Other talented Barbadians had tried for 30 years and failed. Stalwarts like Mickey Armstrong, Rudy Goodridge, Mark Sealy, Joe Singh – excellent players all, in their day – but ever since the first Caribbean Championships were held in Nassau in 1977 none could claim the ultimate prize in Caribbean squash: a gold medal in a Caribbean Area Squash Association (CASA) Squash Championship Men’s Final. But last night, at the 16th biennial Caribbean Squash Championships, in the cauldron of court #4 at the famous Liguanea Club in Kingston, local hero Gavin Cumberbatch, on his 24th birthday, claimed the first individual gold medal for Barbados in any full Caribbean Squash Championships when he defeated Colin Ramasra of Trinidad and Tobago in devastating fashion in three straight games.
The dreadlocked Cumberbatch had promised so much from so very early on in his career. He displayed prodigious talent from the age of 9 years old and won eleven National Junior titles between 1993 and 2001 and was beaten only once by a local junior during that time. He won four Junior Caribbean Squash titles at the U-14, U-16 and U-19 levels between 1996 and 2002 and is still the only Barbadian to lay claim to the coveted Caribbean Boys U-19 title. He was the youngest ever winner of a National senior squash title at age 16 in the year 2000. Then he moved overseas to study architecture and between 2002 and 2006 he attended the prestigious Yale University on a partial squash scholarship. He was popular enough to be elected captain of his University squash team in his final year. On his return to Barbados, some thought the fire had gone out. His desire and hunger for the game seemed missing. He lost a close National Men’s final in May 2006 to his main rival and close friend, Shawn Simpson, who won even more comfortably once again in the National final earlier this year and took over the #1 ranking that Gavin had held in a vice grip ever since 2001. Last year, at home, Gavin did win the Southern Caribbean Squash Championships men’s title, but that was at home, on familiar courts. How would he fare on hot, unforgiving, non-air conditioned courts in the heat of Kingston, Jamaica we all wondered? The conditions would be energy sapping, the heat at times would be unbearable, and only the strong would survive. We wonder no more!
Seeded at a lowly position of #6 in the men’s individuals, even below Simpson at #5, Cumberbatch looked like he had a very tough draw. He would have to face the #2 seed Nick Kyme (Bermuda) in the quarter-finals. A former four-time Caribbean Junior Champion himself, Kyme was a little older and always a little better than Gavin. He had also improved himself over the past few years by playing on the pro circuit and had gotten as high as #63 in the world in the middle of 2005. But to get to the quarters Cumberbatch had to first get through two matches on the very first day of competition last Friday. Like a surgeon he clinically won his first match on Day 1 in straight games for the loss of 7 points, and then dropped only 10 points in the next round, once again winning in straight games. On Day 2 he faced his nemesis Kyme, and promptly dropped the first game 3/9. He then proceed to amaze his teammates in the audience by running his opponent into the ground in the next two games winning at 5 and 7 before applying the coup de grace, an emphatic ?bagel? – 9/0 in the fourth, to seal the sweet victory! Another higher ranked player stood in the way of destiny, and in the semi-final Cumberbatch faced the Jamaican hero, and current Caribbean U-19 champion, Chris Binnie. The tall and powerfully built Binnie is making a name for himself on the Caribbean circuit and would have enjoyed the majority of the boisterous crowd support on Sunday night. He would have also been buoyed after trailing 0/7 in the first game to come back to win it 9/7. Binnie then led 4/0 in the second before a combination of his mistakes and Gavin?s good play turned the match completely on its head. Binnie only won a further 3 points in the second and third games combined as Cumberbatch stormed through to win them at five and then two. The fourth could have gone either way but, in the end, Cumberbatch prevailed 10/9 to set up his epic encounter with another rival from Junior CASA days, Colin Ramasra (T&T).
The Ramasra arsenal is full to bursting with tricky, deceptive shots and he had already put paid to hopes of an all Barbadian final by demolishing the four-time Barbados National Champion, Shawn Simpson, in straight games in the other semi-final for the loss of only eleven points. However, in a surprisingly one sided encounter in the final Cumberbatch comprehensively defeated Ramasra 3-0 (9/4 9/7 9/0) to claim the coveted Men’s Individual title.
Disappointingly for Barbadian squash fans the top seed Karen Meakins failed in her bid to be the first Barbadian player to claim a Caribbean Ladies Individual title. She went down 2-3 in a very hard fought match to the #2 seed Karen Anderson (Jamaica), the 2006 CAC Games Ladies Individual bronze medalist. Anderson, playing in her first individual final, won 2/9 9/3 9/6 5/9 9/4 to the delight of the partisan Jamaican crowd.
Barbados still has much to be proud of though. The reigning Caribbean U-19 champion, Cheri-Ann Parris (B?dos) seeded here at #4 comfortably defeated the #3 seed Rhea Khan (T&T) for third place 9/1 2/9 9/2 9/2, and Jennifer Armstrong (B?dos) the #5 seed just squeaked home against #13 Anita Bicknell (Jamaica) for fifth position in five guelling games 10/8 9/2 7/9 8/10 9/7, reversing a surprising loss to the Jamaican on Day 1. The #10 seed Nadia McCarthy (B?dos) also finished a commendable eighth after losing to Trinidadian Kimberly Farah the #11 seed in the playoff for seventh place. Farah won in four games 4/9 9/1 9/5 9/1.
The result of the Men’s third place match between Shawn Simpson and Chris Binnie was a win to the #3 seeded Binnie 5/9 10/8 9/0 9/6, while the #2 Nick Kyme (Ber) defeated Josh Pinard (T&T) 9/5 9/6 9/7 for fifth place and Charlie Sonson (OECS – St. Lucia) beat Paul DeVerteuil (T&T) for seventh by a walkover (see match reports by Karen Anderson for further details).
The team competition begins today (Tuesday) August 14th with the Barbados Ladies, Men’s and Veterans teams all competing for team glory. Barbados is defending the Ladies, Veterans and Overall Team titles. The team semi-finals will be on Friday August 17, 2007 all team finals will be on Saturday August 18th and the Barbados team will return home at 6:45 p.m. on Sunday evening, August 19th.
