after beating Barbados boy’s team captain, Benjamin Griffith, 11/6, 11/4, 11/3. Barbados’ reigning Caribbean U-15 champion, Khamal Cumberbatch easily defeated David Pitcairn 11/4, 11/3, 11/5 to restore parity, but to the delight of the excited home crowd, in the deciding match Caymanian Isiah Robinson in the U-19 #2 position defeated southpaw, Zachary Proverbs-Harris in three close games 11/8, 11/7, 11/9 to seal the upset 3-2 win and consign Barbados to a third place playoff versus the OECS, who Barbados beat 4-1 earlier in the week in pool play.
In today’s encounters the Barbados girls will take to the court at 10:30 a.m. versus Guyana in a repeat of last year’s final, while the boys will face the OECS for the bronze medal starting at 1:00 p.m. There are over 110 players from seven Caribbean territories (Barbados; Bermuda; Guyana, Jamaica; the OECS; Trinidad and Tobago and hosts Cayman Islands) in this year’s Caribbean Junior Squash Championships which ends tonight (Saturday) with the trophy presentation ceremony and closing dinner.
The successful Barbados team will return home from Cayman via Miami on Sunday night July 24th with an estimated arrival time at GAIA of 10:36 p.m. [Full results and more photos can be found on the tournament website at: http://www.casasquash.com]
(The attached photo of the Barbados girls team is courtesy of Steve Cubbins and www.squashsite.co.uk)
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