Marlon White, the top seed and defending champion, had to endure a topsy-turvy tussle before getting things right and overcoming his main rival in this age group, Mark Sealy , in an exciting Men’s Over-35 match last night (Thursday) in the National Veterans Squash Championships, which is sponsored by the Barbados Olympic Association. In a pulsating contest that went the full distance, White began well and took the first game at five, only to find Sealy, who was also in good form, winning the second game at six. White then turned the tables once more in the third game to win at four and the enthralled crowd sensed that White, the newly appointed national Men’s team coach, would then run away with things. But Sealy, a former eight time national squash champion, had other ideas and played a perfect fourth game ? full of clinging drives to impeccable length and deft drop shots ? to win at love and set up an unexpected fifth game. But in this final stanza it was White who picked up the pace once again and blew his opponent off the court for the loss of a single point to win 9/5 6/9 9/4 0/9 9/1 in 49 enthralling minutes. In the other over-35 match Jason Small easily defeated Martin Bynoe 9/2 9/1 9/1.
In more action on the Barbados Squash Club (BSC), Marine Gardens courts last night the top four seeds in the Men’s over-40 event all safely reach the semi-finals. Top seed and defending Barbados , Southern Caribbean , and Caribbean over-40 champion Nigel Griffith was not troubled by Brian Robinson who was called to account 9/6 9/1 9/3. In tonight?s over-40 semi-final Griffith will face #3 seed John Cumberbatch who drove past Dean Straker 9/3 9/1 9/6. The other semi-final will pit the #2 seed, Mark Sealy , who defeated Roger Martin 3-0 on Wednesday night, against #4 Craig Archer , who comfortably defeated Andre Donawa 2/9 9/5 9/2 9/3 to reach his sixth successive national over-40 semi-final.
In the Men’s Over-45 competition, Cliff Nolan eased past Frank Jordan 9/3 9/3 9/4, while Andrew Nunes came back from two games to love down to engineer an impressive 3-2 victory over Richard Taylor 5/9 6/9 9/7 9/4 9/0 in 47 minutes, the second longest match of the night.
In the Men’s Over-50 competition the top seed, Leon Truss, defeated David Foster 9/1 9/1 6/9 9/2 to set up an intriguing final on Saturday afternoon with the #2 seed, Richard Walcott, who won his semi-final match against Orson Simpson 9/4 9/4 9/0. In the over-55 final, David Foster returned to court to defeat Charles Evelyn 9/2 9/3 9/4.
In the Senior Ladies Open, for ladies 35 years and over, the #2 seed Sue Rogers played two matches last night and surprisingly lost the first of them against Cyla Seale who lost the first game easily at one but thereafter ran down every ball and contested every rally like a woman possessed. In the second game Seale clawed her way back from 5-8 down to win 10-8 in a single hand and that proved to be the turning point because after Rogers easily won the third game for the loss of only three points Seale?s superior fitness began to show. She won the close fourth game 9-7 and then, in a titanic seesaw battle in the final game, Rogers held two match balls at 8-7 and at 9-8 respectively, but failed to convert them. Seale took no such liberties and clinched a well deserved victory with her first match ball at nine points all to win 1/9 10/8 3/9 9/7 10/9 in a match that had the gathered spectators on the edges of their seats throughout. Although disappointed, Rogers returned to court two hours later and easily won her second match of the night against Audre Spence 9/0 9/6 9/1 without any further drama.
Competition continues at the BSC from 5:45 p.m. until 9:00 p.m. on tonight (Friday). All veteran?s finals will be played between 1:00 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 23, 2005 . Spectators and the press are welcome.
